Military

DATE=10/23/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-268325

TITLE=DRC/FIGHTING (L-O)

BYLINE=KATY SALMON

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Reports say the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo is stepping up its military offensive against rebel forces and their Rwandan allies. Katy Salmon has more from our east Africa bureau.

TEXT: Despite recent moves to implement a long-violated peace accord, the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be intensifying.

Last week, D-R-C forces, joined by troops from Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola, attacked three towns held by Rwandan forces in the Pepa area of the southeastern Katanga Province.

Rwandan military sources say that what first appeared to be a limited government campaign has now developed into a full-scale offensive. Up to eight-thousand D-R-C troops are said to be involved.

The Rwandan sources say the government troops are using armored vehicles, tanks, and long-range missiles in their attacks.

Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda have been fighting to oust Congolese President Laurent Kabila for more than two-years. The rebel factions control a vast swathe of territory in the east and north of the country.

Fighting has continued, despite a cease-fire accord signed by all sides in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, last year.

While the D-R-C army was launching its offensive last Monday, President Kabila was attending a meeting in Mozambique called by South African President Thabo Mbeki in an effort to build support for implementing the long-violated Lusaka peace accord.

At the one-day summit, the presidents of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Rwanda, and Uganda - which have troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo - agreed to withdraw their forces at least 15-kilometers. But the withdrawals never took place and the level of fighting increased.

Diplomats say President Mbeki will continue seeking a commitment on troop withdrawal from the D-R-C in order to allow U-N peacekeepers to move in. The United Nations voted in February to send 55-hundred peacekeepers to the country, but deployment was conditional on a truce. (SIGNED)

NEB/KS/KL/RAE