Rwanda says Hutu rebels regrouping in Congo
KIGALI, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Rwanda said on Thursday it feared infiltration by thousands of militiamen just over the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, which it invaded in 1998 to neutralise the armed groups.
Rwanda said Congo should show more commitment to disarming the militia roving in the east of the giant country under the terms of a peace deal signed by the two countries last year that led Rwanda to withdraw its troops.
"We are not happy at all. The installation of a new transitional government (in Congo) has not changed the situation on the ground," Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Minister Charles Muligande told Reuters by telephone. "These forces are not being prevented from moving towards our borders."
The Congolese government in Kinshasa, where rebels and government have joined a power-sharing administration, said it was not backing the militia.
"We're not interested in making war with anyone, we have no interest in destabilising whatever it may be," said Mulegwa Zihindula, a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila. "We cannot accept the presence of people on Congolese territory (who want to) destabilise other countries."
The commander of U.N. troops in Congo, General Montaga Diallo, has asked the Kigali government for information about its allegations that Interahamwe are being rearmed.
Rwanda estimates that close to 30,000 rebels comprising former Rwandan soldiers and the Interahamwe militia responsible for the country's 1994 genocide are still in camps in the Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu and Maniema.
Congo said last month Rwanda was out to sabotage its peace process by backing a group of former rebels who refused to take up their seats in parliament in its new transitional government.
Rwanda, which supported Congo's biggest rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, during nearly five years of war, rejected the accusations. It said the government's problems resulted from weaknesses in Congo's power-sharing deal.
Rwanda invaded eastern Congo in pursuit of Hutu extremists responsible for the genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by hardline Hutus.
Rwanda signed a deal with Congo in July last year in which Rwanda agreed to withdraw its forces and Congo agreed to disarm, dismantle and repatriate the militia.
(Additional reporting by Bya'Ombe Lubunga in Kinshasa)
10/16/03 12:37 ET
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