(Adds details on Rwandan deployments) By John Kanyunyu and Joe Bavier GOMA, Congo, Jan 22 (Reuters) - United Nations peacekeepers in Congo demanded on Thursday to be given a role in joint military operations by Congolese and Rwandan armies against Hutu rebels, saying they feared for civilians otherwise. The U.N. force in Congo, known as MONUC, has been largely excluded from the operation, in which over 3,500 Rwandan soldiers cross into Congo and advance on rebel strongholds in North Kivu province. Over the past 15 years of war in Africa's Great Lakes region, Congo and Rwanda have traded accusations of supporting each other's rebels, but analysts say the current operation marks a shift in policy. "We have to play a role. They have to discuss the operation with MONUC," said U.N. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich. "We are on the ground ... and our mandate is to protect civilians." Fears for civilians are high because the FDLR, the Hutu rebel group, has turned on them in the past. The U.N.'s 17,000-strong force has worked with Congo's army, but cooperation soured recently due to accusations of abuse by Congolese forces, rag-tag units forged out of various factions in a 1998-2003 war. Human rights groups have accused the army of rape and pillage, notably in defeats by Congolese Tutsi rebels last year. Dietrich said U.N. forces would not attack the FDLR. "In order to protect the population, maybe we will have to relocate them (the civilians)," he said. About 250,000 people fled their homes in last year's fighting, sparking a humanitarian disaster and bringing to over one million the number of civilians displaced since 2006 polls. Wars since 1998 have killed over five million Congolese. Diplomats and peacekeepers said 2,000 Rwandan troops were heading beyond Rutshuru, 100 km (60 miles) north of Goma, while another 1,500 had moved towards Masisi, to the west. "These are all areas of high FDLR concentration. I don't think it is going to be long before we start seeing some action," a Goma-based western diplomat told Reuters. Previous efforts to dislodge the FDLR, which includes some perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, have failed. The FDLR numbers about 6,000 and has survived by exploiting lucrative mines and collaborating with various factions in the capital Kinshasa who used it to fight Tutsi-led forces in Congo. Many Congolese are suspicious of the joint operation after previous Rwandan incursions failed to defeat the Hutu rebels and brought accusations that Rwanda was plundering Congo's mines. Fears have been accentuated by another joint offensive -- to hunt Ugandan rebels in Congo's northeast -- which has brought attacks killing 600 civilians, but captured no rebel commanders. (Additional reporting and writing by David Lewis in Dakar; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Elizabeth Piper)
A communications room, damaged after an attack by Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, is seen at the Nagero airstrip in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo January 6, 2009. Hundreds of ...
