AFP - Rwanda will begin withdrawing its troops next week from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a joint operation with Congolese forces against Rwandan Hutu rebels, a joint military spokesman said.
  
The Rwandan troops in Nord-Kivu province "have begun their disengagement," said Congloese Captain Olivier Amuli by telephone from regional capital Goma.
  
After a farewell ceremony on Wednesday, February 25, the Rwandan troops "will begin to return to Rwanda," which should take "two or three days," the spokesman said.
  
A farewell ceremony for the Rwandan troops will take place in Goma that day, including a "joint military parade," he added.
  
A spokesman for the DR Congo government, Lambert Mende, told AFP that several officials from both countries will attend the ceremony and that the joint operation "has achieved its objectives.
  
"We have smashed their command structure and general quarters, setting in motion the voluntary repatriation of up to 3,500 rebels, being sent home or going to be sent home," he said, adding that the DR Congo armed forces, the police and the United Nations will oversee their return.
  
No official comment was immediately available from Rwanda.
  
DR Congo President Joseph Kabila said last month that the Rwandan troops would leave his country by the end of February at the latest.
  
The two countries, in a surprise move, joined forces January 20 in the volatile Nord-Kivu region to drive out members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and repatriate civilians displaced by fighting.
  
Some 6,500 FDLR Hutu rebels staked out positions in DR Congo after fleeing there after the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which some of them participated.
  
While the joint chiefs-of-staff, based in the Nord-Kivu capital of Goma, have not yet released any exhaustive reports or tolls, they said Friday they were positive the operation was achieving what it set out to accomplish.
  
"The objective is nearly reached," according to a statement from Kigali that said troops had destroyed the "main FDLR bases."
  
Diplomatic sources cautioned that despite the apparent success of the operation between two parties who have clashed in the past, the rebels retain the capacity to cause trouble in the region.
  
More than 600 rebels have turned themselves in but their forces still have a "significant" ability to inflict harm in the region, according to a Western diplomatic source.
  
Last week, Radio Rwanda said that Lieutenant Colonel Edmond Ngarambe, the FDLR military spokesman had turned himself in with other rebel fighters.
  
Ngarambe and other senior FDLR commanders -- including Vital Uwumuremyi and Pontien Nkeramihigo -- were currently being held in Rwanda's Rubavu district, near the Congolese border.
  
A statement read by a man presented by the radio as Ngarambe urged remaining FDLR fighters to "immediately lay down arms and peacefully return to Rwanda.
  
"I launch a special appeal to (Ignace) Murwanashyaka and (Sylvestre) Mudacumura to authorise FDLR combatants to return to Rwanda. The Congolese regime and people are now against the FDLR," it said
  
Murwanashyaka is the Germany-based chairman of the FDLR and Mudacumura is the rebel group's commander in chief.
  
Civilians had been hit meanwhile by rebel reprisal attacks, according to Human Rights Watch, which said that at least 100 people were "massacred" by FDLR forces between January 20 and February 8.
  
Once Rwandan troops do leave, DR Congo's forces -- left with the formidable task of maintaining order in the war-torn region -- will be over-stretched, a diplomatic source said Friday.
  
The Congolese army "will have to hold the positions taken from FDLR and continue its own operations in Sud-Kivu," said the diplomat, who did not think it could count on the support of other rebels recently integrated to its ranks.
  
In this case, another joint operation by Kinshasa and Kigali would "altogether possible", the diplomat said.