"Both Hema and Lendu militias have been used as proxy fighting forces by Rwanda and Uganda, who got mixed up in Congo's war since its start in 1998"
Fresh tribal fighting erupts in Congo's Bunia
KINSHASA, May 27 (Reuters) - Rival tribal militia clashed on Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern town of Bunia, despite a truce to halt ethnic bloodletting that has left hundreds of people dead this month, U.N. officials said.
U.N. commander Colonel Daniel Vollot told Reuters from Bunia that five Lendu militiamen were killed and three Hema wounded in the fighting.
A U.N. spokeswoman said a 14-year old boy covered with burns had arrived at Bunia's overstretched hospital on Tuesday, saying his parents had been killed by unidentified militiamen and his village, six km (four miles) to the south, had been burned down.
Militias linked to the Lendu and Hema tribes have long battled for supremacy in the mineral-rich Ituri area, which has suffered most of the worst atrocities in Congo's 4-1/2 year war.
The U.N. mission in Bunia found more than 300 bodies after drugged fighters armed with machetes, spears and arrows went on a killing spree earlier this month. Many of the corpses had parts missing after what some suspect to be cannibal butchery.
A ceasefire came into effect on May 17 but sporadic fighting has continued, threatening to derail a fragile political accord for a transitional government aimed at ending Congo's war.
The U.N. has called for a multinational force to intervene. Its small mission in Bunia, with neither the mandate nor the firepower to stop the violence. Britain, France and South Africa have said they would consider sending troops.
Both Hema and Lendu militias have been used as proxy fighting forces by Rwanda and Uganda, who got mixed up in Congo's war since its start in 1998.
Aid agencies say tribal fighting over land and resources in the Ituri region has killed about 50,000 people, mainly civilians, since June 1999, and forced about 500,000 to flee the province.
05/27/03 14:52 ET
