DATE=5/29/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO / PULLOUT (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262930
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KIGALI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Uganda and Rwanda have begun withdrawing
troops from the northern Congolese city of Kisangani.
As Todd Pitman reports, the pullout is part of a plan
to demilitarize the city following clashes between the
two former allies earlier this month.
TEXT: U-N observers based in Kisangani say the
pullout may take as long as seven-days to complete.
Under the agreement, troops, tanks, and heavy weapons
are supposed to be withdrawn 100-kilometers from
Kisangani's city center.
But the Ugandan and Rwandan armies will keep a small
contingent of 216 soldiers each in the town to guard
strategic installations against attacks by government-
allied forces.
Rebel troops deployed in Kisangani are also to begin
pulling out during the next several days.
Only 20 U-N monitors are overseeing the withdrawal.
But a one-thousand-member U-N battalion will be sent
to the city later. The battalion is part of a 55-
hundred-member observer force approved, but not yet
deployed, by the Security Council.
Rwanda and Uganda were once close allies, backing
rebels in the war against Congo-Kinshasa President
Laurent Kabila.
But the two countries gradually fell out over disputes
among the rival rebel factions each supports and
differences about how to conduct the war.
Fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan troops flared in
Kisangani for the second time in less than a year on
May Fifth, leaving 28 civilians dead and 159 wounded.
The city has been tense since then, with troops from
each country eyeing the other through binoculars and
gun sights on opposite sides of the main airport at
Bangoka.
U-N observers in Kisangani say troops are pulling out
of trenches at the airport and manning joint
checkpoints in the city. (SIGNED)
NEB/TP/JWH/RAE
29-May-2000 10:03 AM EDT (29-May-2000 1403 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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