Posted on Saturday 13 December 2008 – 16:23Rwanda assists multifaceted, including the recruitment of child soldiers, the group of Tutsi rebel Laurent Nkunda in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) next door, says a report by UN experts published Friday .
The group of experts mandated by the Security Council has “found evidence that the Rwandan authorities were complicit recruitment of soldiers, including children, and facilitated the provision of military equipment” to the National Congress for the Defense du peuple (CNDP) of ex-General Nkunda, says the report.
The Rwandan authorities have also “sent officers and units of the Rwandan Defense Forces in Congolese territory to support the CNDP,” he continues.
The Group also established that “the CNDP uses Rwandan territory as a base to raise funds and maintain bank accounts.
Meanwhile, units of the regular army of the DRC (FARDC) “work closely” with armed groups in the east, including the FDLR, Hutu rebels from Rwanda who are among interhahamwe (former officials genocide of 1994), and Pareco (Patriotes Congolese resistance), says the report.
This cooperation includes the provision of ammunition and conduct joint operations against the CNDP. “
The expert group claims to have found no evidence that the widespread illegal armed groups operating in eastern DRC will provide weapons on the international market and concludes that “the FARDC remain the main source of these weapons .
The report also confirms that these armed groups, including the CNDP and the FDLR, abuse their benefit huge sums illegally exploiting the mineral wealth of the region.
Thus the CNDP control coltan mine Bibatama of the territory of Masisi and sell the ore to Munsad, a company based in Goma, capital of North Kivu, and controlled by a close to Nkunda. Coltan is a mineral used in electronic components.
The DRC government welcomes the conclusions of this report. Mende Omalanga, minister of communication and media, the government spokesman, said that the solution lies in the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries: “The government has repeatedly given such information, both MONUC that the rest of the international community. It can only be delighted to see that obviously has imposed on everyone, and we realized that we were not dealing with a problem-Congolese Congolese, contrary to what is said, but that it was indeed an attack drone from the outside. “
According Mende Omalanga, the government believes it must continue to seek solutions at the heart of the problem, either in diplomatic relations between the DRC and Rwanda. “That is to say, our relations with Rwanda should be standardized, harmonized and civilized,” concluded the spokesman of the government.
The North Kivu province is facing since late August to renewed clashes between the CNDP one side and the other the army and various armed groups.
The fighting threw on the roads over 250,000 people, surviving in catastrophic conditions.
Source: http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/22163
Extrait du rapport de l’ONU: Appui reçu par le CNDP du Gouvernement rwandais
Rapporto completo (francese): http://www.congoplanet.net/download/ONU_Rapport_Congo_Rwanda_12122008.pdf
Rapporto completo (inglese): http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=s/2008/773
