GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — Congolese rebel forces said Monday they had taken new territory and threatened more attacks against government troops as a UN envoy warned against expecting quick results from a peace mission.
A day after renegade general Laurent Nkunda said he wanted peace talks, his spokesman said the rebels had repelled the Democratic Republic of Congo army in the latest fighting and now controlled all the area around the town of Rwindi.
"Our troops control all of the Rwindi zone" in eastern Nord Kivu province, Nkunda spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa told AFP.
The UN's peacekeeping mission, MONUC, said the rebels had violated their own ceasefire in launching Sunday's attacks, in which peacekeepers found themselves caught in crossfire. One Indian peacekeeper was reported wounded.
Aid agencies are concerned that the continued fighting is making the plight of an estimated 250,000 displaced people in eastern Congo increasingly desperate.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 18 other rights groups on Monday urged the UN's Human Rights Council to convene a special session on the crisis, which had already taken a "devastating toll" on civilians.
"Everything possible should be done to prevent a further deterioration of an already dire situation," they said in a letter to Martin Uhomoibi, the Human Rights Council's president.
A military court in Goma sentenced four government soldiers to life in prison on Monday, after government forces went on a rampage of looting as they fled advancing rebels north of Goma last month.
One of the four was jailed for rape, the others for deserting their posts and embarking on a looting spree. A fifth soldier was sentenced to six months for wounding a civilian. Three others accused of looting were acquitted.
The rebels insist they have respected a ceasefire they declared on October 29 and that any clashes have come as a response to attacks by government forces.
While MONUC said Monday that rebel forces had shown "restraint" in the face of provocative firing by government forces around Rwindi, it added that Sunday's fighting was a clear breach of the ceasefire.
"MONUC condemns these violations on the ground and invites the parties to respect the ceasefire so as not to further worsen the humanitarian situation," it said.
Meanwhile, shuttle diplomacy to try to end the fighting continued. Britain's minister with responsibility for Africa Mark Malloch-Brown began a three-day trip, during which he was to meet President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa and visit the flashpoint city of Goma, threatened by the rebels.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon earlier this month as a peace envoy for Congo, said Nkunda wants international guarantees that his forces can integrate into the national army.
"He is talking about the integration of his soldiers into the national army and he is even ready to continue serving in the army, a career he loves," Obasanjo told reporters in Nairobi a day after meeting Nkunda deep inside rebel-held territory.
In an interview broadcast Monday, Obasanjo insisted Nkunda was someone he could do business with but said his mediation efforts could not be expected to yield instant results.
"I believe he's a reasonable man that can listen and react to persuasion," he told the BBC.
He also played down expectations of immediate results following his visit.
"You don't come on one visit and bring about solution to a problem that has been there since 1960," he said.
"That problem is still here today and you think that one visit will solve it? Anyone who would bring that about would be God."
Malloch-Brown, like other international peace envoys, will also visit Kigali for talks with senior Rwandan officials on Wednesday. Rwanda is accused of supporting Nkunda's forces.
The European Commission warned Monday against focusing too much attention on Nord-Kivu while the need for humanitarian aid elsewhere in the country was "perhaps more urgent"
"We are worried that aid workers are neglecting other regions" of the country, said Patrick Lambrechts, head of the EU's humanitarian aid programme for the country.
He said between 50,000-60,000 people are currently displaced around Dungu, capital of Haut-Vele province, following an attack at the beginning of November by Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
