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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
GREAT LAKES: Threat of renewed war following Burundi massacre
BUJUMBURA/KIGALI, 18 Aug 2004 (IRIN) - Renegade commander in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's army Gen Laurent Nkunda has vowed to rally his forces and renew fighting in war-torn province of South Kivu. The threat follows a massacre on Friday of 160 Congolese refugees across the border in Burundi.
Burundian armed forces are also reportedly amassing on the border.
"DRC attacked our country and we will not wait until a second massacre takes place", Gen Germain Niyoyankana, Burundi's army chief of staff, said at a news conference on Tuesday. "We cannot accept to die like hens."
But Burundi's President Domitien Ndayizeye said "it is still early to think of an offensive to DRC."
The Burundian army is mostly made up of Tutsis; the refugees that had been massacred were Tutsis from the DRC, known as Banyamulenge; so too is Nkunda.
Nkunda told IRIN on Wednesday that the massacre was "planned genocide" and said he would act unless the DRC government arrested the "Hutu rebels" who were responsible.
"We cannot wait to be exterminated," he said, speaking from his base near Goma, the capital of the Kivu Province. "We are going to solve it by means of a gun unless the government acts now. We are tired of waiting."
"The transitional government has failed to bring peace to this region," Nkunda said.
Nkunda has accused Kinshasa of reinforcing Congolese troops with Rwandan Hutu rebels and the Burundi rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL). The FNL claimed responsibility for Friday's massacre in Burundi.
Niyoyankana said he had proof that the FNL also collaborated closely with Hutu Interahamwe and ex-Rwandan armed forces, as well as Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias.
President Ndayizeye said investigations were not the concern of the army. "It is a concern of the government".
Meanwhile, Burundia's chief prosecutor Gérard Ngendabanka has nominated two magistrates to conduct a judiciary investigation into the massacre.
Ngendabanka has already issued a warrant of arrest against the FNL leader Agathon Rwasa and spokesman Pasteur Habimana for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On Tuesday, at a regional summit on Burundi in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the African Union (AU) urged member states to impose travel sanctions against FNL leaders and regional leaders at the summit declared the group a terrorist organisation.
In June, Nkunda seized the strategic South Kivu capital, Bukavu, to defend the Banyamulenge inhabitants there who he had said were being persecuted by the regional commander of the Congolese army, Gen Mbuza Mabe.
Nkunda, together with Col Jules Mutebutsi, another Banyamulenge renegade commander, withdrew their forces from Bukavu and its environs on 8 June, but Nkunda has now vowed to invade again.
"[The last time] I captured Bukavu and withdrew peacefully but this time, once I capture it again, I will never withdraw," he said.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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