Rwandan rebels fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should quit the country ”without delay” or face military action, government forces said on Monday.
The army ”calls on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda [FLDR] to rejoin the Nairobi agreement without delay and return home or go into exile”, the statement read.
If the Rwandan Hutu FLDR refused to withdraw, ”the Congolese army will have to intensify its efforts on the ground, together with UN forces, to bring stability back to the region”, the statement said.
The 2007 Nairobi agreement between the DRC and Rwanda provides for the repatriation of the Rwandan rebels, by force if necessary.
The statement added that the army had already moved 11 batallions into areas of Nord- and Sud-Kivu with a view to ”restoring the state’s authority and carrying out military operations against these illegal groups”.
Army spokesperson Colonel Leon-Richard Kasonga said more than 1 000 rebels have returned to Rwanda voluntarily since December 2007.
Under the Nairobi agreement, Congolese forces launched a crackdown on rebel fighters operating inside its territory, while Rwanda promised to seal its borders with its neighbour to prevent the movement of any armed groups.
The FDLR comprises about 6 000 Rwandan Hutus who fled into the DRC following the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis by Hutus in 1994. They are seen as one of the main threats to peace in the country’s restive eastern region.
Another threat is renegade army General Laurent Nkunda and his armed National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
In an interview on Monday, he accused the DRC army of colluding with the FDLR in the eastern Nord-Kivu region.
”They are together even now. We have written to the international community about it,” he said by phone from an undisclosed location in eastern DRC.
Nkunda said he is fighting to protect minority Tutsis. ”We are fighting the FDLR. Even the international community should be fighting [them],” said the former general.
He said he had been forced to deal with the insurgents because authorities in Kinshasa had failed, 14 years after the Rwandan genocide claimed 800 000 lives.
”The whole of Congo is under threat. We are not going to wait. If the government of Congo is not going to deal with these foreign forces, we have to. There is no choice,” he added.
However, Nkunda said he was prepared to join a ceasefire if the international community appointed a new mediator to oversee talks in a ”secure area where we can negotiate”.\
Renewed clashes in the eastern DRC since August 28 have displaced more than 100 000 people. — Sapa-AFP