DR Congo: Kivu - Fragile respite, army hints rwandan rebels to leave
A fragile calm is in the balance in North-Kivu,
where there have been armed clashes between the CNDP rebels and the regular
army in recent days. Local sources said that the weekend was calm, while
tens of thousands of refugees forced to abandon their homes continue to
move across the territory. Meanwhile, in Kinshasa, the Congolese army has
asked Rwandan rebels from the FDLR to "repatriate voluntarily in their
country" threatening "a strengthening" of their actions,
as reported by Radio Okapi, which also said that the head of the armed
forces in Kinshasa has also asked the FDLR "to immediately join the
Nairobi process, in view of their repatriation or exile, in the respect
of international conventions". In a communiqué, signed by the army's
spokesman Leon- Richard Kasonga, the armed forces say that "they have
already deployed in North and South Kivu 11 battalions backed by the UN
mission (MONUC), in order to restore the state's authority and to apply
a military plan against these illegal groups". According to the military
spokesman, since December 2007, more than 1000 fighters were repatriated
voluntarily to Rwanda. The governments of the RD Congo and Rwanda have
approved, last December 16 in Goma, the creation of a 'permanent working
group' to ensure the realization of the forced disarmament of the Rwandan
origin militias, which since 1994, have been hiding in the forests located
in the eastern RD Congo.