February 2001 World Headlines

Friday, February 9, 2001 - Web posted at 10:33:26 AM GMT

UN Security Council tells Rwanda head to withdraw DRC troops

UNITED NATIONS - Security Council members still chastened by their failure to prevent Rwanda's 1994 genocide told Rwanda's president they understood his security concerns but said he must nevertheless pull his forces out of Congo.

France was particularly hard on President Paul Kagame during a public council meeting Wednesday, demanding the unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops and warning that an upcoming report on the pillaging of Congo's gold and diamonds would be carefully scrutinised by council members.

The report, likely at the end of March, is expected to investigate allegations that Rwanda and Uganda have profited financially from their presence in Congo's mineral-rich eastern provinces.

Kagame responded that Rwanda was ready to pull its troops from Congo -provided the United Nations or others stepped in to disarm and hunt down the former soldiers and Hutu militia members responsible for the 1994 genocide of some 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus."

"We are ready to withdraw," Kagame told a press conference after his council appearance.

But he added: "Can you, international community, give a commitment that if we withdraw, you will help us to deal with the consequences of that?

""Well, that commitment has not been forthcoming," he said.

However, Kagame said the inauguration of Joseph Kabila as president of Congo following the palace slaying of his father, Laurent Kabila, January 16 had created a new opportunity for Congo's peace process to be revived."

"We need to take advantage of the change that has taken place, however tragic that has been in the timing," Kagame told the council.

Congo's war began in August 1998 when Laurent Kabila's main sponsors, Uganda and Rwanda, turned against him and began supporting an anti-government rebellion.

Kabila kept the rebels at bay with the help of new allies Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

All sides signed a peace agreement in 1999 in Lusaka, Zambia, but all have since violated it.

France has said it may look to impose sanctions against Rwanda and Uganda, after the release of the diamond report, to pressure them to stop supporting rebels seeking to oust the Congolese government.

Saying the Rwandan presence in Congo was "unacceptable," French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte told Kagame that Security Council resolutions require the progressive and phased withdrawal of all foreign forces in Congo, beginning with Rwanda and Uganda.

- Nampa-Sapa-AP

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