Burundi, Rwanda troops may go into Congo after Tutsi massacre

By ALOYS NIYOYITA
The Associated Press

ALOYS NIYOYITA / AP Congolese men and an aid worker carry one of the coffins of the more than 160 Congolese Tutsi massacred Friday.

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A spokesman for the Congo government, Henri Mova Sakanyi, said his nation wanted to resolve the situation diplomatically but would be "obliged to react" if foreign troops crossed its border.

Burundi's army chief also accused Congolese soldiers of participating in Friday's massacre, which witnesses said was launched from Congo.

The United Nations said it suspended talks with the Burundian Hutu rebels who claimed responsibility for the killings because "it seems they are not willing to contribute to the peace process."

The U.N. had been brokering peace talks between Burundi's government and the National Liberation Forces, the last rebel group still fighting that country's 11-year civil war, said Isabelle Abric, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Burundi.

U.N. peacekeepers were helping local forces step up security along each side of the Burundi-Congo border, and U.N. helicopters were patrolling the area, U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Burundi army Brig. Gen. Germain Niyoyankana said troops were prepared to cross into Congo to pursue the rebels.

Civil wars between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis in Burundi, Rwanda and Congo have ravaged the region for more than a decade. The conflicts include the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which 500,000 people — mostly Tutsis — were killed, an ongoing civil war in Burundi and a five-year war in Congo.

Rwanda and Burundi twice have invaded Congo trying to root out Hutu militias. The second invasion, in 1998, sparked a war in Congo involving six African countries. An estimated 3.5 million people died, most from war-induced disease and starvation, during the conflict.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande said his country was ready to act against "a coalition of Burundian, Rwandan and Congolese extremist groups" based in Congo that is bent on eliminating minority Tutsis.

"The status quo cannot be maintained," said Muligande, a Tutsi. "We will not wait to be exterminated."

Niyoyankana also said Congo's army was involved in the massacre, in which refugees were shot, hacked, stabbed and burned to death.

He said Burundian rebels guided the attackers, who included former Rwandan soldiers and Congolese tribal fighters known as Mayi Mayi, who are part of Congo's army.

Mayi Mayi official Muzuri Tambwe denied that accusation, saying in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, that "it wasn't possible that they could have entered Burundian territory."

The rebel National Liberation Forces said its fighters staged the attack because Burundian soldiers and Congolese Tutsi militiamen were hiding at the camp.

A renegade Congolese army commander, whose forces briefly seized a key eastern Congo city in June, threatened to oust the "government that slaughters its own people."

"In coming days, I will launch a process that will put my words into action," Brig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a Tutsi, said in a statement issued from remote eastern Congo.

The United States condemned the massacre and called for a prompt U.N. investigation.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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