Rwanda called on the United Nations on Wednesday to take action against peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accused of trading food and intelligence with Rwandan Hutu rebels for gold.
The world body, whose biggest peacekeeping mission is deployed in the DRC, is investigating allegations made against Indian troops in eastern DRC’s troubled North Kivu province.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said his government had received intelligence reports implicating United Nations peacekeepers in the alleged smuggling before reports about it appeared in the press last week.
He said Rwanda had shared the information it received with regional governments and the United Nations.
”Now that it is a known fact, I guess the UN will take necessary measures to address that situation,” Kagame told reporters in the Rwandan capital.
”The UN should ably handle that and re-dedicate the presence of their forces on the ground for the very purpose that brought them to DRC.”
The Hutu-dominated rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) control large areas of North Kivu along the Rwanda-DRC border.
The group is composed in part of former Interahamwe militia who fled to neighbouring DRC after genocide in Rwanda killed about 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.
Rwanda, which has invaded its giant neighbour twice in pursuit of the militiamen, has often blamed UN forces for failing to disarm the rebels, many of whom it says have escaped justice.
The FDLR issued a statement dismissing the allegations as false and baseless earlier this week.
The 17 000-strong UN mission in the DRC has been credited with organising the first democratic elections in 40 years but allegations ranging from sexual abuse to killings have tarnished its reputation. – Reuters