RCD and Banyamulenge battling in South Kivu

A delegation of community leaders has been sent to the Hauts Plateaux of South Kivu Province, where clashes have been in progress between Banyamulenge (ethnic Tutsi) fighters and the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), a Banyamulenge spokesman, Enoch Sebeniza Ruberangabo, told IRIN on Monday.

The dispatch of the mission followed weeks of fighting between RCD forces and the Banyamulenge, who have been joined by other tribes, Ruberangabo said. RCD Secretary-General Azarias Ruberwa also confirmed that fighting had been taking place.

Ruberangabo, who has written to the RCD authorities to criticise their handling of the problem, is the coordinator of Shikama, a collective of Banyamulenge associations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He is also a civil society representative at the inter-Congolese Dialogue in Sun City. In his letter to the RCD, he warned that in trying to crush Banyamulenge resistance, the RCD would increase the risk of the extermination of the DRC Tutsi community.

The Banyamulenge spokesman told IRIN that the image of the RCD as a Banyamulenge movement was false, and could cause grave prejudice in terms of people's perception of his community.

Ruberangabo said that since the Banyamulenge uprising broke out in January, its ranks had been reinforced by hundreds of RCD soldiers, led by Commandant Patrick Masunzu, an ethnic Banyamulenge officer in the RCD. "When I left Bukavu [the main town in South Kivu] on 22 February," Ruberangabo said, "there were already 21 dead from the conflict and 42 wounded in the general hospital."

Thousands of RCD soldiers had been sent to put down the revolt, he said, but a delegation of Banyamulenge leaders had also been organised by the Rwandan government. It was intended that the delegation would isolate Masunzu, said Ruberangabo. "It will be very difficult for them to negotiate with Masunzu as the delegation was constituted in Kigali," he added.

The Banyamulenge constitute the oldest Tutsi community in the DRC, and it is said that most Congolese Tutsis belong to it. Although they are prominent in the RCD, and have provided many troops for the movement, there have been several previous clashes between the Banyamulenge and Rwandan-backed RCD.