DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rwanda and DRC hold talks over eastern Congo conflict

Rwanda's Foreign Minister Charles Murigande meets his counterpart from the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of bilateral efforts to stop clashes in eastern Congo. Murigande is the first Rwandan foreign minister to visit Kinshasa in three years. Rwanda's foreign minister has said that better relations with Kinshasa could help tackle escalating violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the last week, thousands of civilians in North Kivu province have fled fighting between Congolese government troops and soldiers loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda. Both these forces have also been battling Rwandan Hutu rebels. The clashes came as Rwanda's Foreign Minister Charles Murigande visited Kinshasa to meet his Congolese counterpart Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi as part of bilateral efforts to prevent the fighting from developing into a broader conflict. The conflict in the eastern province reflects the political and ethnic tensions behind Congo's 1998-2003 war, in which six neighbouring countries including Rwanda invaded the giant central African state to plunder its mineral wealth. Congo's elections late last year under a post-war peace plan were won by President Joseph Kabila. They were intended to bring a lasting peace, but eastern rebels and militias continue to kill and plunder, despite the presence of a 17,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force -- the largest in the world. The recent fighting between Nkunda's men and the Congolese army has shattered a January truce under which the general's Tutsi fighters were being integrated into the national army. "General Nkunda - whose popularity is waning - has decided not to obey the military hierarchy. It's something he's been doing for a long time, but this time he's doing it through firepower and the horrors that come with that. We can't hide it, General Nkunda exists, he's trying to mobilise everyone for his cause, sometimes trying to take the place of the Congolese government," Nyamwisi said. Rwanda had long accused Congo of arming and harbouring the FDLR, but Kinshasa has made efforts in recent years to expel the militia, prompting the resumption of diplomatic ties last year. Murigande said he hoped an improvement in Rwandan/Congolese relations could provide solutions to the security problems plaguing the east. In North Kivu this included the presence of the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). This is made up of former Rwandan soldiers and members of the Hutu militias, or Interahamwe, which took part in Rwanda's 100-day genocide in 1994 in which more than 800,000 people were killed. "It is my hope that this visit will lead to a new commitment by the DRC to track down, demobilise and repatriate the remaining ex-FAR Interhamwe," Murigande said. Rwanda has twice invaded its giant western neighbour, first in 1996 and again in 1998, in pursuit of the Hutu rebels. Murigande's visit was the first by a Rwandan foreign minister for three years.

ITN Source | September 5, 2007

Tags:. .african. .horrors. .integrated. .eastern. .conflict