An army mutiny that began in the eastern DRC last April has now
become extremely serious with the creation of thousands of
refugees and much controversy over who is behind the continued
violence. A United Nations panel of experts has accused the
Government of Rwanda of supporting mutinous Congolese army units
with arms, money, training and new recruits. The government of
Rwanda has vehemently denied the charges. The United States
Government has sent a hostile signal to Rwanda by canceling a
small military assistance program. US-Rwanda relations are
cooling. To put the current conflict into perspective, it is
important to note that what happens in the eastern Congolese
provinces of North and South Kivu is of vital importance to
Rwanda's economic and political security. The 1994 genocide that
resulted in the deaths of as many as 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis, the
country's minority ethnic group, tied the security of the
eastern Congo and Rwanda inexorably together. The 1994 genocide
ended when the Rwanda Patriotic Arm