The Christian Science Monitor January 20, 2009
Rwandan troops enter Democratic Republic of Congo
Rwandan troops entered the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to tackle a Rwandan Hutu militia whose leaders are accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide before fleeing to Congo. The troop movement takes place under a pact with the Congolese government and is the result of a Dec. 5, 2008, agreement between the countries to root out conflict in eastern Congo. Some observers fear a humanitarian disaster is in the offing because of poor military planning and coordination with the international community.
About 2,000 Rwandan troops entered eastern Congo early on Tuesday morning to hunt the Rwandan Hutu militia Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), reports Bloomberg.
The troops entered Congo at 6:30 a.m. local time at Monigi, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Goma, the capital of the eastern North Kivu province, United Nations Mission in Congo military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said.
"This is a development you really wouldn't have believed a few weeks ago," Dietrich said in an interview from Kinshasa, Congo's capital. "It's a brave step by the Congolese."
According to the BBC, Rwanda and Congo agreed to take joint action against the FDLR last month.
Correspondents say the FDLR's presence in eastern Congo lies at the heart of the region's instability. Rwanda twice invaded its much larger neighbor during the 1990s, saying it was pursuing the FDLR.
But analysts say much of the fighting is also motivated by eastern DR Congo's rich mineral resources, which all sides have been accused of plundering....
Action against the Hutu FDLR is a key demand of Congo's Tutsi rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
According to GlobalSecurity.org, there are between 15,000 and 20,000 FDLR troops in Congo.
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.
Action against the FDLR signals a thaw in relations between Rwanda and Congo, reports Bloomberg. Before last month's agreement, both countries accused each other of backing rival rebel groups.
A report by UN investigators in December supported claims by Congo's government that Rwanda backs the [CNDP], a Tutsi-led militia which last year routed Congo's army. The report also said Congo collaborates with the FDLR, which remains active in North and South Kivu provinces. Both countries deny the allegations.
The joint action follows last Friday's cease-fire between the Congolese government and a breakaway faction of the CNDP, which claims to protect Congolese Tutsis from attack by the FDLR. According to Agence France-Presse, CNDP commanders will now fight alongside government forces.
On Friday a dozen dissident commanders of rebel chief Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), under general Bosco Ntaganda, declared that the war against Congolese government troops was over.
They also said they would join the Congolese and Rwandan government forces in their fight against the FDLR Rwandan Hutu rebels.
Several Congolese militia leaders ... have also joined [the] fight against the FDLR.
Allowing the operation is politically risky for Congo's president, reports Reuters.
While both countries presented the operation as part of internationally-backed efforts to end conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo, analysts said allowing the Rwandan army in posed political risks for Congolese President Joseph Kabila.
The presence of the Rwandan Hutu FDLR fighters, who finance themselves by exploiting illegal mines in the mineral-rich east, triggered two previous Rwandan invasions of Congo that led to a wider 1998-2003 conflict. It also helped cause a 2004 rebellion by Congo Tutsi rebels who went on the offensive late last year.
Rwanda and Congo have previously attempted to cooperate against the FDLR, but to no avail. Rwanda invaded Congo twice in the 1990s in attempts to stamp out the FDLR, leading to a decade of bloodshed that has claimed over five million lives.
In 2005, the International Crisis Group (ICG) reported that the FDLR was willing to cease military action against Rwanda and begin repatriation. At the time, FDLR offered to demobilize its forces and transform its struggle into a political movement. ICG analysts pointed out then that failure to deal with FDLR in a peaceful way would leave only military options.
If peaceful avenues for disarming the FDLR are exhausted, the only solution left will be a military one. The UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC) will not undertake this task; the new Congolese army, which would ultimately have to do the job with UN and other international help in logistics and training, is not yet fully ready but it could make a beginning. While this would likely result in more displacement and deaths of innocent civilians, at least in the short run, letting the problem continue to fester is not an option: it could well provoke another crisis and an outbreak of more general fighting in the region.
© Copyright 2009, The Christian Science Monitor
