Seven Congolese soldiers killed in Rwandan mutiny

Seven Congolese soldiers were killed and five wounded on Friday during a mutiny by Rwandan Hutu ex-combatants in the town of Kamina, southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

DRC Defence Minister Irung Awan said that over 1,000 Rwandans from a military base in Kamina, who had been demobilised and were awaiting repatriation, had broken into an armoury the previous night.

A spokesman of the UN Mission in the DRC (known as MONUC), Hamadoun Toure, told IRIN that at about 06:00 a.m. clashes were reported between the Rwandans and soldiers of the Forces armees congolaises. A group of ex-combatants had entered Kamina town from the military base and started firing at the local population, he said.

The revolt is believed to have been a reaction to the expulsion of eight members of the
political wing of a Rwandan Hutu rebel group, the Forces democratiques de liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), from the DRC on Wednesday.

The eight were recognised refugees and part of a group of 20 members of the Rwandan political party, who were recognised refugees, Ron Redmond, the spokesman of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday. He added that UNHCR was seeking from DRC President Joseph Kabila an explanation of the incident, as the expulsion constituted a violation of the basic refugee principles enshrined in the 1951 refugee convention.

It remained unclear on Monday who was responsible. "South Africa, in its capacity as third party to the peace accord with Rwanda, promised to take responsibility for these people, but to our great surprise, sent them to Kigali," said Vital Kamerhe, the DRC commissioner-general in charge of the peace process.

The South African Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, told IRIN on Monday that the Third Party Verification Mechanism, which consists of the UN and the South Africans, had conducted the repatriation effort.

Meanwhile, MONUC reported on Friday that it had not been involved in the repatriation. MONUC confirmed that the eight were neither ex-combatants nor their dependents, nor individuals wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Moreover, the repatriation had nothing to do with the UN's ongoing disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, reinstallation and reinsertion programme, the organisation said.