EMMANUEL GOUJON, Kindu | Tuesday 7.30pm.
DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo rebels, now in control of the strategic town of Kindu, have admitted that Rwandan soldiers are fighting with them.
They have also admitted that Rwanda has been controlling all flights in rebel-held territory, and to and from Kigali in Rwanda and Kampala in Uganda.
Rebel military chiefs also use satellite telephones — openly — to telephone Uganda for details on the situation at the various fronts. And one Congolese officer said he had spent three months with other DRC soldiers in a Ugandan training camp just before the start of the rebellion which is seeking to topple DRC President Laurent Kabila.
Rwanda has consistently denied having troops in the DRC, while Uganda says it does have troops there, but only to fight DRC-based anti-Ugandan rebels.
Rebel officers said in Kindu on Tuesday that about 200 officers and men of Rwanda’s Tutsi-dominated army fought alongside the rebels to capture Kindu, the Kinshasa government’s eastern military headquarters.
“The Rwandan soldiers are here to look after their [heavy] weapons,” said one rebel officer in Kindu, speaking on condition that his name not be used. “They cost a lot, and we don’t always have experts who know how to use them, so they help us.”
Pilots flying planes commandeered by the rebels say many Rwandans have been fighting alongside the insurgents since they launched their revolution on August 2. Flight plans seen by AFP make it clear there are many rebel flights between the rebels’ stronghold of Goma, in the far east, and Kigali and Kampala.
“Kigali is in charge of flights,” one senior rebel figure acknowledged.
* Meanwhile Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was to due to leave Harare on Tuesday for talks with Kabila in the southern DRC town on Lubumbashi. The meeting, between Kabila and representatives of three countries — Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe — which have sent troops on his behalf, will be a “general review of the situation in the DRC in the light of the intervention”, a spokesperson said.
It could not be immediately established if the leaders of Namibia and Angola were attending the talks. — Agence France Presse