DR Congo to repatriate more than 27 Rwandan rebels

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) will soon repatriate more than 27 Rwandan rebels to their country of origin, according to the Congolese News Agency.

DR Congo's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Adolphe Mulenda agreed to the compulsory repatriation of more than 27 members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which is linked to the 1994 Rwanda massacre, the report said on Tuesday.

The coordinator of the Action Program for Peace and Reconstruction (PAREC), Ngoy Mulunda, affirmed that they were among the 300 ex-FDLR fighters relocated by PAREC from North Kivu bordering Rwanda to Kisenge in South Katanga.

"There's no problem of co-existence with the natives. The issue is that the concerned men have refused to go back to the camp where they were staying," PAREC coordinator said when he tried to justify the decision by the national authority.

Many FDLR members who put down their arms under a demobilization operation going on in North Kivu province refuse to be repatriated, the news agency said.

The relocation to South Katanga from North Kivu was aimed at totally separating them from those still fighting in North and South Kivu provinces in the east of the DR Congo.

FDLR elements have been holed up in North Kivu after the massacre, causing conflicts between DR Congo and Rwanda and inside the Congolese territory. In recent years, the two neighboring countries agreed to join hands in dealing with the FDLR, a root cause of the regional trouble.

Source: Xinhua