Rwanda says Congo Rebel has 'Legitimate Grievances'

GOMA, Congo - Rwandan President Paul Kagame called on Monday for a political deal to end fighting in eastern Congo and said a renegade Tutsi general there had legitimate political grievances.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's army and rebel General Laurent Nkunda are maintaining an uneasy four-day-old ceasefire in North Kivu province, the scene of heavy fighting between the two sides in the last two weeks.

Nkunda, who first led a revolt in 2004, says he is fighting to protect his Tutsi people in east Congo against attacks by largely Hutu FDLR Rwandan rebels accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Kagame made clear he believed Nkunda should be viewed differently to the FDLR which he said was "guilty of genocide".

"This man Nkunda, like him or not, and whatever mistakes you could hold him accountable for, has some political grievances that are legitimate," he said.

U.K.-based Amnesty International said on Monday Nkunda was accused of war crimes and urged the international community and Rwanda and Congo to work together to bring him to justice.

Kagame's government has been pressing Congolese President Joseph Kabila to disband and expel the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda). Nkunda accuses Kabila's government of directly supporting the FDLR insurgents.

"You can't get rid of this problem in Congo without applying heavily the political option because the underlying causes of that problem are mainly political," Kagame told a news conference in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

The North Kivu fighting has alarmed neighbouring countries like Rwanda in the Great Lakes region which has a history of wars, ethnic conflicts and border disputes.

Rwanda has twice invaded Congo, the last time leading to a 1998-2003 war there that killed some 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.

United Nations peacekeepers in Congo brokered the North Kivu ceasefire on Thursday. "For the moment, we still have a cessation of hostilities. But it is still very tense," Major Gabriel De Brosse, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC), said.


MORE RIGHTS ABUSES FEARED

Nkunda's fighters last month abandoned the mixed Congolese national army brigades they had joined as part of the January peace deal. He has said he is ready to negotiate a peace.

The worsening fighting in North Kivu forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes.

Amnesty International said it was receiving reports of rapes and killings of civilians, that recruitment of child soldiers was continuing and there was a danger the violence could develop into a renewal of mass ethnic killings and other abuses.

"Reports that the Rwandan government is, at the very least, conniving in the supply of manpower, arms and ammunition to an alleged war criminal like Laurent Nkunda are deeply worrying," Erwin van der Borght, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme, said in a statement.

"There must now be clear international, DRC and Rwandan government commitment and collaboration to bring him to justice."

Jason Stearns, an independent Congo expert, told Reuters it was worrying that no political measures had been taken to bolster the ceasefire, and he believed more fighting was likely.