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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 forces there was "unacceptable."
"This act of provocation is a challenge against our forces who chased them out of there" and a humiliation for local people who were subjected to abuse, said the statement. Failing that, the statement added, "they will be held responsible for all the consequences relative to their presence."
A rebel spokesman threatened the mutineers would return to chase the army out if it did not withdraw. "If their forces are there, we are going to retake those towns," M23's Vianney Kazarama told AFP.
The ultimatum came a day after UN and government forces used helicopter gunships against the rebels' positions after fears the mutineers were threatening the main eastern city of Goma. Three UN helicopters and two from the Congolese army fired heavy ammunition and rockets at rebel positions in Nkokwe and Bukima, two towns in the south-east of Virunga national park, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Goma.
| That's why the rebels want the army out -- the choppers are murdering them... |
While the mutineers have pulled out of some towns they captured, they still control Bunagana. An AFP correspondent also saw some half-dozen of them Friday in the town of Rumangabo, 50 kilometers north of Goma, though the rebels said they had withdrawn from the area.
Congolese government troops recaptured Rutshuru and other towns in the region earlier this week.
UN peacekeepers and the army have 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 is led by Bosco Ntaganda, nicknamed the "Terminator," who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for recruiting child soldiers a decade ago. The ICC sentenced his co-accused and former boss Thomas Lubanga to 14 years in jail on Tuesday.
The mutineers are Tutsi ex-rebels who were integrated into the regular army in 2009 as part of a peace deal that followed their failed 2008 offensive on Goma, under the command of Tutsi leader Laurent Nkunda. But they mutinied in April, demanding better pay and the full implementation of the March 23, 2009 peace deal for which they are named.
Some commentators however argue that Ntaganda and his men are actually flexing their military muscle to clinch further rights over the area's lucrative mines.
The DR Congo government and a UN panel of sanctions experts have said Rwanda is supplying arms and fighters to the rebels. Rwanda has denied involvement and in turn accuses Kinshasa of renewing cooperation with Rwandan Hutu rebels who have been based in eastern DRC since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.