Burundi's army said yesterday that it might cross into neighboring Congo to pursue rebels and militia it blames for massacring 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees at a camp in western Burundi.
The head of Burundi's army, Brigadier-General Germain Niyoyankana, said the military was prepared to move into Democratic Republic of Congo if the Kinshasa government failed to disarm the rebels and allied militia.
PHOTO: AFP
"We must avoid a new attack from Congo, so the Burundi army does not rule out an offensive in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Everything depends on the Congolese government," Niyoyankana told reporters.
The Burundi army blames the rebel Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL), former Rwandan forces and Hutu militia operating in Congo as well as sections of the Congolese army for Friday's attack.
The FNL, the only rebel group still fighting the Burundian government, claimed responsibility for the attack in which refugees were burned, hacked and shot to death.
The UN said yesterday that it has suspended peace talks with the FNL for taking part in the massacre, one of the worst in central Africa in years.
The army welcomed the suspension but urged the international community to take stiffer action against the FNL.
"The FNL has proved that it does not want to talk peace. The world must impose sanctions against these people," Niyoyankana said, urging the international community to ensure that the rebels do not get fresh supplies of weapons.
Meanwhile, Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused the UN yesterday of "doing nothing" to bring peace to the region.
"It is clear that they are doing nothing," said Kagame, himself a Tutsi. "We cannot remain with folded arms. We have to look for other ways to resolve the problem, especially at the level of the African Union," Kagame said on national radio after returning from a mini-summit of African leaders on the massacre in Gatumba.
The UN has long had a campaign to disarm and repatriate Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo, offering incentives for them to return home.
Kagame stopped short of blaming the ex-Rwandan armed forces and the Interahamwe for last week's massacre.
He indicated that participants at the African mini-summit, held in Pointe-Noire in the Congo Republic -- the Congo's smaller western neighbor -- had agreed that the international community and Burundi should jointly conduct an inquiry to find out who was responsible for the Gatumba slaughter.
One of the extremist Rwandan Hutu groups based in the Congo, the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, said on Monday it was "in no way responsible for" the Gatumba massacre.
Rwanda has made it clear that it wants action following the massacre.
"Rwanda is resolved to no longer tolerate acts of genocide in the world," Rwanda's minister for local administration, Christophe Bazivamo, said on Monday at the funeral for the victims of the massacre.
"Rwanda is ready to bring aid to and intervene ... to stop genocide and calm down the people, as in Darfur," in western Sudan, he said.
Rwanda was the first member of the African Union to send soldiers to Darfur as part of an African Union protection force for cease-fire observers in west Sudan, where more than a year's strife has led to a massive humanitarian crisis.
Rwanda "will no longer settle for being a spectator," Bazivamo said. "Nobody should be unaware that Rwanda is ready to cooperate ... to fight terrorists."
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