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KAMPALA, Oct 12 (AFP) - The U.N. Observer Mission on Uganda-Rwanda border (UNOMUR), has started its work, the Canadian mission chief, Brigadier-General Romeo Dallaire, announced here on Tuesday.
Dallaire told a press conference here that the team of 81 military and 17 civilian personnel were now in place at the mission's operational headquarters in the southern Ugandan town of Kabale, about 350 kilometres (219 miles) south west of the capital, Kampala.
The mission was set up by a June 22 U.N. Security Council resolution following charges by Rwanda that Uganda was aiding the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which invaded Rwanda from Uganda in October 1990.
The Ugandan government has repeatedly denied the accusations and called for the establishment a neutral multi-national force to monitor the two countries common border.
Earlier attempts by Uganda and Rwanda to monitor their common border failed as a result of mutual mistrust between the two countries.
The observer mission, which will spend some six million U.S dollars during the operation, expected to last four to five months, was drawn from Angola, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Netherlands, Senegal and Zimbwabwe.
The mission is to help the tiny central African nation of 7.5 million people to implement a fragile peace accord concluded on August 4 at Arusha in northern Tanzania. The RPF consists mainly of Tutsis, who were traditionally the ruling minority, until the Hutu people rose up against them.
The agreement called for demobilisation of combatant troops within a period of between 12 and 15 months.
Last month, both the Rwandan government and RPF rebel representatives met at the United Nations in New York and reportedly pledged to support the peace process that is expected to end the bloodshed that has dogged the country for more than three decades due to animosity between the Tutsis and the Hutus.
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