DATE=5/6/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO FIGHTING (L)
NUMBER=2-262058
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KIGALI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
//Editors - Casualty figures in the intro may change,
please update accordingly//
INTRO: United Nations officials in the north of the
Democratic Republic of Congo say a tense calm has
returned to the rebel-held city of Kisangani
after clashes on Friday between Ugandan and Rwandan
troops. U.N. monitors in the city say 10 civilians
had been killed and as many as 100 others wounded. As
Todd Pitman reports from the Rwandan capital, the
fighting has complicated U.N. plans to send a 5,500-
man observer mission to the country.
TEXT: Rwandan commanders and United Nations observers
based in Kisangani say the city has been quiet since
late Friday night.
Residents, who hid in their homes on Friday while a
barrage of mortar bombs rained down on the city,
emerged from their houses on Saturday morning to
assess the damage.
There was no explanation for why the fighting ceased.
Rwandan officers say there has been no direct
communication between Ugandan and Rwandan forces in
the city and no ceasefire has been agreed to.
But Rwandan army spokesman Emmanuel Ndahiro told a
news conference in Kigali on Friday that the two
countries had been consulting "at the highest
levels" to resolve the conflict.
Both sides blame each other for starting the fighting,
which was the first between the two countries since
August of last year, when the two estranged
allies fought a three-day gunbattle in the diamond-
rich city.
Rwanda and Uganda have been close allies for years but
divisions emerged last year after each side began to
back rival rebel factions in a
21-month-old war against Congolese President Laurent
Kabila.
The U.N. Security Council voted earlier this year to
deploy a five-thousand-500 member U.N. observer force
in the vast country to try and bring a halt to the
broader war between government and rebel forces.
But U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard
Holbrooke, who is currently heading a U.N. Security
Council team on a visit to the region,
says the fighting between Uganda and Rwanda had deeply
complicated the picture.
(SIGNED)
NEB/TP/PLM
06-May-2000 08:52 AM EDT (06-May-2000 1252 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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