Bunagana, DR Congo - People in the border village of Bunagana, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, have denied reports by the UN mission in DRC that Rwandan troops have crossed into the vast central African country.
"It's been a long time, at least six months but possibly a lot longer, since there have been Rwandan soldiers here," Bunanga primary school teach Eliab Buyange told AFP.
"I can't remember the date that they left, but it was a long time ago, more than a year, in any case," said customs official Ngaruye Munyantore.
The UN mission in DRC, MONUC, said in a statement last week that it had "noted the presence on April 21 of Rwandan troops... with the FDR (Rwandan Defence Forces) insignia in the Bunagana sector on DRC territory, where a Rwandan officer asked a MONUC patrol to withdraw."
Last week's report gave little detail on the alleged Rwandan presence in DRC, except to say the Rwandan soldiers numbered around 400.
It was South African peacekeepers who identified the soldiers as Rwandans, UN officials said, based on the fact that they were speaking Kinyarwanda, had new vehicles, without number plates, and were well equipped.
Kinyarwanda is one of Rwanda's official languages but is also spoken by the large majority of inhabitants of eastern DRC.
MONUC said Wednesday that the Rwandan forces had since left the DRC.
"The Rwandan troops who were in Bunagana, a town in Nord-Kivu situated some six kilometers from the DRC-Rwanda-Uganda border, are no longer present on Congolese territory," said MONUC's military spokesman Abou Thiam, citing a UN team.
Rwanda has denied sending troops to DRC but on Wednesday said it has called on the United Nations to protect its border with its vast western neighbour, where Hutu rebels opposed to the Tutsi-led regime in Kigali are based.
"The government of the Republic of Rwanda has requested that MONUC (the UN military mission in DRC) re-deploy its forces to deter further attacks into Rwanda in order to prevent a recurrence of what happened in 1996 and 1998," said a foreign ministry statement.
Rwanda deployed troops in DRC in 1996 and 1998, justifying the move with the need to neutralise the security threat posed by the Hutu rebels, who are accused of carrying out much of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
The last Rwandan soldier left DRC in October 2002, in line with the terms of a peace pact signed between the two countries.
Foreigners in Bunagana on April 21 - the day of the alleged sighting of Rwandan troops there -- have told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that they saw "UN soldiers surrounded by locals" on that day, and that the general mood was relaxed.