City's fall highlights Congo's elusive quest for peace

BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of Congo -- The seizure of a major eastern town last week by dissident Congolese soldiers laid bare the unfortunate realities of a nation trying to recover from five years of devastating civil war, according to angry Congolese.

Nearly a year after President Joseph Kabila and a raft of rebel groups signed a peace accord that inaugurated an unwieldy unity government, the same fault lines that characterized the war -- ethnic tension and political divisions -- now make a durable peace as difficult as ever.

The failure of the 10,800-strong United Nations contingent in Congo to prevent Bukavu from falling into the hands of renegade troops who refused to respect the peace deal has also dealt a terrible blow to the credibility of the one honest broker among bitterly divided factions, as frustrated UN officials conceded.

''What is the UN mission in Congo?" asked Jean-Pierre, a terrified resident of Bukavu who declined to give his last name, as a shot from a rebel gun rang out nearby. ''It is to protect us!"

By yesterday evening, General Laurent Nkunda, the insurgent soldier who took control of Bukavu on Wednesday, had failed to keep a promise to pull his forces out of the town, according to UN officials. Although they have left the downtown, some fighters remained in other neighborhoods.

UN officials also cited a worrying development to Bukavu's north, where Nkuda's soldiers appeared to be moving toward Walikale, a town astride the road to Kisangani, a major rebel stronghold during the civil war. UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure called reports of the move ''a very serious development."

Witnesses also reported that the Kabila government is ferrying troops by air to Kindu, a town with a major airfield that would put the soldiers within striking distance of Nkunda's troops.

Congo's latest troubles began Wednesday when 4,000 of Nkunda's men marched virtually unopposed into Bukavu, a beautiful if dilapidated town that sits at the southern tip of Lake Kivu, on Congo's border with Rwanda. A force of government soldiers, under the control of the official regional commander, melted into the nearby hills as Nkunda approached.

Nkunda said he was coming to rescue fellow members of the Banyamulenge ethnic group, a tribe with close ties to Rwanda's Tutsis, who were massacred by the hundreds of thousands in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Although about 2,000 Banyamulenge fled into neighboring Rwanda over the past week, Nkunda's contention that ''genocide" was imminent in Bukavu was panned as far away as Washington.

''Suggestions that a genocide or mass killing of Congolese Tutsis has taken place are irresponsible and unnecessarily inflammatory," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said only hours after the dissidents seized Bukavu.

Following Bukavu's fall, residents said Nkunda's soldiers began looting the town, raping women and, in a few cases, killing civilians, actions an undermanned UN contingent in Bukavu was unable to contain.

Many Congolese say they believe Nkunda seized Bukavu because he worries that peace could possibly leave him open to prosecution for atrocities during the civil war, which claimed more than 3 million lives through combat, starvation, and disease. Nkuda is widely blamed for ordering the massacre of scores of civilians in May 2002 in an effort to put down a riot against Rwanda troops, who at the time occupied a huge swath of eastern Congo.

Nkuda's history of ties to Rwanda also prompted fears that Congo's tiny neighbor was interfering in efforts to make peace by arming his troops, something Rwandan officials have denied. He is a member of the Rally for Congolese Democracy, which Rwanda backed during the Congolese civil war, and even fought for the Tutsi rebel army of Paul Kagame before Kagame took power in Rwanda. ''What do you want?" Nkunda said in a brief interview. ''They are my brothers."

The fall of Bukavu prompted Kabila to escalate his rhetoric against Rwanda. ''Once again, Rwanda has made clear that it does not want peace," Kabila said from Kinshasa in an interview with the BBC. Rwanda's foreign minister, Charles Murigande, fired back, saying Rwanda would not permit ''ethnic cleansing or genocide" to occur in Congo.

Kabila also launched a broadside against the UN, saying its ''bureaucratic and administrative procedures" were contributing little to keeping the peace in Congo, and by week's end, the world body had taken a heavy beating all across the country.

Hundreds of protesters, including many students, attacked the UN headquarters in Kinshasa. When protesters broke down the door to one compound, guards opened fire, killing three of them.

''We don't want to see the UN here anymore," Justin Musenga, 33, said, standing a few yards from a house teeming with rebel soldiers. ''They don't do anything."