RWANDA, which last week threatened to redeploy its troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo, has accused the Kinshasa government of breaching a peace accord signed two years ago in which it pledged to stop supporting Hutu rebels operating in the country.

The UN recently accused Rwanda of sending its troops back to the Congo.

"These extremist forces have reorganised, with support from some people in the Kinshasa government, especially the ruling party," Richard Sezibera, President Paul Kagame's special envoy to the Great Lakes region, told The EastAfrican. 

The Hutu rebels fled to Congo after the 1994 Rwanda genocide, which left an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. 

Between 6,000 and 12,000 Rwandan rebels remain in eastern Congo, threatening to resume fighting that has already cost more than four million lives and involved six nations since 1994. 

"They receive moral and political support, or, in some cases, military support," said Mr Sezibera. 

President Kagame last month said that his government would consider sending troops back to Congo unless the UN mission in the DRC disarmed rebels fighting his government.

Mr Sezibera said that if the DRC had effectively cut off the supply of arms to the rebels and denied them political support, the genocidaires would have become mere bandits. They would eventually give up rebellion and thus not pose any military threat to Rwanda. 

Rwanda last week deployed its troops along its common border with Uganda and the Congo. 

Following the mobilisation of the Hutu rebels, fresh fighting broke out last month in the eastern DRC between the rebels and a Congolese military faction, Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD) and has raged on for almost three weeks. 

The rebels also made an incursion into Rwanda in early April but were repulsed by government troops. The insurgents in Congo include members of the former Rwandan army and the extremist Interahamwe militia. 

The Rwandan official also accused the DRC government of shunning initiatives designed to promote dialogue with the Kigali government. 

"We have reached out to the DRC, we have expressed our interest in collaborating with that government in any way they deem appropriate, but they never respond," said Mr Sezibera.

Some Hutu rebels who deserted their camps in eastern DRC and surrendered to the Rwandan authorities have accused rebel commanders of killing those who attempt to return home voluntarily. 

"Whoever attempts to escape is executed," said Jean Damascene Niyitegeka, a former rebel who escaped from Kibua in eastern DRC. Mr Sezibera also accused Monuc, the UN observer mission in the DRC, of failing to fulfil its mandate.

"Monuc has failed as far as fulfilling its mandate to demobilise and disarm genocidaire forces goes. It is clear that voluntary disarmament, which is the preferred method, is not working," he said. 

In the past three years, Monuc has repatriated 3,200 fighters of the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. 

Additional reporting by Gertrude Kamuze
 
 
 

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