Tens of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee in Congo's stricken east as rebel advances take the country to the brink of another all-out war. No one's debating the great humanitarian need sparked by the crisis, but the causes of the chaos, looting, and gunfire are hotly contested.

The lasting effects of the Rwandan genocide are still a major influence on the instability in east Congo, according to Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch.

Rwandan support, tacit though it may be, is vital in providing renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda with the resources he needs to advance on Goma, the regional capital of the North Kivu province, Van Woudenberg says.

Though the Rwandan authorities deny giving his rebel forces assistance, Nkunda actively recruits hundreds of his most experienced soldiers from within Rwanda, many demobilised troops from the Rwandan army, she says.

With Rwanda tacitly supporting Tutsi Nkunda on one side, the Congolese army on the other side has a close relationship with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed Rwandan group that includes Hutu militiamen and former Rwandan soldiers.

"Just as the presence of Rwandan troops among Nkunda's ranks spurs anger and suspicion among Congolese, the Congolese army's collaboration with the FDLR is a red flag to Rwandans," Van Woudenberg says.

"Until these two problems are resolved, peace efforts will not advance and the civilians of Congo will continue to pay the price," she adds.

In the Rwandan press, meanwhile, commentators instead look to the role that the U.N.'s 17,000-strong force in Congo known as MONUC has played in the conflict.

"It would not be an understatement to say that MONUC failed miserably in its mission but was instead sucked into the conflict and took sides in the fighting," says an editorial in Rwanda's New Times newspaper.

Lacking a clear direction, U.N. troops don't stand a chance of protecting the North Kivu population unless they tackle the root cause of the problem, according to the New Times. That cause is what it calls "marauding foreign militias who have turned Congo into a "Wild West"".

"MONUC or whatever force is sent to the eastern DRC should address the issue of FDLR and company once and for all (as the U.N. Security Council has instructed but failed to implement)," the editorial says.

On the Sky News website, Emma Hurd also writes of the culpability of the U.N.

"The U.N. has found itself on the side of the government forces that are using Hutu militias to bolster their numbers," Hurd writes. This pits them against Nkunda's rebel forces, who claim they're trying to protect his people from slaughter at the hands of the Hutus.

"If the U.N. peacekeepers are not there to save lives, then they should pack up and go home. It may be more dangerous to give people the pretence of security than no security at all," Hurd concludes.

An editorial in Britain's The Times newspaper also points to the legacy of the Rwandan genocide in east Congo.

"The mass murder of General Nkunda's fellow Tutsis by Hutu militias allows him to disguise what is largely warlordism as the defence of a minority, just as it has provided the rationale for two Rwandan invasions of Congo since 1994," according to the paper.

But the country's immense natural wealth also gives its leaders, neighbours and investors powerful incentives to manoeuvre for control of territory.

To resolve the conflict, Rwandan president Paul Kagame should try to restrain Nkunda, the U.N. must provide more and better peacekeepers, and China, the biggest investor in Congo's minerals, must accept responsibility to lead efforts to prevent a slide back to war, the editorial concludes.

In Britain's Independent newspaper, meanwhile, Johann Harri puts even greater emphasis on the economic forces fuelling the conflict.

"When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a "tribal conflict" in "the Heart of Darkness". It isn't," Harri writes.

After the Rwandan genocide, rather than chasing the Hutu mass murderers who fled across the border into Congo, the Rwandan government went first to where Congo's natural resources were - and began to pillage them, he says.

Consumer demand for minerals like coltan which is used in mobile phones and found primarily in Congo has really destabilised the country.

"Nkunda is being funded by Rwandan businessmen so they can retain control of the mines in North Kivu. This is the absolute core of the conflict. What we are seeing now is beneficiaries of the illegal war economy fighting to maintain their right to exploit," François Grignon, Africa Director of the International Crisis Group tells Harri.

"The debate about Congo in the West - when it exists at all - focuses on our inability to provide a decent bandage, without mentioning that we are causing the wound," Harri writes.

The U.N. force needs to be urgently bolstered, but it's even more important to stop fuelling the war in the first place by buying blood-soaked natural resources, he argues.

"Nkunda only has enough guns and grenades to take on the Congolese army and the U.N. because we buy his loot," he says. "We need to prosecute the corporations buying them for abetting crimes against humanity, and introduce a global coltan-tax to pay for a substantial peacekeeping force. To get there, we need to build an international system that values the lives of black people more than it values profit."

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