/ 31 August 2010

Rwanda presses withdrawal threats over UN report

Rwanda says it is ready to withdraw its United Nations peacekeepers from Sudan if the UN publishes a report accusing Rwanda’s army of possible genocide in the 1990s.

Rwanda Defence Force spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jill Rutaremara said on Tuesday that the country has finalised a contingency withdrawal plan from Darfur and Southern Sudan if the UN publishes its “outrageous and damaging report”.

A draft of the report leaked last week accuses Rwandan troops and allies tied to Democratic Republic of Congo’s current president of slaughtering tens of thousands of Hutus in DRC. The alleged attacks came two years after those troops stopped Rwanda’s 1994 genocide that killed more than 500 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Rwanda has described the report as “fatally flawed”. — Sapa-AP