DR Congo refugee camps 'burned'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

The UN says it has credible reports that camps sheltering 50,000 displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been torched.

Aid groups say they are struggling to reach an estimated 250,000 people in the region fleeing fierce fighting between government and rebel forces.
...
Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda says he is fighting to protect his Tutsi community from attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom are accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Congolese government has often promised to stop Hutu forces from using its territory, but has not done so.

Gen Nkunda has also objected to government plans for foreign involvement in exploiting the country's vast mineral wealth.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7702099.stm

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Robbien]

2. Isn't the Congolese government supporting the Hutu?

The corruption is running so rampant there, it is so difficult sometimes in keeping the players straight.

And of course it is always the poor families who get hurt.

Peace

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. There seems to be some sort of relationship

Mr Nkunda claims to be fighting to protect Tutsis from Hutu militias that he says played a part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which saw perhaps 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed. He is particularly incensed by what he sees as collusion between one of those Hutu groups, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR,) and the Congolese government. The president of Congo, Joseph Kabila, for his part, is unhappy at the continued links between Mr Nkunda and the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan government.

Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group, says it has evidence that Mr Nkunda is recruiting for his 4,000 strong force inside Rwanda, including from demobbed Rwandan soldiers. UN officials involved in the 17,000-strong peacekeeping operation in Congo believe that Rwandan troops have aided Mr Nkunda's advance on Goma by firing on UN helicopter gunships. This is bad news for the stability of the Great Lakes region and for those foreign donors, notably Britain, which poured money into Rwanda on the understanding that it did not repeat its previous brutal incursions into Congo.

Rwanda says that it has no wish to get sucked back in to its neighbouring country, but is fed up with the lack of leadership in Kinshasa. Some senior Rwandan officials are dismissive of Mr Kabila's ability to project any force in eastern Congo. By contrast, diplomats in Kigali believe that tiny Rwanda, with its American- and British-trained army, could probably march all the way to Kinshasa unopposed. What is unclear is the extent of the relationship between the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, with Mr Nkunda. Mr Kagame says he has no ties except that they are both Tutsis. Analysts think that is untrue, but generally agree that Mr Nkunda is largely following his own agenda. “Think Serb and Bosnian Serb,” says one.

http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12517292