afrol News, 27 November - Tanzanian authorities are investigating allegations carried in the UN report accusing the country of aiding Hutu rebels waging a bloody civil war in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

According to the statement issued by the governemnt, the UN report is meant to tarnish the country's reputaion.

The UN report said Tanzania is one of 25 countries including those in the United States and some in Europe that are actively helping DRC rebels to buy arms and transfer money.

The findings of the reports revealed that the international community has done little to cut off logistical support to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an ethnic Hutu militia wreaking havoc in the DRC.

It accuses Tanzania of making significant deliveries of weapons and ammunition via Lake Tanganyika to the FDLR.

The UN report further claims that telephone calls were traced between FDLR commanders and high-level government officials in Tanzania and Burundi, two countries on the eastern DRC border.

The report said the rebel group continues to control lucrative gold mines in eastern Congo, allowing it to traffic millions of dollars in minerals through the country's porous borders.

The FDLR is made up of Hutu refugees from Rwanda who took cover in neighbouring Congo after the end of Rwanda's 1994 genocide of half a million Tutsis. Many of the FDLR's founders and several of its current leaders are accused of having led the genocide.

The UN report also alleges that Burundi and Tanzania are supplying arms to FDLR under a high-level contract between the rebels and the Tanzanian government.

FDLR controls gold and tin mining areas with about 6,000 to 8,000 fighters, while the Tutsi-led group CNDP operates as a parallel militia of 6,000 men.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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