DATE=11/7/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO REBELS (L-O)
NUMBER=2-255908
BYLINE=JOHN PITMAN
DATELINE=ABIDJAN
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: In Congo-Kinshasa, the battered Lusaka peace
accord has taken another blow. One of the main rebel
faction leaders says a series of recent government
attacks on rebel positions had violated the cease-
fire, which he declared null and void. Correspondent
John Pitman has details from our West Africa Bureau.
TEXT: Rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, of the
Congolese Liberation Movement says the truce which
went into effect in August has been violated so many
times by the government that it no longer applies.
Speaking to several international news agencies, Mr.
Bemba accused Congolese government troops of attacking
his positions in north-western Congo on several
occasions, including a bombing raid on his
headquarters, Gbadolite.
He said the most recent attack occurred on Friday,
near the town of Dongo, and that from now on his
troops would resume their offensive against the
government.
The Kisangani faction of the Congolese Rally has also
reportedly echoed Mr. Bemba's rejection of the Lusaka
cease-fire agreement for Democracy.
The Rally's main faction, based in the eastern
Congolese town of Goma, is said to share Mr. Bemba's
frustration with the government's alleged cease-fire
violations. But the Goma faction has not yet joined
Mr. Bemba in trashing the Lusaka accord.
Mr. Bemba's claim that his troops have restarted their
offensive against President Laurent Kabila has not
been independently confirmed. It also remains unclear
if the rebel leader's rejection of the ceasefire is
shared by his main foreign backer, Uganda.
An Ugandan official told the Reuters news agency that
Kampala is still committed to the cease-fire.
Reaction from President Kabila's government has been
slow in coming. But Kinshasa has also complained
about rebel violations of the cease-fire, and last
week, the government threatened to resume its
offensive if the rebels' foreign allies - Rwanda and
Uganda - do not leave the Congo by January first.
/// REST OPT ///
The government has also accused the rebels of
massacring civilians in the eastern regions they
control-another violation of the Lusaka accord.
In a report released Saturday, the Kinshasa government
said it had information about 13 alleged rebel
massacres -- the most recent, the alleged murder of up
to 100 people near the town of Uvira on October 23rd.
The government's minister of human rights, Leonard She
Okitundu, says most of the victims in the town of
Kahungwe were women and children. In an angry
statement, Mr. Okitundu called for the U-N Security
Council to investigate the charges, and accused the
world body of not caring about civilian deaths in the
Congo.
Allegations of rebel massacres against civilians in
eastern Congo are not new. But until now, the rebels
have dismissed the Kinshasa government's accusations
as propaganda. But the government's most recent
allegations have also been made by a private human
rights group based in the Congolese capital.
Two-days before the government released its study, a
Kinshasa-based human rights group called ASADHO
published a report that accused the rebels of, in its
words, creating a climate of terror in areas under its
control. The report said human rights workers, who
were often threatened by rebel authorities, had
uncovered evidence of increasingly frequent rebel
attacks against civilians.
Since the beginning of the war in August 1998, the
rebels and the government have both been tarred by
reports of civilian massacres behind their lines.
Insecurity throughout the country has prevented
international investigators from visiting the alleged
crime scenes. (SIGNED)
NEB/JP/DW/RAE
07-Nov-1999 13:10 PM EDT (07-Nov-1999 1810 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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