GREAT LAKES: Hutu rebels reportedly regrouping

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 19 Jun 2001 (IRIN) - The Interahamwe have been regrouping on the common borders of Uganda,
Rwanda and the DRC to avoid the possibility of being disarmed as the
Congolese peace process takes hold, according to news reports. With a
ceasefire in the Congo now holding, more or less, and DRC President Joseph
Kabila having ostensibly declared that Hutu extremist forces are unwanted
in his country, Rwandan and Burundian Hutu insurgents who had fought
alongside the Congolese army against Ugandan- and Rwandan-backed rebels
were now thought to have set their sights on home, AFP reported on 17
June.

A revised concept of operations for the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), approved by the UN Security Council on 15 June, includes the creation of an integrated military/civilian planning section to coordinate disarmament and demobilisation of (non-state) “armed groups”. Security Council Resolution 1355 also demanded that “all parties, including the government of the DRC, cease immediately all forms of assistance and cooperation with all armed groups referred to in Annex A, Chapter 9.1 of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement”. These included the Rwandan Interahamwe and ex-FAR, Burundian Hutu rebel Forces pour la defence de la democratie and the anti-Ugandan-government Allied Democratic Front (ADF), among others.

The Council encouraged the DRC and Rwanda “to intensify their dialogue with the goal of achieving regional security structures based on common interest and mutual respect... and emphasises in this respect that the disarmament, demobilisation of, and cessation of any support to the ex-FAR and Interahamwe forces are essential to the settlement of the conflict in the DRC”. It also called on all states in the region to use their influence on Burundian armed groups to encourage them to refrain from violence, and demanded that all states in the region “cease any military support to such groups”.

[ENDS]