Hutu rebels in Congo strike back against joint offensive

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Hutu rebels in Congo strike back against joint offensive

By – Mon Mar 23, 4:00 am ET

Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo – A new rebel push in Congo's wild, wild east

is threatening to mar recent progress toward peace and plunge one of the world's

most war-ravaged regions into a fresh humanitarian crisis.

From Jan. 21 until late February, the Congolese Army joined neighboring Rwanda

in a surprise offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of

Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu militia suspected of committing the 1994 genocide in

Rwanda and wreaking havoc in the mineral-rich mountains of eastern Congo ever

since.

The joint operation – a rare instance of cooperation between two neighbors with

a history of animosity – is credited with flushing out hundreds of FDLR

militiamen for re-integration into Rwanda, something widely viewed as key to

ending the conflict that has killed more than five million people in the past

decade.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon heralded the operation during a

visit to eastern Congo earlier this month.

But now the Hutu rebels are retaking many of their positions and carrying out

reprisal attacks on civilians suspected of cooperating with the joint offensive.

In the past two weeks, 35,000 people have been forced to flee their homes by the

FDLR, says Nthengwe, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for

Refugees in eastern Congo. More than 160,000 civilians have been displaced since

January.

" The FDLR is reoccupying places that joint forces went into and is accusing

civilians of collaborating with the operation to root them out, " says Mr.

Nthengwe. " The general harassment is increasing. How long this continues will

depend on the Congolese Army's ability to defend its own people. "

Gen. Numbi, commander of the joint force, said his operation had seen 153

Hutu rebels killed and up to 5,000 repatriated to Rwanda. But a Western security

official, who declined to be named, says that the number of captured FDLR is

closer to 450. The joint operation took over five main FDLR bases, but the

rebels have taken back three of them, he says.

" People who were applauding the joint operation are now being targeted, " he

says, giving an example of a local administrator who was recently shot in the

back five times.

The official also said that Western aid groups are now being attacked more than

before. There are now an average of three to four attacks per week, he says.

In the village of Kanyola, where an FDLR massacre killed scores two years ago,

safety is a daily concern. Residents say the FDLR militiamen come down from the

mountain at night to loot and hike back up during the day.

" We worry, because we never know when they'll come, " says Njabuka Mvubuhendwa as

she carries a load of firewood on her back. " We live in fear. "

Her neighbor was killed last week for resisting FDLR militiamen's request for

food. After ending his life, they slaughtered one of his cows and took the meat

with them.

" We fear to live near them, but there's nowhere else to go, " says a teenage boy

who didn't want to be named for fear of retribution.

He says he knows relatives and neighbors who have been recruited against their

will to fight for the FDLR.