DATE=3/14/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO FIGHTING (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260172
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KIGALI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Warring parties in Congo-Kinshasa are
reporting fighting in the east of the country. As
Todd Pitman reports from the Rwandan capital, Kigali,
rebel officials say they have inflicted heavy
casualties on Congo government troops and their
allies.
TEXT: Kin-Kiey Mulumba, the spokesman for the
Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Congolese Rally for
Democracy, says 150 government-allied troops were
killed Sunday near the rebel-held river port of
Idumbe, about 700-kilometers east of the capital,
Kinshasa.
Mr. Mulumba says 14-hundred government and allied
troops, including Zimbabwean soldiers and Rwandan
Interahamwe militiamen, began attacking the town
Friday. He says rebels repulsed the attack and
captured a large array of war materiel, including
light arms and rocket launchers, as well as a number
of Zimbabwean trucks and tanks.
Mr. Mulumba says several rebel troops also were
wounded in the battle but he gave no details of other
casualties.
There was no independent confirmation of the rebel
report.
Last week, rebel officials said they had recaptured
Idumbe in another round of fighting, just four-days
after government troops seized it from rebels.
The fighting comes as U-N Undersecretary-General for
Peacekeeping Bernard Miyet, arrived in Uganda on a
tour of African countries involved in the Congo
conflict.
The U-N Security Council authorized a 55-hundred-
member force -- 500 observers and five-thousand troops
to protect them -- to monitor a peace deal signed in
August by all parties involved in the war.
But U-N officials say they will not be deployed until
the cease-fire takes hold. (SIGNED)
NEB/TP/JWH/RAE
14-Mar-2000 12:08 PM EDT (14-Mar-2000 1708 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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