BUKAVU, Congo (AP) - Renegade commanders captured this strategic Congolese town Wednesday, setting off a crisis that threatened the fragile transitional government and a peace process that ended five years of war. Congo President Joseph Kabila accused neighbor and rival Rwanda in the takeover, and went on national television to declare he had begun implemention of a state of emergency across Congo. Rwanda denied any involvement. The renegades behind the capture of Bukavu - who had complained of mistreatment by the region's military commanders - said they were prepared to negotiate, but were also ready to fight. "I've been in charge of Bukavu militarily since 11 o'clock this morning," renegade Brig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda told reporters at the governor's mansion. | Another General wanna-be. Bet he has a nice uniform. |
The forces that captured Bukavu are loyal to Nkunda and Col. Jules Mutebutsi, former rebels who joined the army after the civil war. Mutebutsi told The Associated Press the government's military commander in the region, Brig. Gen. Mbuza Mabe, had run away fled. "Many of his troops have joined us, others have shed their uniforms and are staying at their homes, and a few have fled with Mabe," Mutebutsi said by telephone. U.N. officials estimate Nkunda has between 2,000 and 4,000 troops, while Mutebutsi controls several hundred fighters. Both men were members of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, a former rebel group that controlled large swathes of eastern and northeastern Congo and was backed by Rwanda before it joined the government. The two are also members of the Congolese Tutsi. Nkunda said the Tutsi had been mistreated by army officers in the region. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher denied claims of an "orchestrated mass killing" of Tutsi, in the runup to the offensive by the two Congolese Tutsi officers. "These reports are idiotic false, according to U.S. Embassy people in Kinshasa and the United States people who are there," Boucher said, adding, "Suggestions that a genocide or a mass killing of Congolese Tutsis has taken place are irresponsible and unnecessary, inflammatory." U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the capture of Bukavu and called on the region's warring parties to abide by an earlier cease-fire. There are some 10,800 U.N. troops in Congo, mostly in the east and northeast where they have a mandate to use force to protect civilians. The 800 U.N. troops in Bukavu did not intervene to stem the fighting. The United Nations defended its troops' inaction, saying the mandate did not extend to battles. Col. Clive Mantel, commander of the U.N. force in Kinshasa, said U.N. reinforcements would be sent to the region and will then proceed not to fight. Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo, said U.N. officials were trying to resolve the crisis while succeeding in making things worse. Hundreds of people rioted outside U.N. headquarters in Kinshasa and in the main northeast city of Kisangani, correctly blaming U.N. forces for failing to stop Bukavu's fall. The crowds in Kinshasa threw stones at U.N. headquarters and set vehicles afire, while protesters in Kisangani burned U.N. vehicles and a U.N. office. | That'll inspire the UN forces. |
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