Kinshasa | Thursday
RWANDAN reinforcements have entered the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in defiance of international accords to pursue “programmed genocide,” the DRC government claimed Thursday.
It called on the United Nations to speed deployment of its military observer mission in the east of the country dominated by anti-government rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
A government statement said “Rwandan troops, strongly armed with heavy equipment, crossed the frontier between the DRC and Rwanda throughout May to deploy in the northern and southern Kivu provinces.”
They had taken up position in the districts of Walikale, Shabunda, Masisi and Rutshuru.
The arrival of these forces violated all joint commitments by belligerents on troop disengagement from the front line and withdrawal of foreign forces from the country, said the statement signed by DRC Communications Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi.
It claimed the Rwandan deployment was part of “programmed genocide in the occupied territories.”
The DRC government called on the UN observer mission in Congo (MONUC) “to assume all its responsibilities by accelerating deployment of its troops in force in the occupied territories.”
On Tuesday, rebels threatened to resume their offensives, accusing the Kinshasa government of deploying militias responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when Hutu extremists killed up to 800_000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
The Kigali government has justified its military presence alongside rebels it backs in the DRC on the grounds of protecting Rwanda from the Interahamwe militia and Rwandan former government troops who fled across the border after carrying out the genocide.
The DRC government and its allies Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia are party to 1999 peace accords currently being implemented, along with the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), a rebel group backed by Uganda. – AFP