Paris is expected to present a resolution, possibly as soon as this
week, asking United Nations authority for a robust intervention force of
willing countries to prevent further ethnic bloodshed in Ituri, where
militias are battling each other for control.
But Augustin Muvinyi, of Rwanda's permanent mission to the UN,
said: "We don't believe France is appropriate." He accused Paris of aiding
the regime during Rwanda's 1994 state-sponsored genocide and of a possible
"hidden agenda".
"France never prevented the genocide," he said. "What are they going to
do now? Our fear is France might go there and re-organise genocidal
forces. It might do a deal with Uganda."
France has said it wants the explicit agreement of countries involved
in the region before leading an emergency force to Ituri, but a French
diplomat said yesterday that Paris had still received no answer from
Rwanda.
Rwanda has been accused of using its invasion of the Congo to loot the
country's resources.
Mr Muvinyi also reiterated Kigali's deep distrust of the United
Nations' capacity to meet Rwanda's security concerns.
Continued fighting in north-eastern Congo has prompted criticism of the
effectiveness of the UN force in the country.
Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan president, yesterday told Jean-Marie
Guehenno, the UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, that the body
needed to station a large and well-equipped military force to keep order
in Ituri province.
Uganda recently withdrew from north-eastern Congo, leaving a power
vacuum that analysts say has fostered inter-ethnic rivalries.
The Ugandan and Rwandan comments came as the European Union instructed
its military staff to look at the implic-ations of joining a French-led
multinational force for the Congo.
Any EU peacekeeping mission to the Congo would prove a test for Europe
to assemble a highly trained force and military capabilities to back it
up. The EU has no strategic airlift that could transport troops,
humanitarian aid and equipment.
Last week Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, suggested
Europe should consider sending a force to Congo under the EU flag but
under a mandate of the United Nations. See Editorial
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