Gunbattle reveals tensions in Congo's lawless east
By Dino Mahtani
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Government troops battled fighters loyal to a former rebel leader in Bukavu in eastern Congo, killing one, U.N. officials said Thursday in the latest sign of serious rifts threatening peace in the region.
The hour-long gunfight highlighted the challenges facing U.N. troops charged with cementing a fragile peace process in the central African country's mineral-rich east where rag-tag armed groups with entrenched loyalties and separate agendas roam.
Wednesday's gunbattle was between troops loyal to Gen. Prosper Nabyolwa, the military commander of South Kivu province, and soldiers loyal to Col. Georges Mirindi, a former Rwandan-backed rebel and now brigade leader in Congo's new army.
"This is more than just a spat. These are two opposing currents in the bid for politico-military dominance," said a western diplomat in the capital Kinshasa.
Under a peace deal to end Congo's five-year civil war, a power-sharing government has been set up and the warring factions are being integrated into a new army.
But success will depend on securing the loyalty of the men with guns -- including some 15,000 Rwandan Hutu rebels, many of whom were involved in the 1994 genocide in their country, who are still based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sebastian Lapierre, U.N. spokesman in Bukavu, said one of Mirindi's soldiers was killed in the shootout and a civilian was injured when a rocket hit a transit center for refugees.
"Today the situation is calm," he said. "The U.N. is present in the area to observe and deter any further action."
There have been long-standing tensions between Nabyolwa and Mirindi and also between the former and South Kivu's governor Xavier Ciribanya Cirimwami. Both the governor and Mirindi are former members of the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebels.
Congo's civil war claimed more than three million lives, mainly through hunger and disease and drew in fighters from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and other neighboring countries.
The conflict was declared over last July but sporadic clashes have continued in the east. The United Nations has sent some 10,800 peacekeepers to the country.
02/05/04 11:04 ET
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