DATE=6/11/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO CEASEFIRE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263365
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KISANGANI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: People in the northeastern Congolese city of
Kisangani awoke to a suprising but tense calm on
Sunday after Rwandan and Ugandan troops appeared to
end a week of fighting. Todd Pitman is in Kisangani
and has more on the story.
TEXT: United Nations observers say that Ugandan
troops have pulled back to the north side of the
Tshopo River bridge marking a drastic military
turnaround on the urban frontline dividing the two
armies.
It is unclear why the fighting has ceased. U-N
officials say Ugandan commanders received strict
orders to pull back their troops but Rwandan officers
and some U-N monitors say the Rwandans scored a
military victory, pushing Ugandan troops across the
bridge (and out of the main part of the city).
Rwandan and Ugandan forces have been faced off for six
days along a jagged frontline that cuts through the
city's Tshopo residential district. They have engaged
each other in fierce firefights from buildings and
trenches dug in the streets.
Lieutenant Colonel Danilo Paiva, who heads a 22 man U-
N observer mission in Kisangani, says U-N troops want
to take full advantage of the lull in the fighting to
deploy monitors at Tshopo Bridge to prevent further
clashes.
The United Nations team, headquartered in a Catholic
church compound, which itself has received several
mortar rounds, has tried to broker dozens of
ceasefires since fighting first erupted on Monday.
(Editors - he refers to last Monday, June 5). None of
the ceasefires has lasted more than a few hours.
Colonel Paiva's team had requested an artillery
ceasefire as dusk fell on Saturday. Overnight, the
city was largely quiet except for exchanges of small
arms fire which gradually faded into the night.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the
fighting has claimed the lives of at least 150
civilians and wounded 700 others since it began. The
complete casualty figures are unknown. Few people,
until now, have been able to venture out on the
streets to assess the damage. (Signed)
NEB/TP/PLM
11-Jun-2000 05:36 AM EDT (11-Jun-2000 0936 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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