Congo and Rwanda Agree to Align Against Rebels

November 12, 2007
Congo and Rwanda Agree to Align Against Rebels
By REUTERS

KINSHASA, Congo, Nov. 11 (Reuters) — Congo has reached a deal with Rwanda to disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels on its soil, by force if necessary, in an effort to reduce tensions between the central African neighboring countries, a joint statement said Sunday.

The Hutu rebels, including former Rwandan soldiers and members of the militia known as the Interahamwe, are among several armed groups continuing to destabilize eastern Congo, even after the end of a broader war that ended in 2003.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 370,000 people have fled fighting between Congolese government soldiers, Tutsi-dominated Congolese insurgents and Rwandan Hutu rebels who are accused by Rwanda of involvement in the genocide against Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda in 1994.

Congo’s government “commits to launch military operations as a matter of urgency” to dismantle the Rwandan Hutu rebel forces, the countries said in a joint statement.

The agreement was announced after a meeting in Nairobi between the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers.

Under the terms of the deal, Congo will prepare a detailed plan by Dec. 1, with the backing of the country’s United Nations peacekeeping mission, to disarm the rebels.

Rwanda promised to share with Congo and the United Nations a list of people it accuses of orchestrating the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were massacred.

The Rwandan foreign minister, Charles Murigande, also agreed to seal his country’s border with Congo and ensure that illegal armed groups, particularly a Tutsi insurgency led by Laurent Nkunda, a renegade Congolese general, did not receive cross-border support.

Mr. Nkunda is a Congolese Tutsi who has accused the Congolese Army of supporting the Hutu militias, which the army denies. Mr. Nkunda says his rebel force is simply protecting Tutsi civilians from being victimized again.

Congo’s army has been battling Mr. Nkunda’s forces in North Kivu Province since late August, when the rebel leader abandoned a January peace deal and pulled thousands of his fighters out of special mixed army brigades.

Army commanders in Congo have accused Rwanda of backing Mr. Nkunda, who led two army brigades into the bush in 2004, claiming he was doing so to protect eastern Congo’s small Tutsi minority.

The continued presence in eastern Congo of the rebels, who fled across the border after the Rwandan genocide, was used by Rwanda to justify two military interventions. The second, in 1998, helped unleash a five-year war that killed an estimated five million people, mainly through hunger and disease.

Fears that the current crisis in North Kivu could worsen into another Congo war have brought intense diplomatic pressure in recent weeks to find a peaceful solution.

The United States and United Nations have sent top level officials to the border province this month.

As part of the deal agreed upon in Nairobi, which was also signed by diplomats from the United Nations, United States and European Union, Congo said it would arrest and hand over to Rwanda anyone indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Rebel fighters who choose to disarm, and who are not believed to be the subject of Rwandan indictments, will be moved away from areas along Congo’s border with Rwanda, according to the plan.