Congo M23 rebels set demands for withdrawal

The leader of the Congolese M23 rebel group set conditions Tuesday for withdrawal of his troops from the key eastern Congolese cities of Goma and Sake, hours after a deadline for the pullout expired.

The political leader of the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Tuesday the group would only withdraw from Goma if the government meets its demands, despite earlier announcing that it would pull out of the key eastern city.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in a hotel in Goma Tuesday, M23 political chief Jean-Marie Runiga said the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must dissolve the country’s election commission before a withdrawal could be considered.

Runiga’s demands included the opening of national negotiations with Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and a call to ensure the freedom of movement of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi.

A veteran Congolese politician and former prime minister, Tshisekedi lost the 2011 presidential election to Kabila. Sine the election, which international observers said lacked credibility and transparency, Tshisekedi has been under unofficial house arrest.

"The withdrawal, yes. If Kabila agrees to our demands then we'll go quickly," Runiga told reporters in Goma, a city which the rebels captured last week.

The announcement came the morning after a midnight deadline for the M23 withdrawal from the captured commercial hub expired as the group's top leaders held talks in neighbouring Uganda in a bid to avert an escalation of the conflict.

Around 500,000 people have fled their homes in the eastern part of the sprawling, mineral-rich African nation during seven months of fighting.

But responding to the announcement, a DRC government spokesman told Reuters that the demands made by M23 rebels for pulling out of the eastern city of Goma were a "farce".

"It's a farce, that's the word. There's been a document adopted by the region. If each day they're going to come back with new demands it becomes ridiculous. We're no longer in the realms of seriousness," DRC spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters from Kinshasa.
The announcement came hours after the expiry of a deadline set by regional leaders at a meeting in Kampala, the capital of neighbouring Uganda, on Saturday.
They had given the rebels 48 hours to withdraw to at least 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Goma, while calling on the DRC government to take steps to resolve the rebels' "legitimate grievances".

The M23, which is largely made up of ethnic Tutsis, mutinied in April and seized Goma a week ago in a rapid advance across the mineral-rich east which the army proved unable to stop, despite backing from UN peacekeepers who deployed attack helicopters.

In just a week, the rebels expanded their area of control from one small corner of North Kivu to cover almost the entire province, an area twice the size of Belgium rich in diamonds and precious metals.
Both Uganda and Rwanda deny UN accusations that they are backing the M23.

 

Reports of Hutu militia fighting in Rwanda

The international community has been frantically seeking to contain the crisis and avert a repeat of the conflicts during the 1990s and early 2000s which claimed millions of lives and drew neighbouring countries into the fighting.
 But in an ominous sign, Rwanda said on Tuesday its troops clashed with Rwandan FDLR rebels who attacked three villages on its border with Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rwanda has in the past used the presence of the FDLR as a justification for intervening in neighbouring Congo. But the rebel group, which experts say has dwindled in strength, has not mounted a significant attack on Rwanda in years.
Rwandan Defence Forces spokesman Brigadier General Joseph Nzabamwita said about 150 fighters of the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu rebel group operating in eastern Congo, attacked the villages at dawn in Rubavu district in Rwanda's Western province bordering Congo's North Kivu province.

"The RDF (Rwandan Defence Forces) has been engaging them. Some fled back to the DRC and others dispersed into Rwanda in small groups and the RDF is still engaging them," he said.

He said four FDLR fighters had been killed in the clashes but no civilians had been hurt.
Reporting from Goma, FRANCE 24’s Duncan Woodside said he could confirm that there was fighting at the Rwandan Congolese border. But he could not confirm the groups involving in the fighting in the remote border region.
Woodside noted that if reports of the FDLR fighting were true, “we’re looking at a very significant complication of the conflict, because Rwanda has consistently used the presence of Hutu militants in Congo as a reason to intervene in the conflict.”

The FDLR, which opposes the Tutsi-led government in Kigali and includes Hutu soldiers and militia suspected of participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, denied it had been involved in any fighting.

"Up to now, there is nothing to confirm there was an attack by our forces against Rwanda," FDLR rebel spokesman La Forge Fils Bazeye told Reuters.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUSCO) reported fighting north of North Kivu's provincial capital Goma, which since last week has been held by Tutsi-led rebels of the M23 movement, which has driven back the UN-backed Congolese government forces.
(Chasity M.)