http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02711304.htm
Rwanda denies army in Congo, threatens only rebels 02 Dec 2004 17:51:11 GMT Source: Reuters (Adds U.N. Security Council emergency session, paragraph 3) By Mary Kimani KIGALI, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Rwanda denied on Thursday it had pushed troops into Democratic Republic of Congo hours after United Nations peacekeepers said they had found compelling evidence of an infiltration into the vast country. "All reported sightings of Rwandan troops in the DRC are false. Rwanda does not have any troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Richard Sezibera, President Paul Kagame's adviser on Congo, told a news conference. The U.N. Security Council met in emergency session to discuss the crisis. Council diplomats said they would hear a briefing from peacekeepers before deciding on a response. Rwanda has threatened to attack Hutu fighters based in Congo, which is almost 90 times its own size, if the government in Kinshasa and U.N. forces failed to disarm the rebels, some of whom took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The U.N. mission in Congo said it had strong evidence Rwandan soldiers carrying new military hardware had crossed into the east of the vast Central African country. "Our helicopter reconnaissance patrols have been able to take photos of abandoned bivouacs and well-equipped soldiers who are moving with new uniforms and materials," said Mamadou Bah, a spokesman in Kinshasa for the U.N. mission (MONUC). "Our patrols have come across soldiers with communications equipment we believe only the Rwandan army can have," said a senior U.N. official who declined to be identified. Rwanda has already invaded Congo twice in the past decade to attack rebels based there who include some of the Interahamwe Hutu militants who took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Its latest threat has fuelled fears of renewed conflict in a region where 4 million people have died during genocide or from war-related hunger and disease over the past 10 years. CONGO SAYS RWANDA LIES The DRC government said Rwanda's denial was a lie. "They have always had troops camouflaged here as former rebels so, in reality, they never left," spokesman Henri Mova Sakanayi said. DRC Vice President Z'ahidi Ngoma, on a visit to Nairobi, told a news conference Rwanda should remove its troops "without delay" and cooperate with DRC to rebuild the region. "Already Rwanda has violated international law (by entering DRC)," he said. "The problem of the Interahamwe is also a problem for us because they are destroying our country." Sezibera said Rwanda did not wish to enter the territory of the DRC, was not an enemy of the Congolese government and had no interest in the mineral wealth of its turbulent east. But the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwandan (FDLR) rebels had attacked Rwanda 12 times in the past three months and Kinshasa had rejected a series of Rwandan proposals to tackle the rebels, who were numerous and moving on Rwanda. These offers had included supplying Kinshasa with Rwandan troops to be put under Congolese command to root out Interahamwe forces, he said. Rwanda had also written to the U.N. Security Council three times in the past year to address the issue. "If it became necessary in the defence of Rwandan territory, her sovereignty and her people and in pursuit of genocidal forces in the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda would be forced to enter the (DRC)," Sezibera said. "The DRC government does not face a threat from Rwanda... Rwanda is a threat to the Interahamwe and will continue to be a threat to them." Sezibera rejected as a "smear campaign" allegations made by Congolese and some Western commentators that Kigali wanted to control eastern DRC to exploit its mineral wealth. He challenged Kinshasa to come out clearly in answer to allegations he said had been made by the FDLR itself in its own publications that the rebels had been invited into Congo by the Kinshasa authorities to help in unspecified "operations". "If it is proved to be true we call upon the international community to take action against a government that has worked with a force that committed genocide in the past," he said. (Additional reporting by David Lewis in Kinshasa) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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