UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. consultants say they discovered “substantial proof” of Rwandan authorities forces crossing into neighboring japanese Congo, both to bolster M23 rebels or to conduct navy operations in opposition to one other insurgent group that features fighters accused of collaborating within the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
In keeping with excerpts from the newest report from the panel of consultants obtained Friday by The Related Press, weapons, ammunition and uniforms have been additionally offered to the M23 rebels. The group resurfaced greater than a 12 months in the past and has been accused of killing civilians and seizing land in japanese Congo’s Rutshuru territory.
The panel mentioned it additionally discovered “substantial proof” of help given to a number of Congolese armed teams by members of Congo’s navy, generally known as the FARDC, in Rutshuru. It mentioned there may be “cooperation between FARDC items and Congolese armed teams in Rutshuru territory.”
On the root of the present disaster between Rwanda and Congo is the 1994 genocide.
The carnage started when a airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down, killing the chief, who like most Rwandans was an ethnic Hutu.
The nation’s minority Tutsis have been blamed, and though they denied it, bands of Hutu extremists started killing them, together with youngsters, with help from Rwanda’s military, police and militias.
The genocide killed greater than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and reasonable Hutus who tried to guard them. Hundreds of Hutus fled to neighboring japanese Congo.
Rwanda’s present president, Paul Kagame, a Tutsi and former opposition navy commander, is extensively credited with stopping the genocide, however he has turn into a polarizing determine in recent times, accused of main an authoritarian authorities that crushes all dissent.
The M23 rebels are largely Congolese ethnic Tutsis who turned outstanding 10 years in the past when their fighters seized Goma, japanese Congo’s largest metropolis on the border with Rwanda. The group derives its title from a March 23, 2009, peace deal, which it accuses the Congo authorities of not implementing.
The FDLR motion, additionally talked about by the panel of consultants, is a Hutu insurgent group against Tutsi affect that reportedly consists of Hutus who participated in Rwanda’s genocide.
Renewed assaults by M23 rebels have angered Congo’s authorities and led to speak of battle in japanese Congo, a risky area wealthy in minerals essential to a lot of the world’s know-how. This month, the United Nations accused the rebels of massacring greater than 130 civilians in two villages.
Early this week, France and Germany joined worldwide stress on Rwanda, overtly accusing the nation of supporting rebels in japanese Congo, which might have repercussions for overseas support that Rwanda has lengthy loved.
The Rwandan authorities issued a press release Wednesday calling accusations that it’s supporting M23 “fallacious” and a part of a “drained previous blame sport” undermining efforts by regional leaders to discover a lasting peace, “to which Rwanda is totally dedicated.”
It accused Congo’s authorities of failing to take care of “the over 130 armed teams on its territory” and maintain accountable Congolese troopers for severe abuses in opposition to civilians and “the genocidal remnant militia FDLR, which has been preserved for many years” within the nation.
The assertion cites cross-border assaults into Rwanda by Congolese troops and the FDLR, says Rwanda hosts over 800,000 Congolese refugees in camps, many for over 20 years, and accuses the U.N. peacekeeping mission that has been in japanese Congo for greater than 22 years and prices over $1 billion a 12 months of reaching “little tangible outcomes.”
M23 rebels retreated Friday from some territory that they had seized in japanese Congo, a welcome first withdrawal, however regional consultants mentioned it’s a fraction of the territory they management. The M23 positions in Kibumba, in North Kivu, have been taken over by the brand new East African Regional Power given the job of defending the realm.
Lawrence Kanyuka, M23′s political spokesman, mentioned in a press release the retreat was in keeping with an settlement made final month at a summit in Angola.
On the Nov. 23 summit, which included Congo’s president and Rwanda’s overseas minister, leaders known as for a cease-fire in japanese Congo to be adopted by a withdrawal of rebels from main cities underneath M23 management — Bunagana, Rutshuru and Kiwanja.
