Rwandan president sees hope for Congo peace

Rwandan President Paul Kagame     WEB EXCLUSIVE Jim Clancy on the changing Democratic Republic of Congo

From CNN U.N. Producer Ronni Berke

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame pledged on Wednesday to work for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and asked for international help to provide security in central Africa's Great Lakes region.

In a speech to the U.N. Security Council, Kagame said a real chance to implement a 1999 peace agreement existed with the new Congolese president, Joseph Kabila.

"There is a need to take advantage of the change that has taken place in the Congo, however tragic that has been in its coming," Kagame told the council.

Kabila took over as president after his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated last month.

But Kagame warned that the presence in Congo of Hutu-led militias and former members of the Rwandan army continued to pose a threat to stability in the region.

"This problem has been known since mainly 1994 until this moment," he said.

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Many of those militiamen and former Rwandan army soldiers, who had been allied with the previous Rwandan regime, are believed to have carried out mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in a 1994 genocide.

U.N. looks to help

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who met earlier with Kagame, said those accused of genocide should not be allowed to remain in Congo.

"In the short term, the most pressing issue is the continued existence of predatory armed groups," Annan said. "Although there is no easy military solution to this dangerous phenomenon, those guilty of the worst atrocities and human rights abuses -- and especially those guilty of genocide -- must not be allowed to escape unpunished."

Annan said he would push for additional U.N. troops to monitor the expected withdrawal of foreign forces from the Congo.

The United Nations came under criticism for possibly contributing to the deaths of at least 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the 1994 Rwanda genocide because officials allegedly failed to heed warnings of impending violence and then did not do enough once the killings began.

Annan was U.N. Undersecretary of Peacekeeping at the time of the 1994 bloodbath.

Although the Security Council has approved a peacekeeping force of more than 5,500 for the Congo, continued fighting over the past year has prevented all but a few hundred of them from being deployed.

Congolese President Kabila, Rwandan President Kagame meet in Washington
February 1, 2001
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January 26, 2001
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January 23, 2001
Congolese president dead following apparent coup attempt, sources tell CNN
January 16, 2001

U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Lusaka Ceasefire Document
Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of The Congo
Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement
Jane's Information Group: Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
Human Rights Watch 1999 report on the Democratic Republic of Congo
The International Rescue Committee
  • Congo Mortality Study
Congo Defense Fund (CDF)

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