Rwanda Admits Role In Congo War, Seeks Security
By Emelia Sithole
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Rwandan military strongman Major-General Paul Kagame acknowledged Friday that his troops were helping rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, paving the way for a possible cease-fire in the troubled country.
Kagame told a news conference at the end of hour-long talks with South African President Nelson Mandela in Pretoria that his involvement, starting in August and which his country had previously denied, was based on security concerns for his tiny but militarily powerful nation.
Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, who has taken a neutral stand and is a mediator in the Congo crisis, swiftly welcomed the move by Kagame, saying it would push the peace process forward.
''It is a welcome move and it will help to push the peace process forward,'' he told Reuters by telephone from the Zambian capital Lusaka.
Kagame said he had informed Mandela of his involvement.
''Initially our country hadn't, for good reasons, come out specifically to talk about the presence of our troops in the Congo. We have informed President Mandela that we are there specifically for our national security,'' Kagame said.
The 39-year-old general who successfully plotted and executed the overthrow in 1996 of veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, said his forces would not withdraw until Rwanda's security concerns were addressed.
''We shall support and we fully support the withdrawal of all forces including our own forces. For us it is an issue of making sure that whatever solution is found in the Congo, that it must take care of all our security concerns,'' he added.
Kagame accuses Congolese President Laurent Kabila of arming and training exiled Rwandan Hutu militia and former soldiers with the aim of destabilizing Rwanda.
Rwandan Hutus are blamed for the 1994 genocide of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Mandela, who sat by as Kagame spoke, said the admission paved the way for a cease-fire and a standstill of all military forces in the Congo war, which has drawn in troops from six African countries.
He said a meeting of the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) would be held to formally hammer out a cease-fire deal and a framework for the withdrawal of all foreign forces in the Congo. He gave no date for the meeting.
Mandela, who has been working on a diplomatic resolution to the crisis, said progress toward a cease-fire had been held up by Rwanda's denial that it was involved in the war.
''Now that the Rwandans, through the vice president, have made this acknowledgement I think that we have reason to believe that there's going to be progress,'' he said.
''But the matter of course is negotiations between the Congolese and the withdrawal of all foreign troops...We'll then leave the matter entirely to the Congolese themselves.''
He added that negotiations should ultimately lead to free elections in the former Zaire.
Asked if South Africa had given any security guarantees to Rwanda, he said: ''If there's a cease-fire, a standstill and withdrawal of all foreign troops and negotiations that will secure the borders of all neighboring countries.''
Mandela said a withdrawal of all troops should include the disbanding of exiled Rwandan militias operating in the Congo.
Kagame's comments came a day after Congolese rebel leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba said Ugandan and Rwandan troops were helping his rebels fight Kabila in a widening war in the vast central African state.
''All sides now accept that there are two dimensions to the conflict -- both an external dimension and an internal,'' Wamba told Reuters by telephone from the rebel headquarters of Goma.
''The compromise is to say that there was an invasion but also that the internal element is the driving force,'' he said.
Rwanda had consistently denied any involvement in the rebellion which began on August 2, while Uganda says its troops are on Congolese territory merely to flush out Ugandan rebels carrying out cross-border raids.
The rebels have repeatedly called for direct talks with Kabila -- whose forces have been reinforced by soldiers from Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Chad -- but Kabila has refused, insisting instead that Rwanda and Uganda withdraw their troops. |
