DATE=6/8/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO / KINSHASA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263291
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KISANGANI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Rwandan and Ugandan troops traded artillery
fire across the northeastern Congolese city of
Kisangani Thursday for the fourth day. As Todd Pitman
reports from Kisangani, United Nations observers based
there have condemned the fighting and say it is
destroying the city.
TEXT: Lieutenant-Colonel Danilo Paiva, force
commander for a twenty man unarmed United Nations team
based in Kisangani, says at least 15 cease-fires have
been negotiated and broken so far.
Colonel Paiva says Rwandan and Ugandan commanders on
the ground are directly responsible for the continuing
fighting. He says they are destroying the city,
committing a genocide against its people and must be
held responsible for their actions.
The U-N is trying to deploy a team of monitors at the
Tshopo River bridge, scene of fierce street to street
fighting between the two armies.
But Colonel Paiva says the team could only deploy
after both sides held their fire for at least one
hour.
At least 50 civilians have already been killed in
clashes that began on Monday as the two former allies
destroy a city they once controlled in the name of
liberating it.
Rwandan and Ugandan troops engaged each other on
Thursday in intense gun battles that echoed through
downtown.
Both sides are also relentlessly trading heavy mortar
and canon fire from opposite sides of the city.
Dozens of Ugandan shells roared down on residential
neighborhoods on both banks of the Congo River,
detonating with thundering bangs and sending plumes of
gray and black smoke into the sky.
Many bombs exploded in the river itself, while a
Rwandan artillery battery, positioned on the south
bank of the river, returned fire with ear-splitting
bangs and more billowing smoke.
The fighting has visibly enraged most residents, many
of whom are crouching in their houses as clashes
continue.
Residents and U-N monitors say food and vital medical
supplies are running dangerously low.
At Kisangani University hospital, where crying wounded
fill dirty corridors, surgeons cut off one man's leg
and tried to pull shrapnel out of another man's
stomach. One man reportedly died in the hospital from
loss of blood - there was little or no blood to spare
- after doctors removed a bullet without anesthetics.
(Signed)
NEB/TP/GE/PW
08-Jun-2000 09:37 AM EDT (08-Jun-2000 1337 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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