Global Policy Forum

By Jeevan Vasagar

A Rwandan Hutu rebel group offered an unprecedented apology yesterday for the 1994 genocide, announcing that it would lay down its weapons before peacefully returning home. The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the main Hutu rebel group, includes the Interahamwe militia who participated in the mass murder of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus during 100 days of violence.

About 2 million Hutus fled Rwanda in the last days of the genocide, as Tutsi-led forces swept across the country. In refugee camps in the jungles of the eastern Congo, Hutu extremists rallied their followers and plotted a counter-strike to bring Rwanda back under their control. The presence of the rebel militias prompted Rwanda to invade its huge neighbour in 1996, to drive home the refugees. Large numbers of former Interahamwe, their families and other refugees fled deeper into the rainforest, vowing to keep up a guerrilla war.

That led to a second Rwandan invasion in 1998, triggering a wider war which sucked in several neighbouring countries and cost an estimated 3 million lives. Yesterday, the rebel group's president, Ignace Murwanashyaka, declared an end to their struggle, marking a turning point for both Rwanda and the war-ravaged eastern Congo.

"The FDLR condemn the genocide committed against Rwanda, and their authors," he said. "It is committed to fight against all ideologies of ethnic hate and renews its commitment to cooperate with international justice. "From this moment forward [the FDLR] announces that it is halting all offensive operations against Rwanda."

He spoke at a press conference in Rome after talks with the Sant'Egidio religious community, a Roman Catholic group which brokered a peace deal in Mozambique in 1992. A statement by the FDLR, which has an estimated 30,000 followers in the Congo, said it recognised the "catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Great Lakes" and was aware of the "incredible suffering of men, women and children in the region".

The militia said it would transform its armed struggle into a political one, though this might prove impossible under a Rwandan government which tolerates little dissent. In its statement, the FDLR said it would accept disarmament and the peaceful return of its forces to Rwanda. It called for an international inquiry into "terrorism and other crimes committed in the Great Lakes region".

The news will come as a relief to the Congolese government, which is struggling to rebuild a shattered country, draw former militias into a national army and hold elections later this year. "I think they have realised they have nowhere to go," a military analyst, Henri Boshoff, told Reuters news agency. "They have seen the progress in Congo, the possibility of elections and the initial steps of the integration of the army. "A lot of these people had nothing to do with the genocide and just want to go home. We will have to see how the hardcore leaders on the ground react."

A spokesman for the Rwandan government said the country was ready to receive them, but no conditions could be attached to their return. The government says that any former rebels who committed genocidal crimes must face justice. Community courts, known as gacaca, have begun trying 761,000 genocide suspects.

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