GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) – An influential US senator said the international community should be instrumental in solving the problem of Rwandan Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Speaking in the eastern town of Goma, Richard Durbin, number two in the Senate's Democrat majority, told AFP: "The question of FDLR (the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) should be resolved both by the Congolese government, Rwandan government and the international community."
The Illinois senator, who is close to President Barack Obama, suggested that Rwanda should publish the names of FDLR fighters accused of violating human rights.
"Opportunity should be given to people who were not involved in horrific crimes to go back to Rwanda. There are some who have already been back to Rwanda. They live quite well, because they were not involved in horrific crimes," Durbin said.
The number of Hutu rebels is put at less than 5,000 in the east of the former Zaire where they moved after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which mainly targeted the Tutsi minority in that country. Some of them took an active part in the genocide.
The FDLR rebels are also accused of having committed atrocities against the civilian population in the east of the DRC in recent years.
Durbin, who arrived Monday in Goma, capital of the Nord-Kivu province bordering on Rwanda, visited a camp for displaced persons near the town.
He also went to a private hospital in Goma catering for victims of sexual violence and had talks with officials of the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUC).
The Congolese army backed by MONUC was expected shortly to undertake a new operation against the FDLR following previous operations last year that observers said worsened the situation in the region where hundreds of civilians were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced..
Durbin, accompanied by Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, was scheduled to leave Goma on Tuesday.
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