Rwanda gives guarded welcome to Congo force idea

KIGALI, Rwanda (Reuters) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame gave a guarded welcome on Monday to a proposal to deploy an African peacekeeping force to end Congo's civil war that has drawn in five other countries.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and officials from eight other African states agreed last week on a plan to end the two-year war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by deploying African peacekeepers there.

"It's a good idea...but how viable and effective that is likely to be is anyone's guess," Kagame told reporters.

"For us we say it is a good idea but all along we haven't been short of good ideas, I think the problem has been how to implement them."

Rwanda, along with Uganda, is backing several rebel groups which together control the northern and eastern parts of the country. The western half of the Congo is still under the control of President Laurent Kabila, backed by Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.

Rwanda's Tutsi-led government says its troops are in the Congo to fight against ethnic Hutu militiamen known as the Interahamwe and Hutu soldiers from Rwanda's former army.

The groups helped orchestrate mass killings of Tutsis during Rwanda's 1994 genocide and both still operate in the forests of eastern Congo.

Gaddafi's peacekeeping force would pave the way for the withdrawal of the five foreign armies involved in the war.

It would also be mandated to protect the Rwandan and Ugandan borders and disarm militiamen like the Interahamwe, a task Kagame said he doubted could easily be achieved.

"I have always been very skeptical that some people ... that have less to do with this crisis (than Rwanda) will come and disarm these fellows," Kagame said.

"But if somebody comes forward and says I want to go and fight them, what do I say? I have to say come along."

All countries involved in the war signed a peace deal in the Zambian capital Lusaka last year to end the conflict. But fighting has continued unabated.

The deal called for the deployment of observers to monitor the cease-fire, but so far only a skeleton United Nations observer team has arrived.

The U.N. Security Council authorized 500 observers -- along with 5,000 troops to protect them -- to monitor the deal but fighting has delayed the deployment.

"We've been trying for quite a long time now to effectively implement what we agreed in the framework of the Lusaka peace process," Kagame said.

"So far we haven't been very successful, but we shall keep trying to see what can be done."

Kagame said Gaddafi was contacting African nations in an effort to see who could contribute to an African force.

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