Rwanda Tells U.N. It Put Troops on Congo Border
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Rwanda, appearing before the U.N. Security Council, denied again on Wednesday that it had sent soldiers into neighboring Congo in pursuit of Hutu rebels but acknowledged it had massed troops along the border.
Rwanda's U.N. ambassador, Stanislas Kamanzi, also said his government was losing patience with international promises to help disarm the rebels -- some of whom took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide -- and send them home to be re-integrated into civilian life.
Rwanda had been pressing the international community for 10 years to "rapidly and decisively" address the problem of the rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites), so far without success, Kamanzi told a council meeting on central Africa.
As long as they were able to continue using Congo as a staging area for attacks on Rwanda, the rebels would remain "a source of instability in the region," he said, blaming a lack of political will for the international failure to act.
Kigali has repeatedly threatened to send soldiers across the border to carry out surgical strikes against the rebels, and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said on Wednesday it was "almost certain" Rwanda was involved in attacks on rebels.
"There is an investigation into reports that human rights violations took place during these attacks," mission spokeswoman Patricia Tome said in the capital Kinshasa.
But Kamanzi said, "allegations of the presence of Rwandan troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo are false."
However he added that Rwandan troops were deployed along the border to fend off rebel attacks.
Reports that Rwanda had again sent troops into eastern Congo have raised fears of renewed war in a region where 4 million people have died from genocide and war-related hunger and disease in the past decade.
Rwanda has already invaded Congo twice in the past decade.
The Security Council, in an apparent reference to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, said on Tuesday it would consider unspecified measures against individuals who undermined the peace process in Congo and demanded that Rwanda quickly withdraw any troops it may have on Congolese soil.
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