UN to help DRC disarm rebels
2007-11-22 15:25
Kinshasa - United Nations peacekeepers will help Democratic Republic of Congo's army disarm eastern dissident groups by force in violence-plagued North Kivu province, say United Nations and Congolese commanders.
Army soldiers and fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda clashed again on Thursday a few miles from Rutshuru, where the dissidents attacked an army base a day earlier and forced thousands of civilians to flee.
General Babacar Gaye, military chief of the UN peace mission, Monuc, said: "Now that all peaceful means have been explored with no result ... we will enter into a phase, where there is no other solution than to constrain them to (reintegrate) without delay or conditions."
The army had battled renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda since he abandoned a peace deal in August, raiding government positions and forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee.
Kabila delays military offensives
Under diplomatic pressure to find a peaceful solution to the North Kivu crisis, President Joseph Kabila delayed a planned military offensive against Nkunda last month but ordered the rebels to disband and reintegrate the national army.
However, only a few hundred fighters had so far deserted Nkunda's ranks, believed to total about 4 000, and Congolese army chief of staff General Dieudonne Kayembe said the time had come to launch operations against the rebels.
He said: "I have come here precisely in order to establish plans for constraint, for the use of force. We will carry out this work of conceiving, of planning, with Monuc."
The operations would also target local Mai Mai militia, and Hutu-dominated Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels also present in North Kivu, said Gaye and Kayembe.
370 000 flee fighting
Monuc's 17 000-strong force had a mandate to operate with the army to re-establish security and protect civilians, but UN sources said for the time being it would limit its role to planning and logistical support for Congolese operations.
More than 370 000 civilians had fled fighting in the area this year.
Monuc denounced Wednesday's assault on an army base in Rutshuru, 50km north of the provincial capital, Goma, as a war crime, and said Nkunda's forces deliberately employed heavy weapons in a populated area.
UN soldiers and attack helicopters were readied to prevent the town falling to rebels and Nkunda's fighters later withdrew.
A spokesperson for Nkunda said the raid was a counter-offensive after an army attack on rebel positions.
Last week, Nkunda's men targeted a military installation near a group of refugee camps just 10km outside Goma, forcing as many as 30 000 displaced to flee once again.
Nkunda had led a rebellion since 2004 and said he was defending the interests of his Tutsi ethnic group in eastern DRC. He accused the army of siding with the Tutsis' FDLR foes.