SECRETARY-GENERAL ENCOURAGED BY RWANDA REBEL GROUP’S PLEDGE TO DISARM,

RETURN PEACEFULLY, COLLABORATE WITH JUSTICE MECHANISMS

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General is encouraged by the statement issued today in Rome by the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) by which the FDLR has renounced the use of force, condemned the 1994 Rwanda genocide, and has accepted to voluntarily disarm, return peacefully to Rwanda and to also cooperate with international justice mechanisms.

The Secretary-General calls on the Governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda to take every action necessary to cooperate in order to ensure the voluntary disarmament and peaceful return to Rwanda of FDLR combatants in the DRC.  He has directed the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) to do everything possible within its means to facilitate this process.

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