DATE=6/9/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO / KINSHASA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263322
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KISANGANI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan troops is
continuing for the fifth day in the northeastern
Congolese city of Kisangani. As Todd Pitman reports
from Kisangani, the casualty figures are rising.
TEXT: Alexander Liebeskind, head of the International
Committee of the Red Cross in Kisangani, says at least
100 civilians have been killed and 700 others wounded
since fighting began on Monday.
United Nations observers have tried repeatedly to
broker a cease-fire to end the fighting, but to no
avail.
After a night of relative calm, bursts of machine gun
fire and sporadic shelling began again at dawn on
Friday, spreading like wildfire into the morning.
The United Nations says Rwandan and Ugandan artillery
fire is destroying the city. One U-N observer says
between five and six-thousand mortar rounds have
fallen in and around Kisangani in five days of
clashes.
Once close allies in a broader fight against Congo
Kinshasa President Laurent Kabila, Rwanda and Uganda
have since turned their guns on each other. Over the
last year they have battled several times for control
of Kisangani, a regional diamond-trading center.
U-N observers say Rwandan and Ugandan troops have
fought to a virtual stalemate along a six kilometer
front line dividing the two sides in a residential
district on the northwestern side of town.
Rwandan troops control most of the city center, while
Ugandan units are trying to advance south from
positions around the Tshopo River bridge.
Most residents have huddled in their houses for days,
with little food or water, trying their best to avoid
mortar rounds or stray bullets flying in nearly every
direction.
Medical aid workers say several dead bodies lie where
they fell, scattered around the city center. But
nobody has been able to venture into the streets to
bury them. (Signed)
NEB/TP/GE/JP
09-Jun-2000 09:46 AM EDT (09-Jun-2000 1346 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
