TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

EU Troops May Shift To Congo

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: November 2, 2008

TONGO, Congo - The European Union could send troops to Congo if a fragile cease-fire between rebel fighters and the army fails, the British minister for African affairs said Saturday as rebels forced tens of thousands of people from refugee camps in the insurgent-held zone.

The French and British foreign ministers arrived in Congo for talks with Congolese and Rwandan officials as pressure mounted for a regional summit to secure an end to the country's worst violence in years.

Outside the regional capital, Goma, rebels were pushing people to leave camps and return home, witnesses and a U.N. official said. They did not say why this was happening and the rebels issued no immediate comment.

"They beat us with sticks and told us that we must get out," said Daria Nyarangaruye, an elderly woman who said she had been forced to leave a camp in Tongo that had housed thousands of people a day earlier.

Further south in Rutshuru, a rebel commander who identified himself as Maj. Muhire said people were returning home because they were free to. But a U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for the safety of U.N. staff, said rebels have closed camps housing thousands of people.

Since August, an upsurge in fighting between the army and rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda has displaced more than 220,000 people in a region already home to about 800,000 displaced people. Nkunda's fighters advanced to the doorstep of Goma on Wednesday, forcing U.N. peacekeepers and the bedraggled army to retreat in tanks and commandeered cars. The rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire Wednesday night and diplomats have rushed to secure it.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Goma on Saturday with his British counterpart, David Miliband. Kouchner said he hoped the visit would help the politicians "understand why despite so many efforts no peace has come."

Britain's Africa minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said Britain is on standby to provide forces for any EU mission, which would be aimed at bolstering the efforts of U.N. peacekeepers if violence escalates.

Malloch-Brown said the U.N. force in Goma has a small number of lightly armed troops and should be strengthened by redeploying troops from elsewhere in Congo. The United Nations has fewer than 6,000 of its 17,000 troops in east Congo, the epicenter of conflict in this troubled nation.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, who held talks with Congo President Joseph Kabila in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, proposed a U.N.-organized summit of the nations bordering eastern Congo, and said Rwanda and Congo would attend.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT