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afrol News, 20 March - While the so-called "Intercongolese Dialogue" has collapsed, fighting has returned to eastern Congo. The Rwandan-backed the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma) rebels captured the strategic town of south-eastern town of Moliro this weekend, resulting in worldwide protest against the first military offensive in one year. The UN Security Council yesterday protested the capture of Moliro, located on the south-western shore of Lake Tanganyika, in Katanga Province, and demanded that the rebels "immediately and unconditionally withdraw" from the town. The Council stressed that it was a major violation of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement and that no party to that agreement should be allowed to make military gains "while a peace process is under way and while a [UN] peacekeeping operation is deployed." The Council also demanded that RCD-Goma troops withdraw from illegally occupied Pweto to permit the town’s demilitarisation and reminded the rebel force that they must comply with the Lusaka Agreement, signed in 1999. It also called on Rwanda to exert its influence on RCD-Goma, so that the rebels would implement UN demands. The UN Organisation Mission in the Congo Kinshasa (MONUC) has deployed unarmed observer teams in Moliro and Pweto and is expected to maintain a permanent presence in these towns. The Mission recently reported that some fighting was still going on in and around Moliro, with elements of the RCD reportedly heading for the area of Zongwe. The RCD allegedly has offered to hand Moliro over to MONUC, as long as the government promises not to retake it. Presently, there are however only four unarmed MONUC observers in town and the UN is not planning to send reinforcements. Rwanda and Uganda support various rebel groups fighting the Congolese government of President Joseph Kabila, who in turn is backed by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe in the three-year conflict. Rwanda has been accused by France of sending up to 10,000 troops to help the rebels seize Moliro. Uganda is being accused of letting its rebels committing gross human rights violations among civilians in north-eastern Congo. Based on the fighting around Moliro, the government of Kabila left the "Intercongolese dialogue" organised in South Africa's Sun City earlier this week. The government delegation suspended its participation in protest at what it said was the violation in Moliro of the Lusaka cease-fire accord. Peace talks therefore seem to be out of the question for some time. Meanwhile, protests over human rights violations by RDC rebels are increasing. The US based group Human Rights Watch, known to be especially critical against Rwanda and Uganda, today published a statement protesting against "arrests and beatings of human rights activists and journalists" by the RCD. According to the US group, RCD had arrested and severely beat Richard Muhindo Bayunda, leader of the Centre for Research on the Environment, Democracy, and Human Rights (CREDDHO) in Goma, an organisation that regularly denounces abuses to the RCD authorities. The group also alleges that Rwandan army soldiers and the RCD, who are fighting against local armed groups known as Mai Mai, "are currently detaining suspects in a cargo container in Ndosho, about 15 kilometres from Goma, under inhumane conditions."
Sources: Based on UN, HRW, press reports and afrol archives
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