Rwanda accuses Congo of shelling as tensions mount
Thu Aug 29, 2013 2:58pm EDT
<javascript:launchArticleSlideshow();> Description: Congolese army fighters
arrange their ammunitions as they take position to guard against the M23
rebels in Kibati village, near Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo, August 7, 2013. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
1 of 1Full Size <javascript:launchArticleSlideshow();>
By Jenny Clover and Pete Jones
KIGALI/GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rwanda accused Congo
on Thursday of shelling its territory and said it would not tolerate such
"provocation", raising fears that violence in eastern Congo could erupt into
a regional conflict.
The Democratic Republic of Congo said Rwanda's accusation was a sign Kigali
wanted to intervene openly in its eastern war. Rwanda has denied accusations
by U.N. experts that it covertly backs Congo's M23 rebels.
The mounting cross-border tensions came as a newly-deployed U.N.
Intervention Brigade, with an unprecedented mandate to crush rebel groups,
entered combat alongside the Congolese army for the first time. U.N.
officials accused the M23 of firing a shell into Rwanda on Thursday which
killed a civilian.
Congo and Rwanda have fought two wars over the last two decades in Congo's
mineral-rich, lawless east. Rwanda has come under intense international
pressure to play a constructive role for peace in its larger neighbor after
rebels seized control of Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, in
November.
Regional mediators said they were "gravely concerned" by the escalation in
violence and called for a return to peace talks. M23 rebels said they were
ready for a bilateral ceasefire but this was promptly rejected by Kinshasa.
Rwanda said a woman was killed and a baby seriously injured by a shell that
fell in its territory on Thursday.
"We have the capacity to determine who fired at us and will not hesitate to
defend our territory. Rwanda has a responsibility to protect its
population," Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement.
Mushikiwabo did not say what action might be taken. She said a total of 34
rounds had been fired into Rwanda in the last month by Congolese forces: "We
have remained restrained for as long as we can but this provocation can no
longer be tolerated."
Kinshasa said the statement was part of a plan to justify Rwandan
intervention in Congo's eastern Kivu provinces, a decade after Kigali
officially withdrew troops from a previous war.
"All (Rwanda) wants to do is find a way to create permanent disorder to
allow them to enter and loot the Kivus, as they have done over the last 15
years," Congolese Information Minister Lambert Mende told Reuters.
Ray Virgilio Torres, the top civilian official in the U.N. peacekeeping
mission in North Kivu province, said U.N. troops had confirmed that the
shell that killed the woman in Rwanda was fired by rebels in the frontline
town of Kibati.
"It is something we condemn in the strongest terms, they are war crimes and
something that for us remains unacceptable."
A rebel spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
MILITARY SOLUTION
Goma, the capital of North Kivu, has been at the heart of two decades of
conflict stretching back to the Rwandan genocide. Since then, Kigali has
repeatedly intervened in Congo, saying it had to hunt down Hutu militia who
fled into Congo's lawless east after taking part in the 1994 mass killings.
The M23 is the latest incarnation of eastern Congo's Tutsi-led rebellions
exploiting Kinshasa's weak grip on its borderlands, where there is a complex
web of local politics and regional conflicts over ethnicity, land and
minerals.
Reuters reporters in Goma heard blasts of heavy weapons from the frontline
around Kibati, 11 km (7 miles) to the north. A U.N. military spokesman
confirmed U.N. attack helicopters had carried out air strikes but gave no
further details
A brief rebel seizure of Goma last November embarrassed the U.N. and
prompted the creation of the 3,000-strong brigade with a mandate to
neutralize armed groups, including the M23.
A Tanzanian peacekeeper was killed in Wednesday's fighting, the first death
since the brigade engaged rebels last week after accusing the insurgents of
shelling the lakeside town of a million people.
A diplomat in the Great Lakes region said Rwanda had provided support to
rebels to counter the subsequent U.N. aerial and ground assault. Rwanda
blocked U.N. sanctions against two M23 leaders on Wednesday.
Regional countries, acting under an umbrella organization called ICGLR,
called on Thursday for a resumption of stalled peace talks. The U.N. Special
Envoy to the Great Lakes region Mary Robinson has also said for a political
solution.
Global intelligence firm Stratfor said the involvement of the U.N. brigade
had made a negotiated solution less likely.
"(Congo's) president will continue to push for a military solution to the
crisis in North Kivu and appeal for additional support from the U.N. forces
in the country," Stratfor added.
(Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Nairobi and Elias Biryabarema in
Kampala; Writing by David Lewis in Dakar and Edmund Blair in Nairobi;
Editing by Daniel Flynn and Andrew Roche)
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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