Hutu rebels operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) warned on Monday that any attempt to disarm their forces could spark a ”long and dreadful war”.
In a statement sent to Agence France-Presse, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) attacked an agreement struck between the governments of DRC and Rwanda to forcibly disarm them.
”Any solution based on the desire to destroy militarily the FDLR is not only counterproductive but also extremely dangerous,” FDLR executive secretary Callixte Mbarushimana wrote.
He said that doing so would plunge the region into a long and dreadful war, ”the consequences of which are immeasurable”.
”The problem of the presence of the FDLR in the DRC is a Rwandan political problem and must be settled politically through dialogue and not by force of arms,” Mbarushimana added.
The governments of the DRC and Rwanda agreed on Friday to launch military operations against armed groups operating in Congolese territory in early 2009. Monuc, the United Nations mission in the country, will also provide troops.
The Nord-Kivu region in the east of the country has been the scene of intense fighting between the Congolese army and rebel leader Laurent Nkunda’s National Coalition for the Defence of the People since August.
The UN has said that the FDLR has in the past cooperated with the army and other rebel factions to fight against Nkunda — a charge both the Hutu rebels and the government in Kinshasa deny.
”The FDLR are not involved in the ongoing fighting in eastern DRC,” Mbarushimana said in the statement.
DRC President Joseph Kabila has in the past accused Rwanda of backing Nkunda’s force, a charge echoed by the International Crisis Group. Kigali has denied the allegation.
Rwanda wants to see the FDLR broken up as many of its members were involved in the 1994 genocide of Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
‘Beginning of the end’
Meanwhile, mediators urged Nkunda’s eastern DRC rebels and the government to compromise on Monday at the first face-to-face talks to defuse tensions that have threatened to escalate into a new regional war.
Diplomats have welcomed the meeting in Nairobi, although neither DRC President Kabila nor Nkunda came to Kenya.
”Please don’t let Africa down. Don’t let your country down,” Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said before the talks got under way. ”Let this be the beginning of the end.”
The discussions are aimed at ending fighting in DRC’s Nord-Kivu province between the military and Nkunda’s Tutsi rebels that has displaced a quarter of a million people since August.
The rebels were angry at the government’s decision to invite 20 other armed groups to the talks and said they would not sit down with them. But no other groups turned up, and the two delegations met behind closed doors.
”It is an opportunity that must not be missed,” Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president who is now UN special envoy for eastern DRC’s conflict, urged both sides. ”A military solution is not an option, but nor is the status quo.”
A UN official said the talks were expected to continue on Tuesday. — AFP, Reuters