Kabila wants UN sanctions on Uganda

UNITED NATIONS, Wednesday - Protesting recent military offensives by Rwanda and Uganda, the Congo on Tuesday urged the U.N. Security Council to impose arms and trade embargoes against its two central African neighbors. "My government urges the Security Council to react with vigor in keeping with its primary mission as guarantor of peace and international security," said Atokie Ileka, acting ambassador for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ileka, in a letter, said the 15-nation council should cut off arms shipments to Uganda and Rwanda, ban trade and financial dealings with the two nations and freeze diplomatic ties of both countries with U.N. member governments. But diplomats said there was little chance the council would take such action. The Uganda Army spokesman, Major Phinehas Katirima, said yesterday Kabila's call was a lone voice in the wilderness. " Our presence in Congo has been understood by the international community. We are there for our security concerns. The formula to sort that out is for the United Nations to deploy in Congo, then we withdraw. We are still waiting for the UN to do that," said Katirima. The letter accused the two nations and the Congolese rebels they support of mounting fresh attacks in its Katanga and Equateur provinces in the north and southeast despite a 1998 cease-fire agreement reached in Zambia's capital, Lusaka. But the Rwandan army said on Sunday in Kigali that it had come under attack from Congolese government troops trying to retake a rebel-held position in Katanga province. Military sources in Kigali said Congolese forces had also launched attacks at Kasinge, Kabalo and Manono, also in Katanga province, in a move which analysts feared could further escalate the war. REUTERS