Hundreds of Rwandan troops to help disarm Hutu rebels

Hundreds of Rwandan troops entered eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 20 January to back a DRC operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country, officials said.



“We officially invited the Rwandan army to take part in the operation, to disarm the Interahamwe, which is about to begin,” said government spokesman Lambert Mende.



He added that the operation was designed “to repatriate, voluntarily or by force, combatants of the FDLR [Forces démocratique pour la libération de Rwanda] or Interahamwe or [ensure they] have refugee status in line with Congolese or international law, which precludes them bearing arms”.



“The operations will last between 10 and 15 days and will be led by the FARDC [the DRC army] under the observation of Rwandan military intelligence,” added the spokesman.



The UN Mission in DRC, MONUC, said it was not involved in the operations, whose joint nature was finalised during meetings early in 2009 between Rwandan and DRC chiefs of staff in line with an agreement signed in Nairobi in November 2007.



But MONUC’s military spokesman Col Jean-Paul Dietrich did confirm that “between 1,500 and 2,000 Rwandan soldiers crossed the border on the Munigi-Kibait road and deployed towards Kibumba on the Goma-Rutshuru road.”



One wing of a DRC rebel group also active in eastern DRC, the now-divided CNDP, last week offered to join government soldiers in their actions against the FDLR.



ei/am/mw