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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: MONUC denounces obstruction of verification missions in east

NAIROBI, 29 October 2003 (IRIN) - The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has denounced what is says is the obstruction of its efforts to verify allegations of the presence of Rwandan government forces in eastern areas of the country.

The declaration comes amid widespread media reports that significant numbers of government forces from neighbouring Rwanda have been seen entering the Congo.

Rwanda has said repeatedly it has had no soldiers in the Congo since October 2002, some four years after its forces entered the country in support of a rebel coalition seeking to topple the late president, Laurent-Desire Kabila.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the UN mission, known as MONUC, said that for several weeks, its military observers had been refused access to military camps in North Kivu Province run by the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) former rebel group, now party to the Congo's two-year transitional government.

And in camps to which it was granted access, MONUC said that military officers of the RCD, which in the past was openly supported by neighbouring Rwanda, denied their observers permission to speak with soldiers who were present.

"MONUC denounces the obstruction of its verification missions and believes that such measures risk leading to the conclusion that the information that has been received [regarding the presence of Rwandan troops on Congolese soil] is not without foundation," the UN mission said.

It added that it would continue to increase its "impartial and transparent" verification efforts with a view to "establishing the facts regarding the supposed or real presence of Rwandan troops in eastern DRC, which risks compromising the encouraging signs of progress towards the normalisation of relations between the two countries".

MONUC recalled that the governor of North Kivu, Eugene Serufuli, himself an RCD-Goma party member, had recently issued instructions that UN observers be granted access to military installations throughout the province.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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