Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo hurl accusations as conflict seems increasingly likely, writes Faiza Rady This week the spectre of war has once again reared its ugly head in the Great Lakes region of Africa. After Rwandan- backed Congolese rebel troops briefly took control of Bukavu in the first week of June -- a town in the north-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) bordering on Rwanda and Burundi -- it looks like Rwanda and the DRC have started mobilising in earnest. Bukavu was occupied by the troops of General Nkunda, a member of the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and leader of ethnic Banyamulenges, related to the Rwandan Tutsis. Nkunda claimed that government forces had been attacking and killing the people of his community. Following clashes between Nkunda's militia and the DRC army, the general called a ceasefire, saying he was retreating with the assurance that the government had met his demands concerning the security of the Banyamulenge community in the Bukavu region. "We shall withdraw to reorganisation centres to assure the transitional government that we are not opposed to it. We are just opposed to the persecution of one section of the Congolese community," he said. However, although Nkunda's troops withdrew from Bukavu, the fighting has not ceased. The militia led by another rebel officer of the RCD, Colonel Jules Mutebutsi, continue to confront government forces in remote areas of the Kivu province. Fleeing the civil war, thousands of Bukavu residents are leaving the ravaged region. United Nations officials reported that more than 1,000 refugees are arriving daily in neighbouring Burundi. Mostly Banyamulenges, the refugees fear reprisal from government troops. By Saturday 30,000 people had crossed into Burundi. In an attempt to quell the civil war and confront Rwanda's heavy-handed interference, Kinshasa decided to take a stand. After the DRC secured the go-ahead from its ally and mentor, South Africa, it was reported on Monday that President Joseph Kabila was sending 10,000 troops to the country's eastern region. The troops will be deployed in and around the towns of Beni, Kindu and Kalemie and areas close to the Rwandan borders. The DRC's mobilisation drive unsettled the Rwandan government, who threatened to retaliate in kind to any Congolese cross-border incursions into Rwanda. "Certainly we shall not sit back and watch these developments, we have a country and a people to defend," said Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande. But Congolese Deputy Foreign Minister Henry Mova Sakanyi rejected the charges, describing them as fictitious. While Rwanda's defensive stance may seem justified in the wake of the DRC's impromptu muscle flexing, the Rwandan government is far from being a neighbourly friend. Rwanda is, in fact, party to the civil war that has ravaged the DRC for the past five years. The Rwandan government has reportedly trained, armed and financed a number of murderous Congolese militias based in the east. These include the Congolese Liberation Movement (CLM), a former protégé of Uganda, led by Jean-Pierre Bemba -- one of four vice-presidents in the Kabila administration. An ambitious millionaire businessman, Bemba's record is tainted with charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He is accused of inciting ethnic hatred that wreaked havoc in the eastern Ituri province last year. In January 2003, prior to his later appointment to the vice-presidency in July, the UN held the CLM responsible for launching Operation Erase the Blackboard, which targeted the Hema ethnic group and aimed at "looting every house and raping every woman". The UN said that 117 executions took place within one four-day period in October 2002. Other Rwandan-sponsored militias include the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and its various offshoots: the RCD-Goma, the RCD-Nationale and the RCD-ML. As expected, some of the eastern-based militias threatened that the deployment of government troops would inevitably lead to serious confrontations. RCD-Goma said it would deploy its own 40,000-strong militia in response to the DRC's mobilisation. Given the situation on the ground, it looks like the DRC is facing a messy sitution. In the battle over control of the eastern provinces, the DRC army faces an uphill struggle against the combined forces of Rwanda and its formidable proxy militias. While Rwanda certainly has a stake in retaining control of the eastern region's riches -- including diamonds, gold and coltan reserves (a precious metal essential for the production of mobile phones and microprocessors) -- it must also be acknowledged that Kigali's involvement in the DRC was not purely mercenary. The Congo, which like Rwanda is home to a large Hutu population and a Tutsi (Banyamulenge) minority, gave asylum to the fleeing Interhamwe Hutu militias responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Faced with a formidable regrouped Hutu killer force of 200,000 on their borders, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan government of Paul Kagame initially sent troops into the DRC to establish a no-go buffer zone against murderous Interhamwe raids into Rwanda. The exploitation and looting of DRC riches only came later, as an afterthought to occupation and war. Since war first erupted in the DRC, violence has become a way of life in the country's vast and mineral-rich eastern province. As is always the case in war, ordinary people have had to pay the highest price. Since 1998, 3.3 million people have died as a direct or indirect consequence of war. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the Congolese people rank as the most malnourished worldwide. In one of Africa's richest countries, 16 million people are critically in need of food and one in five children die before they reach the age of five. Dubbed the "First African World War", the conflict that began in 1998 involved Rwandan and Ugandan troops and their proxy militias fighting the DRC army, while Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola backed then DRC President Laurent Kabila -- the father of incumbent President Joseph Kabila. It all started in 1997 with a separate seven-month-long war waged by the Alliance of Forces for Democracy and the Liberation of the Congo (AFDLC) -- a coalition of Laurent- Desiré Kabila's rebel army with Rwandan and Ugandan forces, aiming to overthrow the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seku. After their victory, Kabila's allies expected to be paid fat dividends for their efforts at deposing Mobutu Sese Seku. Hence the "liberators" became occupiers. They also rapidly turned against their former ally, launching the First African World War in 1998. In the process they milked the country for all its worth. This was confirmed by a UN commission of experts on the war, who published their findings in April 2002. They described the exploitation of "natural resources by the occupiers" as "uncontrolled, unaccountable and commonly defined as illegal". Although the DRC signed peace accords in July and September 2002 with Rwanda and Uganda respectively, scheduling the evacuation of their troops from the Congo, peace has remained elusive. And this week's events over Bukavu may signal the coming of yet another offensive.
