The U.N. Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) announced yesterday that all troops operating under Rwanda's current regime have withdrawn from the country, ending over four years of activity in the troubled central African country.

In a statement released in the D.R.C. capital, Kinshasa, MONUC said the last batch of 1,152 Rwandan soldiers Saturday crossed the border from Goma, D.R.C., to Gisenyi, Rwanda, completing a withdrawal process that began last month.  According to MONUC, the troops brought heavy weaponry including anti-aircraft guns and armored vehicles.

MONUC observers who witnessed the withdrawal said they counted 20,941 Rwandan soldiers leaving the D.R.C.  MONUC said about 2,819 Rwandan troops are still unaccounted for, but Rwandan authorities said the troops were on leave, assignment or training at the time of the withdrawal (MONUC release, Oct. 7).

The withdrawal was in line with a Rwandan-D.R.C. peace deal brokered by South Africa in July.  The Rwandan troops have been in the country since they invaded in 1998 in pursuit of ethnic Hutu rebels and former Rwandan military elements who were involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie rebel group in the D.R.C. immediately issued a statement welcoming the withdrawal and calling on all remaining foreign troops to leave as well.  RCD President Adolphe Onusumba urged "the international community and the U.N. Security Council to exert their influence on other countries still present in the Congo so that they pull out without delay or conditions."

The rebels called on the D.R.C. government to "cease all operations to supply foreign and Congolese 'negative forces' active in eastern D.R.C. and to proceed immediately ... with the disarmament, demobilization and repatriation of Interahamwe [Hutu militias] and ex-FAR [Forces Armees Rwandaises] groups responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda."  The RCD urged "Congolese political actors, civil society, Mayi-Mayi groups and others to seize the opportunity and resolutely commit themselves to finding a global and inclusive political accord with a view to ending the current crisis."

Nearly all the foreign countries involved in the war in the D.R.C. have been withdrawing.  Following the withdrawal of Namibian troops last year, Angolan and Zimbabwean troops have started to pull out.  Uganda pulled most of its troops out last month, leaving only a contingent of 1,000 in the northeastern town of Bunia at the request of MONUC (Agence France-Presse/ReliefWeb, Oct. 7).

The RCD said Sunday that it reached "agreements in principle" with the Congolese government at informal talks in South Africa organized by U.N. special envoy Mustapha Niasse and South African President Thabo Mbeki.  According to rebel spokesman Kristin Kabasele, a "consensus" has been reached on several issues, including a formula under which the country would have a president and four deputy presidents and the establishment of a ministerial commission on reconciliation.  The RCD and nearly a dozen Congolese opposition parties have not signed the Sun City peace accords (AFP II/ReliefWeb, Oct. 7).