DRC rebels sends warning to army

[iolsa]

Kinshasa - Mutinous soldiers in DR Congo's eastern Kivu region who had handed their occupied towns back to police and UN peacekeepers gave  the army an ultimatum Friday to withdraw from the settlements.

The M23 movement said in a statement that, having handed over the towns of Kiwandja and Rutshuru in Nord-Kivu province to the police and UN peacekeepers,

the return of government troops there was "unacceptable".

"This act of provocation is a challenge launched against our forces who chased them out of there" and a humiliation for local people, who were subjected to abuse by government troops as they fled, said the statement.

The rebels said they considered the return of the troops as a threat to their own positions and called on the army to withdraw "without delay".

Failing that, the statement added, "they will be held responsible for all the consequences relative to their presence" there.

The ultimatum from the M23 rebels came a day after UN and government troops used helicopters gunships to attack the rebels' positions after fears the mutineers were threatening the main eastern city of Goma.

On July 6, the rebel soldiers captured Bunagana, the main crossing point into Uganda, after clashes with the Democratic Republic of Congo's army. Two days later they took Rutshuru, which lies 70 kilometres from the regional capital Goma.

While the mutineers have pulled out of some of the towns they captured, they still control Bunagana.

Congolese government troops recaptured Rutshuru and other towns in the region earlier this week.

On Thursday, three UN helicopters and two from the Congolese army fired rockets and bombs at rebel positions in Nkokwe and Bukima, two towns in the south-east of Virunga national park, some 50 kilometres north of Goma.

UN peacekeepers and the army on Wednesday set up a protective perimeter north of Goma.

The rebels however insist that their objective is to force negotiations with the Congolese government - not to capture the regional capital.

The M23 was formed by Congolese Tutsi ex-fighters from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a rebel group whose members were integrated into the national military in a  peace deal signed on March 23, 2009.

They deserted military ranks in protest at what they called bad treatment, and are demanding the full implementation of the peace accords.

A UN report has accused officials in neighbouring Rwanda of backing the mutiny, a charge Kigali has denied. - Sapa-AFP



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