Civilians flee as Congo rebels attack By ANITA POWELL, Associated Press Writer Anita Powell, Associated Press Writer – 10 mins ago [image: Congolese people displaced by fighting carry bags of blankets distributed by aid] <http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Congolese-people-displaced-fighting-carry-bags-blankets-distributed-aid-workers/photo//081126/481/5b85c0227048429e9eeb930b1e9d1ad6//s:/ap/20081126/ap_on_re_af/af_congo_fighting;_ylt=AvOacbNRoD3yaxXZZBmY.icV6w8F> AP – Congolese people displaced by fighting carry bags of blankets distributed by aid workers at the stadium …
- [image: Democratic Republic of Congo] <http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Democratic-Republic-Congo/ss/events/wl/072606congo;_ylt=AtBF8.O2uKJ0izSYB1tYrkQV6w8F> *Slideshow:* Democratic Republic of Congo <http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Democratic-Republic-Congo/ss/events/wl/072606congo;_ylt=Ah8wJjrO5_wmRkD_6zUnqpoV6w8F> - [image: Elders on Zimbabwe crisis] Play Video <http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=At2iDDCc3AUcM_mLpMelAKoV6w8F/SIG=12fonc7vs/**http%3A//cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews%3Fch=4226714%26cl=10821446%26lang=en> *Video:* Elders on Zimbabwe crisis <http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=ArKFyo9a8wenLpZ2CeIomfQV6w8F/SIG=12fonc7vs/**http%3A//cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews%3Fch=4226714%26cl=10821446%26lang=en> BBC <http://news.yahoo.com/i/2919;_ylt=Aqk.N41fCZFGzst.FEIYHG4V6w8F> - [image: Kofi Annan's fears for Zimbabwe] Play Video <http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AuoDwtDigRrTvaQikKoHQ2cV6w8F/SIG=12f11gb9m/**http%3A//cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews%3Fch=4226714%26cl=10817462%26lang=en> *Video:* Kofi Annan's fears for Zimbabwe <http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AtGiuF7s62705NZqiSAzoKgV6w8F/SIG=12f11gb9m/**http%3A//cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews%3Fch=4226714%26cl=10817462%26lang=en> BBC <http://news.yahoo.com/i/2919;_ylt=AoWz7FJbQasxgvYcmz70XEsV6w8F> GOMA, Congo – A rebel offensive against Hutu militiamen in eastern Congo has forced more than 1,300 civilians to flee to neighboring Uganda in the last three days, insurgents and U.N. officials said late Wednesday. Rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa said the insurgents began an offensive Saturday in the town of Ishasha in an effort to push some 1,500 Hutu militiamen, many of whom are believed to be Rwandan exiles, out of Congo. U.N. officials said they had opened investigations into whether war crimeshave been committed in eastern Congo, pointing to evidence of targeted killings. And U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a report to the Security Council, recommended U.N. peacekeepers should remain in Congo through 2009. "The forced displacement of populations and evidence of the targeted killings of civilians are alarming. In the current climate, the possibility of massacres of civilians cannot be ruled out," Ban said in the report. Ishasha, which lies along Congo's border with Uganda, is about 35 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of the de facto rebel capital, Rutshuru. Bisimwa characterized the area as lawless and full of hideouts used by the Hutu militia, which is believed to comprise former Hutu fighters from Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which Hutu militias led the killings of more than 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. "There is no government army there," Bisimwa said. "There is only (Hutu militiamen). We wanted to secure our population there. We want this (Hutu militia) to leave this area." The rebel army, led by Laurent Nkunda, has sworn to hunt down Hutu militiamen hiding in Congo. He said the rebel army believed there to be two battalions, or about 1,500 soldiers, from the Hutu militia in the area. He said the rebels would continue their advance against the militia, which he referred to by their French acronym, which stands for the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda. "We are continuing until we are sure that the FDLR leave all our areas around Rutshuru," he said. "The people who are there, they are afraid of the FDLR and they are taken hostage by the FDLR. These FDLR use the people so we can't shoot them. They take the population and they use them like human shields." Bisimwa said the offensive did not constitute a violation of the rebels' unilateral cease-fire. "We said this cease-fire involved only us and this government army," he said. U.N. refugee spokesman David Nthengwe said that 15,000 people have fled Congo for Uganda in the past three months, after fighting intensified in August. "These people have been crossing into Uganda since the fighting in Rutshuru began," he said. "That has been pushing people into Uganda." He said refugees were being aided by representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refuges in camps and settlements, but many refugees had crossed back into Congo. Low-level fighting among armed groups has ground on for years in Congo's lawless North Kivu province, but violence sharply escalated in August and has since displaced 250,000 people. Many of the Hutu extremists who orchestrated the mass killings have remained in Congo, prompting Tutsi-led Rwanda to invade the mineral-rich nation twice. Nkunda, who quit Congo's army in 2004, has taken up the cause. He claims he is fighting to protect Tutsis, who like Hutus are a minority and one of an estimated 200 ethnic groups in Congo. ___ Associated Press Writer John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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