Rwanda Troops Entered Burundi, Officials Say

Rwandan troops, going on the offensive against Hutu fighters involved in the nation’s 1994 genocide, entered Burundi briefly to hunt rebels hiding in forests there, officials of both nations said.

Burundi’s army chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Germain Niyoyankana, said at a news conference Saturday that Rwanda had been massing troops defensively for some time on its borders with Burundi and Congo to prevent expected attacks by Hutu Interahamwe militia fighters based in Congo.

“But then some Rwandan troops crossed the border to search for Interahamwe,” he said, adding that the Rwandans had entered Thursday and left Friday after Burundi protested.

Rwandan authorities have been concerned for weeks that the Interahamwe militiamen, who fled to Congo after participating in the 1994 genocide, were planning to leave their jungle bases and move through the northern Burundi forests to attack Rwanda’s southern provinces.

In Kigali, Rwandan army spokesman Col. Patrick Karegeya said the incursion had been inadvertent.

“That area is a corridor for Interahamwe. We pursued them and killed two of them,” he said.

“Because there are no clear demarcations and being at night,” he said, “our soldiers crossed over but immediately turned back after realizing they had gone beyond the border lines.”

Rwanda has long complained that neither U.N. troops nor the Congolese army are doing enough to root out the Hutu rebels.

The United Nations said Saturday that about 400 Rwandan soldiers had surrounded U.N. troops patrolling in eastern Congo during the week and forced them to return to their base.

Rwanda denied that its army had crossed into Congo, but defended its right to seek out its enemies.

Many Burundians suspect that Rwandan troops have often crossed into their country to root out Rwandan rebels hiding in the north. Saturday’s statement by Niyoyankana is the first public disclosure of the practice.