FDD, Interahamwe moving towards Tanzania, Burundi

Burundi’s UN representative, Marc Nteturuye, pointed out if the international community was not careful, the DRC conflict could affect the entire region. Burundian rebels, in collusion with the Rwandan Interahamwe militia and ex-FAR, had begun to move towards Burundi again, having acquired an arsenal of weapons, he said. Burundi analyst Jan van Eck of the South Africa-based Centre for Conflict Resolution agreed that Rwandan and Burundi rebels were moving towards the Tanzanian refugee camps and warned that Tanzania may increasingly be used as a rear base with the possibility for all-out war between Burundi and Tanzania. He told IRIN that Rwanda, too, would be increasingly concerned about the movement of Interahamwe and ex-FAR towards Tanzania, which was a possible explanation for the relocation of the RCD army to Kalemie. Burundi would then be able to withdraw its troops from Kalemie and concentrate on its own territory. On the Burundi peace talks, Van Eck told IRIN that violence and impasse over the appointment of a new mediator were undermining the peace process. In the region, there was a feeling of the “inevitability of war” unless the Lusaka accord was implemented to bring about peace in neighbouring DRC and people were preparing themselves “psychologically” for war. Van Eck warned of the possibility of a regional war, played out in all the Great Lakes countries and not just DRC.