The United States has called on Rwanda to publicly denounce M23 rebels who have set up a parallel government in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"It is not and should not be too much to ask the government of Rwanda to denounce a rebel group that is preying on the lives of people or undermining the stability of a neighbor," US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said on Monday, Reuters reported.

Rwanda has repeatedly denied the charges that it is backing the March 23 movement (M23), but Kigali has never publicly condemned the militia, which is strengthening its grip over the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu in the eastern Congo and could seriously threaten the writ of the Congolese government in the region, according to UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.

Since early May, over 220,000 civilians have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. Most of them have resettled inside Congo, but tens of thousands have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.

The mutiny is being led by General Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on a charge of recruiting child soldiers.

“The M23 is led by individuals who are ICC indictees, is led by people who carried out serious human rights violations, so it should not be too much to ask the government of Rwanda to do this," Carson said.

On September 11, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said M23 rebels had committed war crimes, including rapes and massacres.

“The M23 rebels are committing a horrific trail of new atrocities in eastern Congo," Anneke van Woudenberg, HRW's senior Africa researcher, said in a report.

“The United Nations Security Council should sanction M23 leaders, as well as Rwandan officials who are helping them, for serious rights abuses,” she added.

Kinshasa and the UN have said that the rebels fighting the Congolese army were trained in Rwanda.

However, Rwanda has denied the claims that high-ranking Rwandan officials are supporting the rebellion in the eastern Congo.

On August 18, 2012, the 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) denounced Rwanda for backing rebel groups in the eastern Congo, saying Rwandan "interference" in the Congo was threatening regional peace and stability.


The eastern Congo has experienced interminable cycles of violence since 1998.

The war in the Congo has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.5 million people dead.
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