UN troops under fire in DRC
2004-06-03 16:00
Kinshasa - UN forces opened fire on angry mobs, killing two people, as massive, looting protests overran the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital on Thursday in outrage at the fall of an eastern border city, in the worst unrest in Africa's third-largest nation since the close of its 1998-2002 war.
Two renegade eastern commanders pledged to end their one-day takeover of Bukavu, on the DRC's eastern border with Rwanda, raising hopes that the crisis could be defused.
"We shall withdraw ... to assure the transitional government that we are not opposed to it," said General Laurent Nkunda, one of two commanders who broke from ranks of the post-war government's forces on Wednesday to seize Bukavu.
In Kinshasa, mobs between many tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands turned their anger on DRC's government and the country's 10 800-strong UN force for allowing Bukavu's fall.
They include mote than 1 300 about South African soldiers.
"The state is dead!" protesters armed with wooden clubs cried, in protests that broke out citywide at daybreak. "We will punish the United Nations ourselves."
UN troops fired upon massive throngs that broke down the main door of a UN logistics base and stormed the building at midday on Thursday, UN Congo mission spokesperson Hamadoun Toure said.
'Legitimate self-defence'
"They entered, and there were very many of them," Toure said. UN forces fired "for reasons of legitimate self-defence."
The gunfire killed two protesters and wounded a third, the UN
spokesperson said.
Separately, Congolese security forces fired - apparently into the air - to hold back tens of thousands who besieged UN mission headquarters in the heart of Kinshasa, trapping UN workers inside.
Shattered glass and hurled rocks and wood surrounded the cordons of DRC troops.
Shots sounded citywide, sending panicked throngs fleeing when rifles blasted nearby.
The protests were the most tumultuous in the DRC's teeming, refugee-crowded capital since at least 1997, when longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko fell, launching the country into the 1998-2002 war.
On Wednesday, DRC President Joseph Kabila accused Rwanda, the country's main foreign adversary in the war, in Bukavu's capture, and declared a state of emergency and a "general mobilisation" of citizens and resources nationwide.
But Kinshasa protesters denounced Kabila's weak post-war government, calling Kabila a traitor.
"Kabila is an accomplice of Rwanda," some protesters cried.
Rwanda strongly denied involvement in the fall of Bukavu, whose captors were both former members of a rebel force allied to Rwanda in the DRC's war.
Bukavu
In Bukavu, Nkunda said he had promised UN officials to quarter his troops and turn control over to them, allowing UN demilitarisation of the city.
The other commander in the takeover, Colonel Jules Mutebutsi told The Associated Press he also was pulling his troops out of Bukavu.
UN spokesperson Sebastien Lapierre, though, said he could not confirm the plan.
"Apparently he said he would remove some troops. At this stage I'm trying to confirm if this is true, how many troops will be withdrawn, and where they will be (based)," said Lapierre.
In Bukavu, UN medical workers at a clinic treated three women - including a 15-year-old and a pregnant woman - for severe injuries in their rape early Thursday.
Residents threw stones at UN vehicles and threatened to lynch UN workers in Bukavu's Kadugu neighbourhood, which was especially hard hit by the renegade soldiers. UN observers were being withdrawn from some outlying outposts for their security, a UN official said on condition of anonymity.
Anti UN-protests also were reported in western cities outside the capital.
- AP