Congolise armed rabel called the M23
rebels are blamed for several attacks on civilian in the eastern Congo region
of Goma.
The UN is helping in an offensive against the M23 rebels, the
UK and the Netherlands have joined the US in withholding aid to Rwanda over its
alleged backing of rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo.
The UK government said it was delaying £16m ($25m) in budget
support due this month while it considered whether aid conditions had been met. Rwanda again
rejected allegations in a UN report that it was supporting the M23 movement
rebels in DR Congo.
Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo
told the Media that it was "one sided".
The rebels mutinied from the
Congolese army in April and some 200,000 people have fled their homes as a
result of fighting.
“It's a wake-up call for Rwanda... to figure out a
way to sustain our development without being subjected to bullying and pressure
from donors” Louise Mushikiwabo Rwandan foreign minister said
News of the further aid suspensions
came as a senior UN official told the BBC that defecting Congolese rebels have
confirmed that they were recruited in Rwanda.
On Thursday, the UN reported that
its forces helped the Congolese army push the rebels out of two towns north of
Goma using helicopter gunships and armoured vehicle.
Eastern DR Congo has been plagued by
fighting since 1994, when more than a million ethnic Hutus crossed the border
into DR Congo following the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people -
mostly Tutsis - died.
Rwanda has twice invaded its much
larger neighbour, saying it was trying to take action against Hutu rebels based
in DR Congo. Uganda also sent troops into DR Congo during the 1997-2003
conflict.
'Non-existent evidence'
The brief UK announcement emerged
after the Dutch foreign ministry confirmed it would no longer be making
payments worth $6.15m (£3.9m) to Rwanda's aid budget until it had received
reassurances from Kigali.
The Dutch money was being used to
improve the country's judicial system - Dutch support for non-governmental
organisations will continue.
The Dutch government is still
awaiting a response from Rwanda and is in the process of talking to other
European government about possible further action.
The UK government said its general
budget support payment was being delayed while the government reviewed whether
the expectations associated with the strict partnership principles surrounding
the disbursement of aid are being met.
Total UK aid to Rwanda in the year
2012-13 is projected to be about $118m.
Mrs Mushikiwabo said any decision to
suspend aid based on the UN report was "taken on evidence that does not
exist" as she had explained to UN experts visiting Rwanda this week.
"More importantly I think it's
a wake-up call for Rwanda and other aid recipient countries to actually start
fending for ourselves and figure out a way to sustain our development without
being subjected to bullying and pressure from donors," she told journalist
in press conference.
The Congolese rebels who took up
arms in April named themselves M23 after a failed peace agreement signed with
DR Congo's government on 23 March three years ago.
The rebellion is led by renegade
general Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for
alleged war crimes.
He belongs to the Tutsi ethnic group
like the top leadership in Rwanda, which fears the presence of rival Hutu
militias in eastern DR Congo.
'Laughable'
Speaking off the record, a senior UN
peacekeeping official told the BBC about the debriefing of 30 former members of
the M23 movement.
The defectors said they had been
recruited in Rwanda, but were then sent into DR Congo to find themselves
fighting with the M23.
The UN official said this chimed
with the UN's own observations of some rebels who are unlike the other
Congolese troops who mutinied.
They are armed with weapons not used
by the Congolese army, speak English - unlike most Congolese - have unusual
uniforms and undertake night attacks - something the Congolese army does not
do, the official said.
The UN says the M23 has grown in
recent weeks - another sign that they are being reinforced.
Following the US cut of $200,000 in
military aid, Stephen Rapp, head of the US Office of Global Criminal Justice
warned on Wednesday that Rwanda's leadership, including Mr Kagame, could
possibly face prosecution at the ICC over the current unrest.
"There is a line that one can
cross under international law where you can be held responsible for aiding a
group in a way that makes possible their commission of atrocities," the US ambassador for war crimes said.
"I think you would have a
situation where individuals who were aiding them from across the border could
be held criminally responsible."
Mr Kagame has dismissed the article
as irresponsible. He commented on his Twitter account that it was
"laughable" and displayed "gross ignorance"
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