Renegade declares ceasefire

2004-06-01 10:39

Kigali, Rwanda - A renegade army commander declared a conditional ceasefire on Tuesday in eastern Congo after his troops pushed government forces from a strategic airport near Bukavu.

Brig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda said he would declare an end to the conflict after the government set up new security arrangements in Congo's troubled South Kivu province to prevent the persecution of the minority Tutsi community.

Nkunda said he ordered his troops to halt their advance 20 kilometres north of Bukavu to allow a Congolese vice-president to visit the city on Tuesday to look into grievances of the Tutsi community, known as the Banyamulenge.

Troops loyal to Nkunda, a commander in the former rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy, advanced on Bukavu after fighting broke out last week between rival factions of the Congolese army.

That violence erupted on Wednesday and pitted troops loyal to Brig. Gen. Mbuza Mabe, the commander of the army in South Kivu, against Banyamulenge fighters loyal to Col. Jules Mutebutsi. At least 27 people were killed and another 81 wounded in three days of clashes.

Banyamulenge residents fled Bukavu and others took shelter at UN compounds during the fighting after several were killed and detained by government troops.

"We were fighting because no one wanted to stop the genocide," Nkunda said.

Nkunda said he ordered troops to stop fighting after talks with Vice-President Azarias Ruberwa, a former rebel leader and a Banyamulenge, who "pleaded with us to observe a ceasefire and let him come to Bukavu to assess the situation".

But the ceasefire is conditional.

It include a demand for the recovery of the bodies of the Banyamulenge killed during the clashes, the return of those forced to flee their homes and the release of those detained by the government in prisons and unofficial facilities, said Nkunda.

"There should also be new security arrangements in Bukavu that would ensure that everyone can live in the city in peace," Nkunda said.

The war in Congo ended last June when the rebels and the government set up a transitional government in Kinshasa, Congo's capital. But eastern and northeastern Congo has remained volatile.

"What happens after this will determine whether we continue fighting or not," Nkunda said. "If they fail to solve this problem, I will solve it myself."

- AP