LAURENT Nkunda, the Tutsi rebel leader whose forces have occupied large swathes of the eastern Congo, has threatened to drive the government of the Democratic Republic from power unless it holds direct talks on his demands.
These include protection for Congo Tutsis from Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.
Nkunda, a former fighter in the Tutsi army that conquered Rwanda after the 100-day genocide in 1994 in which 800,000 died, met report
ers on Sunday who had trudged through jungle, mud and past dead bodies to reach his headquarters.
Nkunda told Patrick Barth, of Frontier Africa TV, that United Nations forces in the Congo had failed to protect Congolese Tutsis from Hutus. Tens of thousands of Hutus involved in the genocide were chased into the Congo by a Tutsi army led by Paul Kagame, now the president of Rwanda. There the Hutus, aided by the government of the president, Joseph Kabila, formed an army-in-exile, the FLDR, better known as the Interahamwe (Those Who Stand Together).
"The mission of Monuc was to secure populations, but for the last five or six years they haven't chased the FDLR," Nkunda said.
Monuc is the United Nations's 17,500-strong peacekeeping force in the Congo, the largest such mission ever deployed by the world.
The Frontier Africa TV crew filmed a rebel rally at Rutshuru stadium, 60 miles north of Goma where Nkunda's younger brother, Captain Seco, addressed a large crowd and danced with them while carrying a spear and denouncing Kinshasa's "corrupt government regime".
At the rebel base, Major Muhire John, a security adviser to Nkunda, denied reports that his forces were involved in burning refugee camps after forcibly removing 50,000 people, mainly Rwandan Hutus.
"The push on Goma was difficult, but we were right on the doorstep and could have entered the government's home," he insisted before describing Monuc as a "negative force" that had taken the government's side. "We had no other choice but to react and fire back on Monuc after they shelled our positions."
At Rutshuru hospital more than 150 casualties are crammed into run-down wards. Some are rebel fighters, but the vast majority are women and children, torn by shrapnel and gunfire.
Yesterday, the first international aid convoys to reach Rutshuru, allowed in by Nkunda, brought in badly-needed medicines and water purification tablets, but food and shelter materials are also needed for those returning to their homes after fleeing into Goma. Many, however, are afraid to return and are living in appalling conditions along the roadsides on the outskirts of Goma.
Almost daily at improvised food distribution centres, chaos ensues when relief agencies distribute high-energy biscuits and other necessities to hundreds of displaced civilians who stand in the rain for hours. "We have been living outside in the rain, no food, no water, we can't take much," said Baziramwabo Benita, clutching her baby daughter in a compound in Kibati.
Nkunda, 41, who served as a general in the Congo army for a short period, said government army brigades stationed in the eastern Congo had given weapons to the Interahamwe. Monuc knew what was happening, but chose to ignore it, he said. Nkunda, who has wrested control of several towns and whose forces have surrounded Goma, the strategic lakeside capital of eastern Congo, declared a ceasefire last week to allow a million people displaced by the fighting to reach safety and international aid food supplies.
In his hillside stronghold of Kichangna, less than ten miles from Goma's northern outskirts, Nkunda threatened to oust the government in Kinshasa, 1,500 miles to the west, unless it holds "direct" talks on his demands. "If they ignore that call, we are going to force them (by liberating] Congo," he said.
Mr Kabila has rejected Nkunda's demand for a face-to- face meeting about the eastern Congo, where five million people have died in a succession of conflicts since 1996.
Kinshasa may be a bridge too far"NKUNDA may be able to take control of a large part of the east," said Muzong Kodi, Congo analyst at Chatham House – the Royal Institute for International Affairs – in London. "I don't think he has the capacity to march all the way to Kinshasa."
However, the Rwandan Army of president Paul Kagame, widely believed to provide weapons and men to General Laurent Nkunda's forces, did just that in 1996-7 when it reached Kinshasa and overthrew the dictatorship of the late Mobutu Sese Seko.
President Kagame visited Britain in 2004, developing a relationship with Tony Blair. Britain now supplies half Rwanda's foreign aid.
Mr Kagame warned then that only a decision by Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, to disarm his Interahamwe allies could prevent war. "If nobody takes care of it, then we reserve the right to deal with it," he said. "Unfortunately this might include hot pursuit into the Congo. We didn't go to the Congo in the first place to be popular, and certainly not to show the Congolese what good fellows we are."
