DATE=6/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N / CONGO KINSHASA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263526
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A senior U-N official confirms that all
Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers have left the Congolese
city of Kisangani. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the
U-N official says fighting between the two foreign
armies has caused widespread devastation.
TEXT: The U-N Special Envoy to the Congo, Kamel
Marjane, says Rwandan and Ugandan troops are on their
way to their redeployment sites. He says the soldiers
are supposed to station themselves about 100-
kilometers from the center of Kisangani.
Mr. Marjane says fighting between the two opposing
armies caused the deaths of many innocent civilians
and the widespread destruction of property. He says
at least 300-people were killed, 15-hundred injured
and 70-percent of Kisangani's homes, schools, churches
and public buildings damaged.
/// MARJANE ACT ///
I hope that now this will be the last time we
will have to face this kind of situation, since
as you know the fighting which took place early
this month was the third one. It started
already last year in August and repeated again
in May. This was the third time. I hope it
will be the last.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Marjane says the situation in Kisangani is very
tense. He says his greatest fear is that Congolese
soldiers and rebels might try to fill the vacuum left
by the departing troops. He says the United Nations
hopes to send a battalion of between 700 and one-
thousand men into Kisangani early next month to
protect the city and its surroundings.
Mr. Marjane says the U-N had hoped to deploy between
five-thousand and six-thousand peacekeepers to Congo-
Kinshasa in June. But, he says this has not been
possible because the pre-conditions for deployment
have not been met.
/// 2ND MARJANE ACT ///
One is a cease-fire by all the parties. They
did confirm this. They did reaffirm this many
times. But, unfortunately, it did not stand all
the time. I hope that now, especially after
Kisangani there is still some problems. Second,
certainly is freedom of movement of the
personnel, civilian as well as military. And,
we need all the guarantees of all the parties in
order to have this freedom of movement.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Marjane says the U-N hopes it will be able to
deploy its peacekeepers over the next three-months.
He says the U-N also plans to follow up a disturbing
report recently published by the U-S based Catholic
Relief Services. He says the report claims one-point-
seven million people have died or disappeared in the
Congo during the past three-years. (SIGNED)
NEB/LS/GE/RAE
19-Jun-2000 08:34 AM EDT (19-Jun-2000 1234 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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