Rwanda plans to replace Congolese currency in eastern DRC

Rwanda is planning to replace the Congolese currency with the Rwandan francs in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a regional analyst told IRIN on Thursday.

The decision was announced about a week ago at a humanitarian coordination meeting in the town of Bukavu, eastern DRC, by a source close to the Rwanda-backed rebel group, Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma). UN officials also said RCD President Adolphe Onusumba had informed them of the plan.

The change of currency would address the "liquidity crisis" in the area controlled by the rebel group, officials were told. The measure follows an earlier action that incorporated eastern DRC into the Rwanda area code of its RwandaCell mobile telephone system.

The latest moves - coupled with the planning for a declaration of a "Republique des Grands Lacs du Volcan", or earlier titles such as "Oriental Republic of the Congo" or "Federal Republic of the Kivus" - provide a fairly clear picture of Rwanda's intention "to annex" areas of eastern DRC, one analyst said.

Another added that Rwanda appeared to be in a "win or lose all" situation: if Rwandan troops withdrew from the DRC now, four years of struggle and effort in the country would have yielded little, possibly endangering President Paul Kagame's hold on power at home.

In a related development, thousands of Rwandan troops have been sent to the DRC from Rwanda in the last two weeks, a regionalist said. They have been transported by boat to Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu, which borders both countries, from where they are transferred to the Congolese mainland. The troops are being kept near Bukavu, on the southern end of the lake.

RCD-Goma controls at least 40 percent of eastern DRC. Rwanda maintains its troops in the DRC are there to protect its citizens from incursions by Hutu militiamen responsible for the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

However, the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of the Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC has accused Rwanda of using its presence in the DRC to exploit the country's vast array of valuable natural resources such as gold, diamonds and coltan - a highly conductive metal essential for computers and mobile phones.