Pretoria signatories discuss ex-FAR and Interahamwe returns

Officials of the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, and representatives of the third parties - South Africa and the United Nations - met in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Wednesday to discuss the status of Rwandan troop withdrawal from the DRC and the disarmament and repatriation of armed Rwandan groups currently based in the DRC. Lena Sundh, Deputy Special Representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the DRC, and Billy Masetha, head of the South African delegation, took part in the meeting as third parties to the 30 July peace accord signed in Pretoria, South Africa by DRC President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The agreement commits Rwanda to withdrawing its troops from the DRC in exchange for Kinshasa taking measures to address security concerns in the DRC, in particular the dismantling of the former Rwandan army (ex-FAR) and Interahamwe Hutu militias, who fled to the DRC following their involvement in the massacre of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. Masetha congratulated the DRC and Rwanda on the steps the two countries had thus far taken toward implementing the accord. Rwanda has withdrawn its troops from Kindu and the surrounding area, and plans to begin repatriating its troops on Saturday from several locations in northern Katanga Province. The repatriation of Hutu combatants housed at the DRC military base of Kamina in southwestern Katanga Province was also at the centre of the discussions. Regional analysts have estimated the number of Rwandan forces in the DRC as being between 30,000 to 40,000. Sundh presented a list of 81 Hutu exiles in the DRC ready to return to Rwanda. The 81 are among some 1,900 Hutu combatants the DRC government has disarmed and stationed in Kamina camp. The 81 have volunteered to take part in an exploratory mission due to travel to Kigali in the coming days in an effort to see if conditions are safe for their return. According to the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (known as MONUC), among the 81 volunteers for the exploratory mission, 67 are combatants and 14 are civilians. However, as of Friday, a response of the Rwandan government to the proposed mission was not forthcoming. According to Peter Swarbrick, head of the disarmament and repatriation of armed groups section of MONUC, "the return of other Hutu combatants based in Kamina will depend on the results of the mission of these 81 Hutus". Rwanda has justified the presence of its troops in the DRC as an effort to pursue the ex-FAR and Interahamwe in exile in the DRC. The UN has estimated the current number of ex-FAR and Interahamwe in DRC as being around 12,000. According to the DRC government, a large part of the ex-FAR and Interahamwe are located in territory under control of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel group. "Aside from the 2,000 Hutus in Kamina, we also provided the UN with information about 2,000 other Hutu combatants who are in the area around this military base. The rest are located in territory controlled by the rebels and their allies," said Vital Kamerhe, the DRC government's general commissioner for the Great Lakes region, before leaving Kinshasa for the Kigali meeting as a member of the DRC government delegation.