High stakes as Rwanda move into DRC

At least 5,000 Rwandan troops are now taking up positions across eastern DR Congo.

Invited in by the Congolese government, they are part of a joint military operation to flush out the Hutu militia.

The rebels of the FDLR poured in from across the border following the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Some 6,000 combatants never returned .

Col Philemon Yav is the Congolese commander in charge of operations in the Congolese town of Rutshuru.

“Nothing will stand in our way – not the jungle, the bush or the forest – to force those people to go back home,” he says.

FDLR fighters are seen as a key contributor to the instability that persists in eastern Congo.

Their presence has spawned a range of rebel groups, whose aim is to disarm the Hutu militia and send them back into Rwanda.

The most high-profile is Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP, which has grown impatient with Kinshasa for failing to rein in the FDLR.

Mr Nkunda has been arrested by his former Rwandan friends in return for the Rwandan army being allowed to march into Congo, as part of an operation to disarm the Hutu militias once and for all.

But if the deal backfires, there could be major humanitarian consequences, warns Patrick Lavand’Homme from the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Assimilation

“We unfortunately expect a lot of displacement if the military operation is stepped up,” he says.

“Many Rwandan Hutus have now assimilated into the Congolese population… and it will be hard to distinguish them from the FDLR fighters.”

In the early years the FDLR was seen as Congo’s proxy force, used to repel Tutsi militias like the CNDP and keep neighbouring Rwanda in check.

More recently the group has switched to causing trouble in its own area. It claims to support the rights of the Hutu ethnic community, but is blamed for raping, looting and plundering the country’s mineral wealth in the provinces of North and South Kivu.

It is not just about ethnic rivalry.

“There are of course old animosities with Rwanda but the FDLR have become very efficient at controlling illegal mining regions and taxing the local population,” says Anneke Van Woudenberg, a Congo expert with Human Rights Watch.

Rwanda and Congo have been bitter enemies in the recent past, but they have now come together as one, in a remarkable alliance – but it is high risk, not least because many people in Congo remember past incursions by Rwandan forces.

Well-armed

Tens of thousands of civilians died as the army went house to house searching out the Hutu fighters they say were key players in the Rwandan genocide.

Experts say just a handful of the original “Interahamwe genocidaires” remain in Congo.

The Rwandans this time are officially in Congo as an “observer force”, but when we came across them dug in deep into the Congolese jungle, they were armed with rocket propelled grenades, assault rifles and machine guns.

Marching briskly through thick vegetation in their trademark gum boots, covering 30km (19 miles) on foot a day, this looks like an army on a mission, not a benign presence.

The Rwandan troops told us that just days back this land, between the towns of Bumbi and Kirumba, had been FDLR territory.

Straw-covered hideouts, with the smoke from small fires still thick in the air, suggested they had fled within the past few days.

Knife edge

FDLR fighters, adept at guerrilla warfare, have repositioned deep into the Congolese hills.

Another band is believed to be moving further west in the direction of Masisi – close to where the militia has illegal mining interests, which help feed its men and keep them loyal.

Although officially the FDLR stance is that they will not attack the Congolese army, they have made it clear in past interviews that they will retaliate if forced to face off with Rwandan troops.

Congo is living on a knife edge. At the moment, the tactic is one of intimidation. The hope is that the size and strength of the joint operation will intimidate the FDLR to disarm.

But that could take time and many Congolese are impatient for results. Many fear eventually there will be a big military showdown, with the possibility of widespread rebellion against the presence of Rwandan troops.

If that happens what started out as an alliance for peace could rapidly escalate into all-out war.

Source: BBC News

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