Thu Mar 31, 2005 09:30 AM ET
By Crispian Balmer
ROME (Reuters) - Rwanda's main Hutu rebel group announced Thursday they were ending their war against Rwanda and for the first time denounced the 1994 genocide of Tutsis that has been blamed on many of their members.
A delegation representing the rebel organization, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), made the announcement after secret negotiations at the Sant'Egidio religious community in the heart of Rome.
"The FDLR condemns the genocide committed against Rwanda and their authors," FDLR President Ignace Murwanashyaka said, reading from a statement. "Henceforward, the FDLR has decided to transform its fight into a political struggle."
Hutu rebels are accused of taking part in the massacre of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. Until Thursday, many FDLR fighters had denied genocide occurred, calling the killings tit-for-tat attacks.
Murwanashyaka said his group was ready to cooperate with international justice and would lay down its arms in a bid to end the "catastrophic humanitarian" situation in the region.
The Hutu rebels were chased out of Rwanda following the genocide, taking refuge in the jungles of neighboring Congo.
Since then they have been at the center of tensions in the vast country's eastern region where violence, hunger and disease have killed millions of people.
A representative of the Democratic Republic of Congo hailed the FDLR move, saying it was an historic moment for Africa.
"Even a month ago it was impossible to believe that they would issue such a strong statement," Congo's roving ambassador, Antoine Ghonda, told Reuters.
"We are confident that this will be the turning point in ending the conflict, but they will need guarantees from Rwanda."
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The FDLR constitutes the largest grouping of Hutu rebels in eastern Congo, estimated at about 14,000 fighters, although there are Burundian Hutus who also operate in the east.
Tiny but militarily powerful Rwanda has invaded its huge neighbor twice, in 1996 and 1998, saying it had a right to hunt down the rebels and has threatened to launch fresh cross-border raids unless they are neutralized.
Richard Sezibera, Rwandan President Paul Kagame's adviser on the Great Lakes, told Reuters from Kigali that if the FDLR statement was true, it was welcome news.
"If they have renounced the struggle they should totally disarm. We shall know how serious they are if and when they disarm," he said.
The peace talks started in Rome two months ago but, according to government officials and diplomats in Congo, were kept secret amid fears Rwandan authorities might undermine them.
Rwanda has long been accused of using the FDLR as a pretext for continued military, political and economic intervention in the mineral-rich but lawless east of Congo.
In its statement, the FDLR recognized the "catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Great Lakes" and urged an international inquiry into "crimes committed" in the region.
The FDLR also called for Rwandan refugees to be allowed back into their country. Disarmament officials estimate there may be as many as 30,000 FDLR dependants in Congo.
GUARANTEES
Diplomats in Rome said it was now up to the Rwandan government to provide guarantees that disarmed rebels could return home safely and be awarded full legal rights.
Returning former FDLR fighters to the killing grounds of 1994 would not pose a problem, Sezibera said.
"We've had a long process of integrating these groups. They don't pose an insurmountable challenge. The important thing is that they cease to be a security threat to Rwanda," he said.
However, FDLR fighters suspected of involvement in the genocide would be investigated and tried, he added.
U.N. and government officials in Kinshasa said there would be a follow-up meeting in Rome Saturday at which the different groups, including the United Nations, would discuss the methods and timing of the disarmament and repatriation.
U.N. sources say they hope the process will begin within a matter of weeks.
Sant'Egidio is a Roman Catholic movement of lay people who strive to broker peace around the world. It scored its greatest diplomatic success in 1992 when it helped build a deal to end 16 years of civil war that killed 1 million people in Mozambique. (Additional reporting by Katie Nguyen in Nairobi, David Lewis in Kinshasa, and Ed Stoddard in Johannesburg)
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