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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| U.N. Report Denounces Rwandan Support for Congo Rebels |
| 2004-07-17 |
| The Rwandan military is backing a rebel group that has battled Congolese forces and U.N. peacekeepers in eastern Congo, a flagrant violation of U.N. sanctions and the terms of a fragile peace accord, an unpublished U.N. report says. The 49-page report, which was prepared by a panel of four U.N. sanctions experts, also charges that Rwandan troops forcibly entered a U.N.-controlled refugee camp in Cyangugu, Rwanda, rounded up 30 young men and pressed them to join the Congolese rebels. They were released after officials from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees protested, according to the report, scheduled for release on Tuesday. A rebel force headed by two renegade Congolese officers, Col. Jules Mutebutsi and Brig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda, first emerged as a threat to the delicate Congolese peace process in early June, when more than 3,000 troops seized control of the strategically important town of Bukavu in eastern Congo, the report says. The capture of Bukavu sparked nationwide protests against the government of President Joseph Kabila and the United Nations, whose force of 400 U.N. peacekeepers in Bukavu was unable to repel the attack. U.N. officials have expressed concern that it may also mark the beginning of a trend in which former rebel leaders who joined Congo's transitional government in June 2003 take up arms again. The followers of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader who was appointed vice president of Congo's transitional government, are transporting a "considerable amount" of heavy weapons and ammunition on Bemba's private planes to the airport in Gbadolite, the report says. It adds that Bemba's troops have barred U.N. military observers from entering the airport. |
| Posted by:Steve White |