Rwanda: President Kagame denies participating in Congo violence

(SomaliNet) Saying that at present the strife is a Congolese matter, Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday denied that Rwanda has had a hand in the ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between renegade general Laurent Nkunda and the Congolese army.

However, observers and analysts say Rwanda has allowed Nkunda to recruit fighters from Rwandan territory and supplied arms to his forces, but officials in Kigali say their only interest in eastern DRC is to see justice meted out to Hutu militias known as \"interahamwe\", who are wanted for crimes during Rwanda\'s 1994 genocide.

\"The main link is the presence of interahamwe in eastern Congo and beyond in that county,\" Kagame told reporters at a news conference in Kigali on Monday, saying that Rwanda has been \"accused falsely\" of involvement in the DRC.
The interahamwe perpetrated Rwanda\'s 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed before fleeing into the dense forests of eastern DRC.

The move outraged many Rwandans who wanted militia members tried for war crimes and who worried that given the chance to re-arm the militias might return to Rwanda to wreak havoc.

\"We won\'t relent in asking that this question be addressed,\" Kagame said. \"It must be addressed and stop being a menace to our country\'s security.\"

Nkunda, an ethnic Tutsi, says his National Congress for the People\'s Defence is simply trying to protect Tutsi civilians in eastern DRC from Hutu militias.

In January, Nkunda signed a peace deal with the DRC government, announcing his intent to integrate his forces into the national army. But fighting flared up again in late August as Nkunda\'s forces clashed with government troops in North Kivu province.

A United Nations-brokered ceasefire is tenuously holding in the region.

The UN has warned of an escalating humanitarian crisis in the region and aid groups say tens of thousands of people fled their homes last week.

There are an estimated 650 000 displaced people in North Kivu province alone.

The resource-rich region has been a cauldron of violence for years as militias allied along ethnic lines fought one another for control while targeting the civilian populations of rival factions.

A 1998-2003 war in the DRC which began when Rwanda\'s military entered the country to track down Hutu militias eventually embroiled seven neighbouring nations and decimated the region, causing the deaths of an estimated four million people. - Sapa-dpa