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Further Reading

Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR)
(Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda)

The FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda) was based in eastern Congo following the flight of Hutu extremists to eastern Congo after their involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The FDLR rebel group is comprised of key members of the 1994 genocide, plus Hutu members of the former Rwandan army, as well as a mix of displaced Rwandan Hutus. The group has been based in eastern Congo for many years, fighting alongside the former Congolese government in its battle to stave off the largest Congolese rebel movement at the time - RCD-Goma (Rally for Congolese Democracy). RCD-Goma was backed by the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda government and is now part of the new transitional government in Congo, which officially ended five years of war in July 2003.

The UN mission in Congo has been trying to help repatriate FDLR troops to Rwanda. On 14 November 2003 more than 100 heavily-armed FDLR fighters crossed the border into Rwanda from the eastern Congolese town of Bukavu. Hundreds more had already started gathering in towns close to Bukavu. How many of the estimated 15 to 20-thousand FDLR fighters in eastern Congo will repatriate depends on how many of them are granted amnesty, according to UN sources.

On 16 November 2003 the top Rwandan Hutu rebel commander based in the Democratic Republic of Congo formally surrendered to the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan government. Rwandan Hutu leader Paul Rwarakabije and several of his officers flew into the Rwandan capital, Kigali, to be greeted by top Rwandan officials eager to display a political victory over the Hutu-rebel movement. The sudden surrender of the top officials followed direct discussions between the Rwandan government and the rebel group. Rwandan officials emphasized that the surrender had nothing to do with either the UN mission in Congo or the new Congolese government.

Mr. Rwarakabije himself does not have a record of being involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, having merely led attacks against northern Rwanda between 1997 and 2000. As such, he is expected to receive some sort of political amnesty from the Rwandan government, in return for his surrender, although this has not been made clear.

By late Jnuary 2004 thousands of Rwandan Hutu rebels belonging to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) were being blocked by Hutu hard-liners from returning home to Rwanda. The United Nations said about three-thousand members of the Hutu FDLR rebel movement, some of whose members were involved in the 1994 Rwandan massacre of some 800-thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus, had been blocked from re-entering Rwanda. The hard-liners have blocked off strategic exit points from forests in the eastern province of North Kivu near the Rwandan border and have been telling returnees that they will be prosecuted in Rwanda, according to sources within the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The FDLR had fought alongside the former Congolese government against Rwandan backed Congolese rebels who are now part of a power sharing government in Congo. UN officials in Congo said they were optimistic that Hutu rebels would return home after the surrender of FDLR leader Major General Paul Rwarakabije in November 2003. But General Rwarakabije was seen as a moderate member of his movement who was not even officially named as a perpetrator of genocide. Of the 15,000 Rwandan Hutu combatants believed to be in eastern Congo, less than a third had been repatriated by the end of 2003. Congo's new government said it will not tolerate the presence of foreign armed groups in the country for much longer.