Kabila vows to restore order
2007-09-13 20:29
Kinshasa - President Joseph Kabila has vowed on Thursday to bring order to the Democratic Republic of Congo's Nord-Kivu region where government troops have been fighting a renegade general for weeks.
If Laurent Nkunda refuses to join a national army reform process, "we must establish the authority of the state in the east using all possible means," Kabila told a news conference at the presidential palace in Kinshasa.
Government forces clashed with troops loyal to Nkunda in the Nord-Kivu territories of Masisi and Rutshuru between August 27 and September 6, when a fragile truce was agreed upon under pressure from the United Nations.
The truce came as Nkunda's men threatened to seize Sake, the main strategic town after the regional capital Goma, following a retreat by government forces.
"The army reform process is the solution," said Kabila. "I will not allow anybody, any individual or community, to form a militia. This is impossible, unacceptable.
"Just because my community is supposedly under threat, I' ll form a militia," he added, in a reference to Nkunda who has said he will protect minority Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu rebels ransacking eastern DR Congo.
- SAPA