Rebels expel UN official

The Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) on Tuesday gave an official with the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) 24 hours to leave the territory it controls. According to an official statement, received by IRIN on Thursday, the Uruguayan official, who was working in Goma, had “carried out activities incompatible with his UN status”. These included “circulating the flag of the Kinshasa regime” and “launching the publicity and propaganda of a contemptuous regime”. The RCD statement claimed the Uruguayan plane bringing the UN soldiers to Goma, and then onwards to Kalemie, had “transported substantial numbers of the Kinshasa regime’s flag” which was then distributed by the official via a local network. The official has since left Goma, the statement added. In another statement, the RCD said its armed forces had captured seven Congolese government soldiers in the Panyamutombo region of Kasai province. It claimed the soldiers were on a reconnaissance mission when they fell into an RCD ambush. The RCD troops also captured a quantity of weapons.