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| Tuesday, 21 December 2004 |
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New fighting in eastern Congo, Rwanda withdraws threat GOMA, Congo, Monday (Reuters) Fighting between rival army factions ended days of relative calm in eastern Congo on Sunday, while Rwanda withdrew a threat to send troops into the country. Soldiers loyal to the Congolese government fought dissident units around the deserted Congolese farming town of Kanyabayonga. Iliane Nabaa, a U.N. spokeswoman in the capital Kinshasa, said the clashes started at around 0600 local time (0400 GMT). There were also credible reports of fighting between rebel fighters and the pro-Kinshasa Mai Mai militia around Nyabiondo, some 50 km (31 miles) to the southwest, U.N. spokeswoman Jacqueline Chenard said. Congo's fragile transitional government and its fractious army is struggling to impose order in the border region with Rwanda, where the U.N. says at least 100,000 people have been displaced by recent clashes between rival army factions. Fighting erupted over a week ago between government reinforcements sent to the east and RCD-Goma, a faction backed by Rwanda during Congo's five-year war but now meant to be part of the national army. Rwanda had also threatened to send troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo, after growing frustrated at Kinshasa's failure to disarm Hutu "Interahamwe" fighters who fled into the former Zaire after Rwanda's 1994 genocide. But Rwandan Foreign Minister, Charles Murigande, said on Sunday it was now up to the international community to disarm the Hutu militias based in Congo's mountainous east. "We are no longer going to threaten to go to Congo. It is a threat that poses problems. We're going to leave this problem in the hands of the international community," he told Reuters. President Paul Kagame told the United Nations and African Union in late November he planned to send in troops, raising fears of a new war in the turbulent Great Lakes region..Rwanda has long expressed frustration at Kinshasa's failure to disarm Hutu militias who form the nucleus of rebel groups who have staged attacks on Rwanda from their jungle bases. Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of already sending in troops to support Congolese rebels and treated Rwanda's latest announcement with scepticism. "We don't have that much confidence in this declaration. Rwanda has to first of all withdraw its troops from Congo before withdrawing the threat," said Information Minister Henri Mova Sakanyi. |
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