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KAMPALA � A Rwandan rebel group told AFP in a statement that Rwandan troops yesterday crossed into eastern DRC heading towards North Kivu province and the Ituri region.
�A brigade of the Rwandan Patriotic Army crossed the border with DRC via the towns of Bunagana and Kibumba before heading to Masisi in North-Kivu province and Bunia, the main town in the northeastern Ituri region,� the statement issued by the rebel Rally of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (R-FDLR) said.
Rwandan soldiers, �in complicity with their Congolese allies�, have also infiltrated the town of Walungu, in Sud-Kivu province,� the statement said.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has warned Rwanda against re-deploying in DR Congo, a week before tension between the two neighbours heightened.
The Director of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador James Mugume, tol
d The
Monitor yesterday that the President warned Rwanda last week.
�These reports came to us that Rwanda was planning to send troops to Congo. President Museveni warned Rwanda that this was not necessary at all,� Mugume said by telephone.
�The Presidents were signing the tripartite agreement (in Dar es Salaam last week) and we thought Rwanda which is party to it would follow it, but we think they have chosen otherwise,� he added.
Uganda�s Defence and Army Spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said: �Rwanda is a sovereign state I am sure they are prepared to take responsibility for their decisions and actions.�
Rwandan President Paul Kagame suggested in a speech to the Senate Tuesday that Rwandan troops might already be in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo to deal with Hutu extremists who fled there after the 1994 genocide.
�Anytime the United Nations and the international community fail to disarm Interahamwe (Hutu rebels) and ex-FAR (former soldiers
) and to
contain them, we shall do it ourselves, and this will not take long, or it is even happening now,� Kagame said, according to an official translation of remarks he made in the Kinyarwanda language.
DR Congo�s President Joseph Kabila in the meantime says he is sending thousands of troops to the border with Rwanda in response to heightened tension in the area.
A spokesman for President Kabila says more than 6,000 troops will be deployed within the next two weeks.
Rwanda denied its troops had crossed into DR Congo, but residents of the Congolese border town of Bukavu, in South Kivu, have reportedly been gathering stones to use to fight off a Rwandan incursion.
The UN Mission in DRC, MONUC, said it has combed the area for Rwandan troops and come up empty-handed.
�Following rumours of a Rwandan presence in DRC or of clashes, MONUC, which works with the Congolese army � crisis-crossed the region which extends from Lake Edward (in Ituri) to Goma (North
-Kivu),
as well as the areas around Minova and Rutshuru (Sud-Kivu), undertaking reconnaissance missions,� MONUC spokesman Mamadou Bah said.
The UN last week warned Rwanda not to use military force, saying such a move could undermine international efforts to stabilise the region.
Rwanda and Uganda have twice invaded their much larger neighbour - in 1996 and 1998 but their forces clashed amid sharp disagreements.
Uganda withdrew its troops in May 2003 while Rwanda in 2002, under the 1999 Lusaka Agreement.
Additional Reporting by AFP and BBC. |
