U.N. Says It Can’t Force Hutu Rebels to Disarm

The United Nations said it could not forcibly disarm rebels accused of taking part in Rwanda’s genocide, amid anger that 25 militiamen it interviewed later fled with their weapons.

Rwanda has complained that neither U.N. troops nor the Congolese are rooting out extremist Hutu rebels who fled to Congo after the 1994 genocide in which about 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, died in 100 days of ethnic slaughter.

The latest row centers on 25 Rwandan rebels who were surrounded by Congolese forces Sunday and interviewed by U.N. civilians. But the rebels held on to their weapons and escaped the next day.