Rwandans got combat training from US army, paper claims

The US army provided combat and guerrilla warfare training for the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan army, according to a report by the Pentagon to Congress, a copy of which was obtained by Le Monde, the French newspaper claims. The US has denied another report, sourced to French intelligence officials, that US "advisers" were present in Goma, eastern Zaire, when Hutu refugees were massacred there.

Until this summer, Washington admitted only to having taught the Rwandan army de-mining and military justice. But today's Le Monde documents an extensive military training programme which began in 1994 and continues, with nine US military instructors currently training 60 Rwandan officers.

These revelations provide the first confirmation of the long-held French belief that the US helped English-speaking leaders in Uganda and Rwanda, and Mr Laurent-Desire Kabila to overthrow the Zairean dictator, Mr Mobutu Sese Seko.

A recent report by the Boston-based humanitarian organisation Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) says the US-trained Rwandan army has committed and continues to commit atrocities against civilians in western Rwanda and eastern Zaire.

The US says that no Americans participated in the offensive which brought e (acute last eee) Mr Kabila to power in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May but this is contested by French intelligence sources, cited by Le Monde's defence correspondent, Jacques Isnard.

The French allegations, if confirmed, indirectly implicate Washington in the alleged massacre of hundreds of thousands of Hutus in eastern Zaire. Between 30 and 60 Americans helped to overthrow Mr Mobutu by assisting the troops of Mr Kabila's Rwandan ally, deputy prime minister and defence minister, Gen Paul Kagame, Le Monde says.

These "advisers" were former members of the US Special Forces or mercenaries recruited privately in the US. Some of the Americans accompanied incursions from Rwanda into the Goma region of Zaire, where two of them were killed early this year.

The new regime in Kinshasa has thwarted attempts to investigate the fate of between 200,000 and 300,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees who did not return from eastern Zaire to Rwanda in the mass exodus of November 1996. A UN human rights investigator, Mr Roberto Garreton, reported that the forces of Mr Kabila and Mr Kagame committed "crimes against humanity" in massacring thousands of Hutu refugees.

Mr Kabila insisted that Mr Garreton be removed from the mission, and the UN agreed.

The US government said this week that it wants a complete and impartial investigation into the accusations.