Government troops to restore order, disarm Hutu rebels

Loyal army troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will help disarm, demobilise and repatriate Rwandan Hutu militants implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, DRC government spokesman Kudura Kasongo said Wednesday in Kinshasa; his nation's capital.

He said President Joseph Kabila had vowed to take action against the armed groups and that government troops would support the UN force in this effort. The armed groups are largely remnants of Rwanda's old army, known as the ex-FAR, and the Interahamwe militia who were both responsible for the genocide.

MONUC Chief of Public Information Patricia Tome said at least 11,000 foreign ex-combatants had already been disarmed under the MONUC-supported processes.

"The majority of the disarmed fighters were Rwandan," she said.

Congolese troops had already been sent to the east to put down a revolt by dissident soldiers that began on 26 May. Kasongo said, "The troop deployments are also intended to improve the security situation for the civilian population, and restore government authority in the region." he added.

DRC Defence Minister Jean-Pierre Ondekane said three to four brigades - totaling close to 9,000 troops - were being deployed. On Monday, the Congolese government asked the international community to help them airlift approximately 5,000 soldiers into the area.

Dissident army troops, led by Gen Laurent Nkunda and Col Jules Mutebutsi, had seized and occupied the eastern town of Bukavu from 2 to 8 June, ostensibly to defend their Congolese Tutsis brethren (known as Banyamulenge), from killings at the hands of Congolese from other ethnic groups. The dissidents withdrew only after persuasion by the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC.

Mutebutsi's troops have since retreated to Rwandan, where they were disarmed and placed in camps.