DATE=11/26/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO / REBELS / U-N (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256550
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KIGALI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations observer mission to Congo-
Kinshasa is expected to open its first office on
Friday in the rebel-held east of the country. As Todd
Pitman reports from Kigali, the news comes amid new
reports of fighting between Congo government and rebel
troops.
TEXT: Rebel officials say seven U-N military liaison
officers are due to arrive in rebel headquarters in
the eastern town of Goma as part of efforts to police
a fragile peace accord brokered three months ago in
the Zambian capital Lusaka.
The U-N team will pave the way for the deployment of
90 monitors in a dozen towns on both sides of the
frontline, in both rebel and government territories.
The deployment of the U-N observer mission to Congo
has been confounded by a lack of funding and
bureaucratic delays.
Each side in the year-old conflict has accused the
other of repeatedly violating the cease-fire accord,
which calls for peacekeepers and the eventual
withdrawal of the five foreign armies involved in the
war.
Kin-Kiey Mulumba, spokesman for the main wing of the
rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (R-C-D), says
government troops have violated the accord 30 times
since the end of September, with most incidents
reported in the northern province of Equator.
On Friday, Mr. Mulumba says heavy fighting between
government and rebel troops continued for the fourth
day straight in Bokungu, in northeastern Congo. But
no causality figures were available.
Mr. Mulumba says there has have also been clashes this
week in Ikela, around one-thousand kilometers
northeast of the capital, Kinshasa.
He says troops loyal to Congolese President Laurent
Kabila attacked a front west of the town with two
helicopter gunships in an attempt to free several
thousand encircled Zimbabwean and Namibian troops who
are backing the government.
There was no independent confirmation of the rebel
claims. (Signed)
NEB/TP/JWH/JO
26-Nov-1999 08:16 AM EDT (26-Nov-1999 1316 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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