[NYTr] "State of War" in Easstern Congo

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

BBC via rick kissell - Sep 1, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6974362.stm


'State of war' in eastern Congo

A dissident Congolese army officer says there is a state of war between 
the government and his forces in the east of the Democratic Republic of 
Congo.

Speaking to the BBC, General Laurent Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi, accused 
the government of forming an alliance with Hutus to attack his troops.

Heavy fighting is reported in the Kivu region, with the Congolese army 
moving troops into the area.

The UN refugee agency says tens of thousands have fled from their homes.

The UNHCR says people are afraid of being caught between government 
forces, former Rwandan rebels and troops of General Nkunda.

Uneasy standoff

General Nkunda told the BBC his forces had handed over Rwandan Hutu
FDLR rebels to the UN peacekeeping mission, known as Monuc.

"For me it's a state of war... we have prisoners of war from the FDLR 
who were attacking with the government troops," he said.

He said he could not support a government that was working with Hutus 
and would not accept an order to disarm his forces.

The BBC's Africa analyst, Martin Plaut, says that the government and
the general are now well armed and supplied and an uneasy standoff is 
currently in place.

DR Congo Defence Minister Tshikez Djemu said that if soldiers allied to 
General Nkunda refused to lay down their arms, they would be considered 
bandits and be dealt with accordingly by the army.

Tension is nothing new to North Kivu but it has suddenly increased
after the government's decision to dismantle what are known as the
mixed brigades, our correspondent says.

These brigades, created earlier this year, were made up of government 
soldiers and more than 7,000 former rebels.

They joined the brigades on condition that they would remain deployed
as a group to protect their own community, the Tutsis, against Rwandan
Hutu rebels, some of whom took part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

But since the beginning of this year, military operations launched by 
the mixed brigades against the Hutu rebels have created more
instability and the UN says more than 170,000 civilians have been
displaced.

© BBC MMVII