Kinshasa plans new offensive against Rwandan rebels

By AFP
January 1, 2010

KINSHASA — Democratic Republic of Congo forces are to mount a new offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country with the backing of UN troops, a Congolese army officer said Friday.

The operation dubbed Amani Leo, or Peace Now in Swahili, aims to complete an operation launched in February last year, which was reported to have claimed hundreds of civilian lives, Major Sylvain Ekenge told AFP.

Ekenge, spokesman for the military in Nord-Kivu province, said the aim was to "completely eradicate" the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels in a three-month campaign beginning in January.

He claimed that in the previous offensive government troops destroyed all FDLR bases in Nord- and Sud-Kivu, killing 1,472 of the rebels. A further 2,029 surrendered or were captured and sent back to Rwanda by the UN mission in DR Congo, he added.

Ekenge said the UN mission, known as MONUC, which gave logistical support to the Congolese army last year, would be fighting alongside it in the upcoming offensive.

In particular MONUC would be deploying combat helicopters against the rebels, he said.

MONUC'S military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, refused to comment Friday on Ekenge's statement.

On December 23 the UN Security Council extended MONUC's mandate by a further five months and tasked it with better protecting civilians as well as disarming, demobilising and reintegrating foreign and Congolese armed groups, and supporting government efforts to improve security.

It also urged Kinshasa "to effectively protect the civilian population, to develop sustainable security sector institutions which fully respect the rule of law and to ensure respect for human rights and the fight against impunity."

MONUC's support for government forces "is strictly conditioned on (their) compliance with international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law and on an effective joint planning of these operations," the resolution said.

According to Human Rights Watch, last year's offensive against the FDLR led to at least 1,400 civilians, and probably many more, being murdered by both Congolese troops and rebels. Kinshasa has rejected the report.

Alan Doss, the UN special envoy to Kinshasa, told the Security Council last month that the objective of the Kimia II operation against the FDLR "has been largely achieved although... there have been very serious humanitarian consequences."

In a recent report for the Security Council, independent experts also said the drive by Congolese, Rwandan and UN forces to disarm the rebels failed and even worsened the humanitarian crisis in the Kivus.

The FDLR has been active in eastern DR Congo for 15 years. Some of its older members are accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, which targeted the Tutsi minority and claimed about 800,000 lives.

"The FDLR remains a potent threat and they will seek to return to their former strongholds and punish the population for collaboration with governmental forces," Doss warned.

He said that under a new directive, government troops and MONUC "will now concentrate on holding ground recovered from the FDLR and preventing attacks on civilians in areas of vulnerability" while conducting targeted strikes against any command and control centres where the FDLR may have regrouped.

Doss also highlighted the importance of cracking down on illegal networks funding the FDLR and other armed groups in eastern Congo.

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