OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 4.30pm.
BOTH the rebel commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane and Rwandan Vice President Paul Kagame claimed that Monday morning’s failed attack on the rebel stronghold of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was carried out by Rwandan Hutu Interhamwe militias.
The Interhamwe were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 in which up to a million Tutsi ane moderate Hutu Rwandans were massacred. Some 250000 Interhamwe fled into eastern DRC — then Zaire — after the civil war following the genocide in which government Hutu forces were defeated.
The Interhamwe settled in camps around Uvira and Bukavu, from which they still conduct cross-border raids into Rwanda. There have been repeated clashes between the Hutu extremists and the Congolese Banyamulenge Tutsi living in eastern DRC.
Ondekane said that with the Interhamwe in Monday’s attack were ex-FAR (the defeated Rwandan Hutu army) and Congolese Mai-Mai warriors — tribal fighters who believe that pouring water over their bodies protects them from bullets.
This is reportedly the second time that the Hutu militias have attempted to capture towns held by the rebels. Accorging to sources in Kigali, the militias tried to capture Bukavu, on the border with Rwanda, about a week ago.
On Monday the attackers aimed for the radio station and the airport. There was heavy fighting in central Goma. One rebel soldier said the fiercest fight was around the rebel Voice of the People radio transmitter on Mount Goma, where he said about 70 attackers were killed, and at the military barracks, where he said another 20 attackers died. One man in his unit was killed and six were wounded, he said.
Rebel gunboats on Lake Kivu sank two pirogues the attackers were using to strafe Goma, he added. Three Rwandan coast guard vessels were also seen patrolling offshore on Lake Kivu.
In mid-afternoon, a tank rumbled through the streets — the first seen in Goma by journalists — and a plane took off from the airport, indicating that it was secure.
In Kinshasa, a spokesperson for President Laurent Kabila insisted the only troops attacking Goma were loyalist DRC army troops, the FAC. However a military source in Kinshasa said the FAC was fighting with “independent allies” and had launched a “general counter-offensive” in the east.
Kabila’s spokesperson said government troops and their allies also attacked rebel-held Kisangani, the DRC’s third largest city, which is in rebel hands.
“We have heavily armed troops on all fronts,” the source said. “At Kisangani, our men are gathered on the left bank of the Congo River, where they are fighting Ugandan troops.”
It is not clear whether troops fighting in the east include those sent to DRC by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.