By James Munyaneza
The Government of Rwanda this
week accused the UN Group of Experts (GoE) on the Congo of “bad faith”
following the publication of a new document linking Kigali to the M23
rebels, who have seized parts of DRC’s eastern North Kivu province.
A
M23 rebel fighter prepares his machine gun at their defense position in
Karambi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in north Kivu
province, near the border with Uganda, July 12, 2012. REUTERS/James
Akena
The GoE is led by Steve Hege,
widely viewed in Kigali as having an extremely benign view of the
Congo-based FLDR genocidal outfit – mainly composed of the perpetrators
of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi – with a profound resentment for
the Rwandan leadership who he described as “Ugandan Tutsi elite” in one
of his past publications.
Quoting anonymous sources,
including those they described as M23 deserters, former Rwanda Defence
Forces (RDF), as well as Congolese military officers and politicians,
claim that Rwanda was actively involved in recent M23 successes on the
battlefield, including the capture of Bunagana, a strategic town close
to Uganda.
The Group also cites “fresh
graves” at the Kanombe military cemetery which its members witnessed
during a site visit on July 25, concluding that the graves were for RDF
soldiers who had recently died while fighting in the M23 rebellion.
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