* Says option to pull out peacekeepers still open
* Welcomes report but says still flawed in methodology
(Adds Rwanda Foreign Minister quotes)
By Hereward Holland
KIGALI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Rwanda said on Friday it had the right to review future engagements with the U.N. and warned that a report accusing its troops of committing atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo could harm regional stability.
The United Nations released a report on Friday documenting hundreds of atrocities in the former Zaire between 1993 and 2003 [ID:nLDE690135]
In August, Rwanda threatened to pull its 3,500 U.N. peacekeepers out of Sudan's western Darfur region after a leak suggested the report had found its forces committed genocide.
"Rwanda will continue to defend herself against all attempts to rewrite our history in any form and in any forum, including reserving the right to review our various engagements with the U.N.," Louise Mushikiwabo, Foreign Minister and government spokeswoman, said in a statement.
President Paul Kagame withdrew Rwanda's threat and decided to keep its troops in Darfur after consultations with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. [ID:nN24192870]
Friday's report said only a court could determine whether the violence against Hutus amounted to genocide in a text which watered down language on genocide in the leaked draft.
"It seems clear that no amount of tinkering can resuscitate the credibility of this fundamentally misguided process," Mushikiwabo said.
"This report is yet another attempt to distort Rwanda's history and prolong instability in the Great Lakes Region."
NOTHING'S OFF THE TABLE
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Mushikiwabo said they needed time to read the revised report and that the option of pulling out peacekeepers for Rwanda was a legitimate response given the seriousness of the accusations.
"So as far as accusations that the Rwandese Defense Forces of deliberate killings of its citizens in the DRC or anywhere else, nothing is off the table," she told Reuters.
"The eventual pull-out of our troops will not be the only thing we would do if Rwanda was to find in this report that there are accusations of deliberate killings by the same troops that are keeping peace all over the world."
Rwanda filed seven objections to the leaked report, which were published alongside the final document. Mushikiwabo said she welcomed some changes to the report but said it remained deeply flawed in its methodology.
Among the changes in the report are that the revised version distanced itself from accusations of genocide and that it now brought in context that was missing from the draft report, Mushikiwabo said.
"What we dispute is accusations of deliberate killings of Rwandan citizens in the DR Congo. It is just another attempt to rewrite the history of this country," she said.
"It's a hint at double genocide. I believe that the Rwandan troops never deliberately went after innocent civilians." (Editing by George Obulutsa and Philippa Fletcher)
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