Congo's peace process has broken down after the massacre of 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees in neighbouring Burundi, according to a former rebel group. Leaders of the mainly Tutsi RCD-Goma expressed this view as they gathered for talks on Tuesday in their stronghold, Goma, located in the eastern part of the country along the Rwanda border. Western diplomats in the capital Kinshasa said there was a risk the RCD might pull out of the transitional government, meant to shepherd the Democratic Republic of Congo to elections in 2005 after a five-year civil war. "The process has broken down and we need to repair this break down," Azarius Ruberwa, the head of RCD and one of Congo's four vice-presidents, told United Nations radio.
Ruberwa and other RCD senior officials attended Monday's mass burial of the 160 people shot, hacked and burned to death on Friday night at a refugee camp in western Burundi. "We need to stop, re-read the (peace) agreement and the conclusions of the negotiations because it is incomprehensible that, during a peace process, genocide of Congolese people takes place abroad," he said. A Hutu rebel group fighting in Burundi has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the RCD has accused the Congolese army of taking part in the killing. Renegade RCD soldiers launched a revolt in eastern Congo in June, saying they wanted to protect Congolese Tutsi - known as Banyamulenge - living in the area. |