Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday denied reports from the United Nations that UN peacekeepers destroyed six of their bases in the eastern DRC last week.
”This is not true,” said Anastase Munyandekwe, a spokesperson for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). ”We are still controlling our positions.”
Speaking by phone from Brussels, he said there were no clashes between FDLR fighters and UN peacekeepers last week and that the group lost no ground in skirmishes with the DRC army in the volatile eastern South Kivu province.
”There has been no fight between our troops and Monuc,” he said, referring to the UN mission in the DRC. ”Monuc has not shot at our men. It is the Congolese that attacked us last week, but there has been no fighting for more than two days.”
Monuc on Friday said its peacekeepers had destroyed six FDLR camps a day earlier as part of a large-scale effort, known as Operation Falcon Sweep, launched on July 8 to boost security in South Kivu’s Walingu and Kabare regions.
In its announcement, Monuc said there had been no fighting with the FDLR thus far in the operation, but that it had brought peacekeepers into ”contact” with the rebels.
FDLR rebels have been hiding out in eastern DRC forests for 11 years and remain there despite a pledge earlier this year to drop their weapons and return home.
The Rwandan government accuses them of having taken an active part in the 1994 genocide that left about 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead, and their presence in the DRC has been a continuing source of international concern and tensions between Kigali and Kinshasa.
On July 9, more than 30 civilians, mostly women and children, were burned alive by an armed group in their village of Ntulumamba, in the Kabare district. Those who escaped blamed the FDLR, which has denied involvement.
Efforts by the FDLR to negotiate with Kigali for its members’ return have up to now yielded no results.
”We are neither war-mongers nor suicide attackers; we want to return to our country but we are demanding guarantees for our security,” Munyandekwe said.
Kigali has refused to negotiate with the rebels over their conditions for return. — Sapa-AFP