22 07 13 Reuters : U.N. asks Rwanda for proof of links between peacekeepers, Hutu rebels

 

 In a letter to U.S.
Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo released early this week, Rwandan U.N. Ambassador
Eugene-Richard Gasana said U.N. intervention brigade commanders in the
Democratic Republic of Congo have met
with rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The FDLR is made up of
the remnants of Hutu killers who carried out the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and
moderate Hutus in Rwanda.

The letter, which was
sent to DiCarlo in her role as this month's president of the U.N. Security
Council, said Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo also wrote to Ban
about the same matter.

In a letter to
Mushikiwabo, Ban "notes with deep concern the allegations that meetings
have taken place between senior commanders of the MONUSCO and the Intervention
Brigade and the (FDLR)," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

The United Nations
Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO)
is a 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force that has been in the mineral-rich
eastern DRC for more than a decade.

It is the largest U.N.
peacekeeping force in the world.

The complex conflict has
dragged on, with millions of people dying from the violence, famine and disease
since the 1990s.

That has led the United
Nations to create a new "intervention brigade" – part of the MONUSCO
force but assigned the additional task of taking active steps to neutralize
armed groups, above all M23 rebels in eastern Congo.

M23 is a Tutsi-dominated
movement made up of former Congolese soldiers that has demanded political
concessions from President Joseph Kabila's government.

Ban said there was
nothing so far to back up the allegations of Rwanda,
which also accused MONUSCO and Congo's
army of deliberately bombing Rwandan territory on Monday.

"Following initial
inquiries within MONUSCO, (Ban) has no reason to believe that senior commanders
of the Force Intervention Brigade would meet with the FDLR to discuss matters
related to their 'tactical and strategic collaboration'," Ban said in his
letter, according to Nesirky.

Nesirky added that it was
"important to ensure that these allegations are properly addressed …
(and) has thus requested that the Rwandan Government share as soon as possible
any concrete evidence it may have to substantiate these claims."

A Rwandan diplomat said
Ban's letter was received on Wednesday and that Kigali has not yet responded.

Ban and MONUSCO have also
denied U.N. involvement in any bombing of Rwandan territory.

In its complaints to the
United Nations, Rwanda
also supported an allegation in the latest report by the U.N. Group of Experts
that units of the Congolese army have been cooperating with the FDLR.

Heavy fighting erupted
between the army and the M23 rebels on Sunday some 12 km (7.5 miles) northeast of
Goma, ending several weeks of relative calm and reviving memories of an attack
in November when the Tutsi-led insurgents briefly seized the city of 1 million
people.

Hundreds of people
protested in Goma on Thursday against Kabila, accusing him of incompetence in
efforts to neutralize rebels who have long plagued the region.

Nesirky said MONUSCO
reported on Friday that "the situation remains calm but tense around the
city of Goma, in North Kivu
province. It (MONUSCO) says that fighting between the Congolese armed forces
and the M23 armed group has stopped."

The Congolese government
also rejected Rwanda's
allegations and again accused it of backing M23 rebels. The U.N. Group of
Experts said in their latest report that Rwanda
had decreased but not ended support for M23, a charge Kigali dismissed.