UN: Gen Laurent Nkunda blamed for war crimes in Congo

The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has accused Gen Laurent Nkunda's rebel forces and pro-government militias of war crimes.

The alleged crimes took place in the eastern town of Kiwanja this week when it was captured by Gen Nkunda's forces. Several civilians were reported killed.  But the UN said investigators did not yet have a clear idea of what happened. Fighting between government and rebels forces has left hundreds of thousands of people displaced since August.

  Thousands of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are flocking towards overcrowded refugee camps amid a relative lull in days of fighting between government forces and Tutsi rebel soldiers. Government troops are holding back fighters loyal to Laurent Nkunda, a renegade general, and preventing them from reaching the provincial capital Goma, Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow reported on Saturday. Adow said: "I just came back from Kibaki, about seven kilometres outside Goma. This is where most of the fiercest fighting in the last 24 hours has been taking place. "Government forces have moved the rebels about two kilometres away from Kibaki but they are facing each other there." Although Saturday has been relatively calm due to soldiers' religious observance, extra government troops are heading towards the frontline in Kibaki, Adow said. "When I was in Kibaki, I saw an endless stream of government soldiers advancing towards the frontline ... but the rebels say they will continue their onslaught to Goma," he said. Thousands of civilians have continued to flee to UN refugee camps in and around Goma to escape the conflict, and facilities are struggling to cope. "There is little available to take care of [people displaced by the fighting]," Adow said. "They are going to camps that are already overcrowded, and as the fighting nears the camps they are displaced once again. "Some people are sleeping on the side of the road; there is little aid getting to them. The UN estimates that about 253,000 people have been displaced since September. Staff from the UN mission in DR Congo (Monuc) have had little impact in curbing the fighting, Adow said.  "The UN is there and has been sending teams to the battle scenes. But they can only stand around and watch as the fighting continues. "In Goma, the UN has only 850 personnel ... They are outnumbered - there are thousands of rebels and thousands of government forces." On Friday, African leaders gathered in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern DR Congo. The appeal came as the UN accused Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (NCDP) of deliberately killing civilians in North Kivu.  Monuc said that one of its inspection teams had reported "serious violations of human rights" in Kiwanja, 80km north of Goma. Nkunda, who was not invited to the talks in the Kenyan capital, has issued a "categorical denial" that his fighters were behind any civilian deaths in Kiwanja. Human Rights Watch says at least 100 civilians have been killed and more than 200 others wounded since the fighting resumed in late August.
Regional peacekeepers:  Moses Wetangula, Kenya's foreign minister, reading a communique agreed by seven African leaders on Friday, said: "There should be an immediate ceasefire by all the armed men and militia in North Kivu." He said that regional peacekeepers could be sent to North Kivu if required.  The meeting also called for the formation of a "humanitarian corridor" to aid the  refugees. Babou Amane, deputy spokesman for Nkunda's forces, told Al Jazeera on Friday: "The African summit is following us in our decision to have a unilateral ceasefire ... we would like the summit to force the [Congolese] government to follow up the ceasefire.

"We have asked the government to sit round the table so we can discuss our issues ... [but] if the government engages us, we will respond," he said. There are fears that regional forces could be drawn into the conflict and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, had told delegates that the conflict could engulf the region. "It is only at the political level, here in your region, that lasting solutions can be found. There can be no military solution to this crisis," he said. Ban denied an earlier UN report saying that Angolan troops had joined Congolese soldiers.

On Friday, a UN official and a Uruguayan peacekeeping officer said that an unspecified number of Angolan troops had arrived four days ago. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mistaken identity:  In New York, Edmond Mulet, the UN assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, suggested some people may have mistaken Congolese government troops who had trained in Angola, and therefore spoke Portuguese, for Angolan troops.  There is widespread concern that the involvement of Angolans could spread the conflict beyond Congo's borders. The DR Congo government has repeatedly said that Nkunda's forces are backed by Rwanda's Tutsi administration.  Rwanda's information minister denied that Kigali has had any role in supporting Nkunda."Those who claim that Rwanda is directly involved and that Rwanda is supporting Laurent Nkunda and the CNDP are totally wrong," Louise Mushikiwabo told Al Jazeera.

"This is one of the reasons why this conflict has not been stopped. Nkunda is Congolese, he has claimed that the government of DR Congo [must] address. The root problem of this instability is ... the Hutu death squads that are based in eastern DR Congo. "There is no support from Rwanda going to Laurent Nkunda. The sooner that the Congolese government and the international government address this issue, the sooner this conflict will end."