DRC-Rwanda: Kigali Closes Its Border With Congo
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
June 7, 2004
Posted to the web June 7, 2004
Kigali
Rwanda announced on Sunday that it had closed its border with the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), following accusations that its forces supported dissident
Congolese soldiers in the capture of the eastern town of Bukavu, in South Kivu
Province.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Rwandan government said
its border with the DRC would remain closed until the UN and the AU set up a
verification mechanism to "expeditiously investigate" the allegations made last week
by the Congolese President Joseph Kabila.
Kabila made the claim in response to the fighting which broke out on 26 May in Bukavu,
culminating in the seizure of the town on Wednesday by dissident army soldiers led by
Gen Laurent Nkunda and Col. Jules Mutebutsi. Both soldiers were formerly of the
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma, a dissident group that once
controlled the area.
The Rwandan government said the border closure was to "allow those concerned to verify
and arrest or otherwise deal with members of Rwanda's armed forces allegedly present
on the territory of the DRC".
It added that despite the gravity of Kabila's accusations, the international community
had failed to establish an independent and credible verification mechanism to
establish the facts.
"It is most dismaying to note that MONUC [the UN Mission in the DRC] has not, up to
this time, cleared air on the intent by the government of the DRC to go to war against
Rwanda, which we strongly believe is a false pretext of, and wrongly premised on, the
so-called involvement of Rwandan troops in Bukavu saga," the government said.
Rwanda said it would, with the close cooperation of the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees, only open the border to refugees fleeing violence in
eastern Congo or those voluntarily returning home from Rwanda.
The border closure could affect the humanitarian situation in eastern Congo,
especially in the areas of Bukavu and Goma, already worsened by the renewed fighting.
Much of the consumer goods destined for the two Congolese towns have been passing
through Rwanda.
Nkunda and Mutebutsi had said they had seized Bukavu to protect the minority Congolese
Tutsi, known as Banyamulenge, from alleged persecution by the military commander
assigned to the region by the Kinshasa government, Brig-Gen. Mbuza Mabe.
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Rwanda
In the statement, Rwanda maintained that its troops were not involved in the fighting
in Bukavu.
"Rwanda reiterates the fact that her armed forces were not in anyway involved in the
fall of Bukavu. The officers and soldiers involved in the events in Bukavu were all
Congolese and the government of the DRC is challenged to prove otherwise," it said.
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