A Rwandan rebel group operating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo said it would resist a Congolese government plan to disarm it by force, complicating efforts to end linked insurgencies in the turbulent region.
Congo President Joseph Kabila's government, which has vowed to pacify the conflict-torn east, agreed with neighbouring Rwanda at the weekend it would use military force to disband the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels.
The move came amid international efforts to defuse intertwined rebellions in eastern North Kivu province, where a renegade general of the Tutsi ethnic group accuses Kabila's government of supporting the largely Hutu FDLR against him.
General Laurent Nkunda is resisting government demands for his fighters to disband, calling on Kabila and United Nations peacekeepers to guarantee the safety of Tutsis living in Congo.
FDLR president Ignace Murwanashyaka, whose rebel group is partly composed of ex-Rwandan military and Interahamwe militia blamed for Rwanda's 1994 genocide, said he had not been consulted about the disarmament deal agreed by Congo and Rwanda.
"We were not contacted. This accord does not concern us. We are not committed to doing anything at all," Murwanashyaka told Reuters in a phone interview late on Tuesday from Germany, where he lives in exile.
"We say no to forced disarmament. We will defend ourselves," he added. The FDLR rebels, who have remained in eastern Congo for the past 13 years, are demanding legal status as a legitimate political movement in Rwanda. But Rwanda accuses them of harbouring some of those responsible for organising the 1994 slaughter of around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Under the weekend deal, Rwanda's government agreed to seal its frontier with Congo and ensure that armed groups, especially Nkunda's insurgents, did not receive cross-border support. Murwanashyaka said his group wanted a negotiated solution, not a military one. "If someone wants to drag us into a war, I can assure you that will not solve the political problem that exists," he said.
ARMY CAPACITY QUESTIONED: Analysts said it was unclear whether the Congolese army, already stretched battling Nkunda's forces in North Kivu, had the military capacity forcibly to disarm the FDLR, which some experts estimate has between 7,000 and 8,000 fighters.
"The (army's) motivation to actually attack the FDLR is very low. The FDLR are much better trained, disciplined, and have greater capacity than Congo's army," said David Mugnier, central Africa project director for the International Crisis Group. He questioned how effective the Congo-Rwanda deal to disband the FDLR would be without a lasting political settlement.
"For the first time there is a real agreement. But it focuses mostly on the military option and it could worsen the situation on the ground," Mugnier told Reuters.
Rwanda has in the past twice used pursuit of the rebels as a pretext for invading Congo. A 1998 invasion triggered a five-year war and humanitarian crisis in Congo that killed an estimated 4 million people. The United Nations and foreign governments, especially the United States which supports Kabila, have been working to try to defuse the North Kivu violence and stop it from escalating into a wider conflict in a volatile, ethnically mixed region. Thousands of fresh refugees poured out of camps in North Kivu on Tuesday after the army said Nkunda's fighters had attacked its positions. Nkunda's side denied this.
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