December 6, 2001
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Amos Namanga Ngongi, has confirmed that the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) was reinforcing its troops in Isiro (Orientale province), Fizi (South Kivu province) and Kalemie (Katanga province) and to that end was recruiting young people, including adolescents.
"This deployment foreshadows a major confrontation in the region," he said on Monday in his report to the UN Security Council.
On Wednesday, DRC Minister of Communication Kikaya Bin Karubi told Reuters that some troop movement was acceptable, but that the arrival of up to 2,000 Rwandan-backed soldiers near the eastern towns of Kalemie and Rutshuru was cause for concern.
"This means Rwanda wants to derail the peace process. They are preparing for war when everybody else is preparing for peace," Reuters quoted him as saying, adding that his government had presented a letter of complaint to the UN Security Council in New York earlier this week.
Rwandan government spokesman Joseph Biberi said no additional Rwandan government troops had been sent to Congo, Reuters reported. However, he said he could not comment on any other forces also linked to Rwanda, such as the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement.
"If anything, we have been scaling down the number of our troops in the Congo," Biberi was quoted by Reuters as saying.
"We are going by the Lusaka accord to the letter," he added, referring to the July 1999 peace agreement that called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the DRC.
At a news conference on Wednesday, UN peacekeeping force commander in the DRC Gen. Mountaga Diallo confirmed a variety of seemingly disparate troop movements that were "not at all easy to understand".
"We are following and analysing these movements, to see what might be happening. For the moment, we can not say that there are any signs or indications of any offensive," he added.
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