Rebels called in foreign military help

A Rwandan and a Burundian army battalion "immediately crossed" into eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recently to reinforce hard-pressed Congolese rebel forces then under attack by pro-Kinshasa Mayi-Mayi militia, a senior UN humanitarian official said.

The official, UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie told reporters at a news briefing at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday that information to this effect had reached her during her visit to Burundi last week.

It remains unclear if the Burundians and Rwandan troops are still in eastern DRC. Officials at the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, were not available for comment on Friday.

However, the Third Party Verification Mechanism (TPVM for the Pretoria accord between Rwanda and the DRC) reported that together with MONUC, it had been able to monitor the initial withdrawal of the Rwandan troops and their materiel from the DRC, in line with the Pretoria peace accord signed by presidents Paul Kagame and Joseph Kabila.

"The withdrawal process of the Rwandan Patriotic Army [RPA] forces that started on 17 September 2002, was completed on 5 October 2002, when the last 1,152 troops crossed from the eastern DRC border post of Goma into Rwanda," the TPVM reported.

It added that the Joint Military Commission for the Lusaka peace accord, and diplomats had witnessed the pull-out. It said 20,593 troops of the 23,400 troops in the DRC, as declared by the Rwandan military command, were counted.

"The TPVM and MONUC requested an explanation for the discrepancy indicated above," it said. "A response was received two days later from the RPA that indicated that a total of 1,925 soldiers on pass, 355 who were hospitalised, 436 were on training courses, 47 were in detention while 44 soldiers fell in battle."

The TPVM said it monitored the airlift of rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machine guns, mortars, armoured and other vehicles, and anti-aircraft guns.

"The TPVM can, therefore, confirm that all troops withdrew with their personal weapons and large quantities of ammunition."