UN peacekeepers vow to crack down on Congo rebels

United Nations peacekeepers in eastern Congo vowed on Wednesday to use military force to crack down on thousands of Rwandan Hutu rebels who have not yet disarmed as part of efforts to end inter-militia fighting.
The UN force is trying to restore peace in a volatile region that was the crucible of a complex five-year war in the Democratic Republic of Congo that subsided in 2003 after drawing in participants from six countries in the region.
But thousands of rebels from neighbouring Rwanda have failed to disarm voluntarily in the eastern provinces of north and south Kivu, prompting the UN to increase its peacekeeping forces in the region under its mission, known as MONUC.
"We are prepared to increase pressure and squeeze on those armed groups," Jean Marie Guehenno, UN under secretary for peacekeeping, told reporters during a visit to Kigali.
"Understand that their time is up."
The use of force, including returning fire and active engagement under the United Nations' chapter VII regulations, has so far been limited to Congo's Ituri region, scene of some of the worst massacres in recent months.
"They have to understand that with the right military means, we have made significant progress in Ituri. We can and are going to make the same kind of difference in the Kivus," said Guehenno.
Despite a year of shaky progress towards peace in Congo, attacks by Rwandan Hutu militias have increased in recent weeks, raising fears of a return to more widespread violence in central Africa's Great Lakes region.
Rwanda's Tutsi-led government has threatened to send its army back into the former Zaire to hunt down thousands of Hutu rebels who fled into eastern Congo after killing some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Under the 2002 accord, the Kinshasa government promised to disarm and repatriate the Rwandan Hutus with help from MONUC, but little progress has been made.
Guehenno said a recent increase in peacekeeping troops in Congo would make it easier to disarm and repatriate the rebels of the Democratic Forces for Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
"With increased military capacities, MONUC has more options and FDLR has less options," he said.