Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- A Rwandan Hutu militia in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has taken control of a corridor vacated by dissident General Laurent Nkunda’s rebels, said international mediators should include it in peace talks.

“It’s a mistake not to speak to us, because we have a role to play in pacifying the area,” Colonel Edmond Garambe, the military spokesman for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, said in an interview yesterday in Masisi, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. “’We are ready to respond to all questions. We will explain what we want.”

Rwandan Hutu extremists fled into Congo 14 years ago after being involved in the killing of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the genocide in Rwanda. There are about 6,000 FDLR fighters in the Congo, according to the United Nations. Nkunda has called for action to end the insecurity in the region, which he says is being created by the Rwandan militia.

The foreign ministers of Congo and neighboring Rwanda were meeting in Goma today, as mediators Olusegun Obasanjo and Benjamin Mkapa, both former African presidents, press for negotiations between the government and the Nkunda’s rebels.

“We agreed that the Congolese will present us with a comprehensive plan for the dismantling of the FDLR,” Rosemary Museminali, Rwanda’s foreign minister, said today in interviews with the British Broadcasting Corp. before going into a meeting with her Congolese counterpart Alexis Thambwe Mwamba. “ This for us is something that is very important. They (the FDLR) are actually the root of all this insecurity that is around.”

Supporting Nkunda

Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting Nkunda, a claim denied by the government in Kigali. Rwanda’s intervention in previous rebellions in Congo contributed to two civil wars in which at least 4 million people died, mainly from disease and starvation.

The latest round of clashes between government forces and Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, began Aug. 28, with the rebels coming to within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of Goma. A quarter of a million people have fled the fighting and atrocities in the region, according to the UN. Unable to access their fields, civilians rely on humanitarian aid in refugee camps.

Rwanda accuses the Congo government of collaborating with the FDLR. Garambe, who walked through Masisi town yesterday with Congolese army commanders, denied this.

“Currently, there are no relations with the government,” he said. “It’s not their love that keeps us here, it’s that they can’t do anything against us.”

Gold Mines

Geramde also denied a claim by international campaigners Global Witness that the FDLR live in the forests in Kivu, where their leaders control gold mines.

“We live off agriculture and small-scale commerce,” he said.

Rwanda is not an open democracy where the FDLR could return peacefully and participate in political life, Garambe said.

“Our goal is to return home and to see a democracy in Rwanda,” Garambe said. “There needs to be a platform for everyone.”

Garambe, who uses a nom de guerre to protect his real identity, is on a list of 49 people said to be threatening Rwanda’s security, he said in the interview. His sister was killed when caught trying to escape jail, where she was being held on genocide charges. His father is also in prison in Rwanda, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Franz Wild in Kinshasa via the Johannesburg bureau on abolleurs@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 4, 2008 09:44 EST