UN Spokesman:Congo Government Forces Looting Towns As They Pull Out
The army, known as FARDC, meanwhile briefly exchanged fire with rebels around 15 kilometers north of the regional capital Goma, the U.N. peacekeeping mission, called MONUC, reported.
MONUC spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said the fighting in the Kibati area, where the rebels have been positioned since routing the FARDC last month, lasted 50 minutes.
The positions of both sides didn't change after the clashes, he said, adding that no casualty toll was available.
The rebel group led by Laurent Nkunda said it had chased away soldiers who tried to break through its positions in Kilimanyoka, just north of Kibati, and that the government troops fired mortars.
"We are very shocked that they (FARDC) try suicide missions every night. Clearly they tried to go around our position, maybe to strike us from behind," rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa told AFP.
The FARDC wasn't immediately available for comment. Earlier, Dietrich said government soldiers had engaged on Monday and Tuesday "in looting and acts of brutality against the civilian population in the Kanyabayonga area," 175 kilometers north of Goma.
Violence against civilians spread to the towns of Kaina and Kirumba further north, and stopped Tuesday afternoon after the army took measures to stop the looting soldiers, Dietrich said.
The insecurity forced humanitarian organizations to suspend operations in the area, said Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.
"This type of humanitarian black hole which extends over the zone where access is difficult is growing, which worries us a great deal," Byrs said in Geneva.
The three towns are strategically located in the north of Nord-Kivu province, where rebels loyal to renegade general Nkunda control much of the territory following an offensive in recent weeks.
Several villages along the road linking the three towns had been looted and women raped, the U.N.-run Radio Okapi reported.
OCHA's local office in Goma said aid workers had become trapped by the violence and MONUC had dispatched patrols to try to get them to safety.
Dietrich said the violence began when FARDC forces withdrew from the frontline towns of Nyanzale and Kikuku, around 40 kilometers to the south of Kanyabayonga.
He said soldiers and their families were unhappy at the pull-out and were also unsettled by rumors of a rebel attack. "The soldiers began to fire in the air and started stealing cars and looting shops," he said.
MONUC had dispatched helicopters and armored patrols to try to pacify the area, said Dietrich. The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force, Senegalese Gen. Babacar Babacar Gaye, was on his way to the area with the FARDC regional commander Vainqueur Mayala, he added.
The violence had forced villagers to flee northwards, with many seeking cover in surrounding forests. Aid agencies said more than 253,000 civilians had been displaced since fighting resumed in the region at the end of August, ending a peace deal that had been in place since January.
Dietrich said MONUC was "doing all it can to ensure the situation is not exploited by rebel forces."
A nurse at Kanyabayonga's hospital, who identified himself only by his first name, Anicet, said the government forces "started looting the town yesterday afternoon and began looting Kirumba this morning. They were firing in the air in all directions. I fled with my family further north."
"The general who commanded the troops here is gone and the soldiers are almost uncontrollable," he added.
Criticism of the indiscipline of the often ill-equipped, badly-trained and poorly-paid soldiers came also from their allies the Mai Mai militia.
"It's regrettable that the regular army should run without hearing a single shot and then start looting the population," a Mai Mai spokesman said.
He said rumors that the rebels had infiltrated the frontlines had set off the panic.
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=6NlmY0aFxCN%2F%2BlgX8%2BRclQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 11, 2008 16:46 ET (21:46 GMT)
Publié le 11 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones
Partager sur:
