UN condemns fighting in eastern DR Congo

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has condemned the continued fighting which recently claimed nearly 50 lives in the troubled eastern region of the country.

At the weekly press briefing on Wednesday, the military spokesman for the UN Organization Mission (MONUC) deplored the clashes in Mahagi district, Ituri Province, between the Front des Nationalistes et Intégrationnistes (FNI) and the Forces Armées du Peuple Congolais (FAPC).

"The fighting allegedly left 48 dead, including 27 FNI members, 14 FAPC members and four civilians," said Maj. Abou Thiam.

In that context, MONUC's Kivu Brigade sent a liaison patrol to Minova to meet with a dissident leader who left the DRC's armed forces (FARDC), Gen. Laurent Nkunda, and to question him about "allegations of children's recruitment, tax deductions for war effort, the putting-in-place of a parallel administration and bellicose inclinations towards Bukavu."

General dismissed the allegations and repeated pledges of loyalty to the Transitional Government of President Joseph Kabila, but he was warned that MONUC would use ''appropriate retaliatory action'' in the case of any new attack on Bukavu, Major Thiam said.

The General and his fellow rebels briefly took Bukavu city in June, claiming mistreatment of their Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi) ethnic group, and, according to a MONUC report, have placed combatants on the two roads leading to the university town.

The Kivu Brigade, meanwhile, distributed the Congolese National Examination papers to several towns, including Minova, Major Thiam said.

According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, many refugee children returned home from camps in Burundi to take the examination.

MONUC spokesman Hamadoun Touré hailed the installation of the new Bunia district commissioner, Pétronille Vaweka, and four other administrators, with the mission's help.

"This is a meaningful step towards the reunification of the territory," he said, noting that the inauguration of the new administration marked the end of the emergency administration in Ituri Province.

Meanwhile, with MONUC's current mandate set to expire at the end of this month, mission chief William Lacy Swing left the DRC's capital, Kinshasa, for UN Headquarters in New York for consultations.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is slated to submit a new report on the mission's operations to the Security Council, Mr. Touré said. "The Security Council will then determine what additional resources to make available to MONUC so it can better fulfil its mandate."