Fighting Resumes In Congo

JOHANNESBURG - Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Saturday recaptured a town on the border with Zambia, a spokesman for the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), told AFP from Sun City in South Africa, the venue for the DRC peace talks. Rwanda, which closely supports the RCD, said it had played no role in the action and denied France’s public accusation that 10,000 of its troops were involved in fighting in the DRC. In Kinshasa, however, Deputy Defence Minister Irung Ilunga Awan said DRC government troops had been ordered to pull back from the town and charged that Rwanda had been flying and shipping soldiers down towards it since March 9. RCD spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba also denied that Rwanda took part in the recapture of Moliro, which lies near the foot of Lake Tanganyika. He said the Kinshasa government troops and Burundian Hutu rebels fighting on the government side had fled into Zambia. “We have been there since nine o’clock this morning,” he said. “We were also fighting the Burundian (rebel) Forces for the Defence of Democracy . They had two battalions. “I don’t have details of casualties, but what is known is that they fled into Zambia, so there were no big battles.” Democratic Republic of Congo Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu on Saturday denounced “attacks by the Rwandan Patriotic Army” in the eastern DRC and warned of a serious threat to internal DRC peace talks. “For three days, since March 14, Rwandan battalions have been on our territory in Bukavu in Sud-Kivu province,” Okitundu said, two days after Kinshasa suspended participation in the peace talks because of “massive attacks.” He said “attacks by the APR (Rwandan army) and troops of the (rebel) Congolese Democratic Rally (RCD) on Moliro have been “confirmed by several authoritative sources, including the French ambassador to the United Nations, Mr David Levitte.” Rwandan military officials have denied any part in the fighting at Moliro, a strategic supply route town on Lake Tanganyika close to the Zambian border, but Kinshasa said the fighting could derail the Inter-Congolese Dialogue under way in Sun City, South Africa. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Saturday he was “extremely concerned” about the capture of a Congolese town. AFPEnds