[NYTr] Rebel Congo general warns of 'war'

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Steven Robinson

Al Jazeera - Sep 2, 2007
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/61ECBB18-A248-4466-A919-E8D0781797AB.htm

Rebel Congo general warns of 'war'

A renegade Congolese general has said his forces are now in a state of
war with government troops after sporadic fighting forced tens of
thousands to flee the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Laurent Nkunda told Al Jazeera he blamed the government for the recent
outbreak of violence and warned a genocide could take place in eastern
Congo.

"We are surrounded by government forces and they launched an attack
three days ago. The government has chosen the way to fight and not the
way of peace talks," he said on Sunday.

The UN has sent an extra 200 soldiers to the east of the country amid
fears of a looming humanitarian crisis.

'Negative forces'

Nkunda says he is protecting his own minority ethnic Tutsi population in
North and South Kivu provinces from locally based Rwandan Hutu fighters,
whom he has accused the Kinshasa government of backing.

In 2004, he led two army brigades, around 4,000 men, into the bush and
briefly captured Bukavu, the capital of neighbouring South Kivu.

The rebel general is wanted by the UN for alleged war crimes and is
considered by them one of the most wanted regional commanders still at
large in the country.

"We were in a ceasefire in January. But what is happening on the ground
is that the government has put an end to that process, " he told Al
Jazeera.

"We are afraid that because the government is working with negative
forces in Rwanda that were responsible for the genocide there that they
want to kill our people in North Kivu.

"I'm fearing that those negative forces want to do a genocide in Congo."

Chikez Diemu, the Congolese defence minister, told Al Jazeera:
"Everybody knows Mr Nkunda is a criminal. Everybody knows he has killed
people."

Diemu insisted that the army had not been sent to fight but carry out an
agreed programme to integrate Nkunda's forces into the army.

Regional threat

After previous bouts of fierce fighting last year between the regular
army and forces loyal to Nkunda, the two sides agreed to integrate the
mainly Tutsi forces into special "mixed" brigades in Nord-Kivu.

Five such brigades have been deployed since January but UN monitors say
this has only worsened the situation.

Colonel Philemon Kav, an army brigade commander, said Nkunda's forces
sustained "heavy losses" when they launched a pre-dawn offensive on
Thursday in a bid to overrun at a key post south of Masisi, the main
regional town.

Losses denied

Nkunda denied the claim, saying: "We have not taken many casualties and
morale is high."

He also warned that the conflict could spiral out of control and
threaten regional security.

The UN says more than 170,000 civilians have been displaced in fighting
in the region since the beginning of the year.

On Thursday, witnesses said that the population's of entire towns had
fled the fighting.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies