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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC-RWANDA: MONUC hails return of FDLR members to Kigali
KIGALI, 17 November 2003 (IRIN) - The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has hailed the voluntary return to neighbouring Rwanda of 103 members of the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR - Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda) on 15 November 2003 as a "major event".
The returnees included FDLR leader Paul Rwarakabije, who returned on Saturday to the Rwanda capital, Kigali, after almost a decade in the DRC.
According to MONUC, Rwandan authorities informed mission chief William Swing, at the end of an official visit to Kigali on 13-14 November, that all returnees were members of the FDLR high command.
"This development of considerable scope will contribute to the normalization of relations between the DRC and Rwanda and to the stability of the sub-region," MONUC said in a statement issued on Sunday from its headquarters in the DRC capital, Kinshasa.
"MONUC will make the most of this indisputable breakthrough to redouble efforts in regard to the process of disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration (DDRRR) [and] urges the DRC and Rwanda to increase their cooperation and exchange of information in order to accelerate the return of all Rwandan armed groups to their country as soon as possible," it added.
MONUC also called on all foreign armed groups still present in the DRC "to seize this opportunity of voluntary return which [MONUC] and the international community offer them".
For his part, Rwanda's army chief, Maj Gen James Kabarebe, said Rwarakabije's return would ease tensions and help stabilise relations between the governments of Rwanda and the DRC.
"I suppose this should cease any escalations of tensions, because [Rwarakabije] has been commander of the forces we have been fighting," Kabarebe said. "We believe the rest of his fighters will follow suit. If he has taken the decision to return, he must have taken it on behalf of the officers and men he has been leading."
The largely Rwandan Hutu FDLR is estimated by analysts to have between 15,000 and 20,000 guerrillas fighting from bases in the DRC to topple the Rwandan government led by President Paul Kagame.
"We have decided to put down our guns. War is not the best solution," Rwarakabije said upon his arrival at Kanombe airport. "We have now decided that we can use peaceful means to solve any outstanding issues."
Although many FDLR fighters are Hutus implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Rwarakabije, a former Rwandan army officer, has not been accused of having played a role in the orchestrated slaughter by Hutu extremists of an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Rwanda's army spokesman said that Rwarakabije would undergo the same procedures as other returning combatants from the DRC, including participation in a two-month reintegration programme, after which combatants choose to either remain in the army or to be demobilised.
Analysts told IRIN that Rwarakabije would most likely join the army.
Meanwhile, a MONUC representative in Bukavu, eastern DRC, said on Monday that the UN mission was to repatriate 19 Rwandans, including 12 ex-combatants who had been members of a Mayi-Mayi militia in South Kivu Province.
"We are hoping that after the return of Rwarakabije, many more combatants will be showing interest in returning home," MONUC information officer Sebastien Lapierre told IRIN.
Rwanda withdrew an estimated 20,000 troops from DRC in 2002. In return, Kinshasa said it would disarm Hutu fighters who had fled to the DRC after Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
A two-year transitional national government grouping the former government and ex-rebels of the DRC was sworn in on 30 June. However, fighting still persists in eastern regions of the country among an array of armed factions.
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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