UN mission concerned at Rwandan statements on its rebels in DR of Congo

The United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) today expressed concern about renewed tensions between the DRC and its eastern neighbour over Rwanda's expressed intentions to attack DRC-based Rwandan rebels even though conditions are ripe for their repatriation.

MONUC, said it has been carrying out information programmes to convince the ex-FAR-Interahamwe rebels to return home voluntarily and has been deploying UN peacekeeping troops in DRC's eastern Kivu region, bordering Rwanda.

Rwanda's Hutu extremist militias, blamed for the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, fled across the border to mineral-rich DRC, which was then embroiled in its own civil war.

After ceasefire accords ended DRC's civil strife, Rwanda withdrew its troops, but in July a UN expert group found that it was supporting dissident Congolese Tutsi, or Banyamulenge, military leaders in eastern DRC and directly and indirectly had violated the weapons embargo against the militias.

MONUC reminded the Rwandan Government that it had agreed, along with DRC and Uganda - at a meeting last month held under United States auspices - to respect one another's sovereignty and to end the problems created by the rebels.

The 20 November Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam also bound the signatories to work towards stabilizing and pacifying the Great Lakes region, MONUC said.

The Mission also recalled that it has Security Council authorization "to employ every means necessary, within its capacity and in its units' zones of deployment, to fulfil its mandate, which includes protecting civilians facing imminent threats of physical violence."