Demonstrators stone MONUC headquarters

Thousands of angry Congolese demonstrated on Thursday at the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) against what they perceived as its failure to prevent army dissidents from seizing part of the eastern town of Bukavu.

In the capital, Kinshasa, a city of some 2.8 million people, demonstrators thronged the streets, shutting down schools and businesses, and erected barricades. Large crowds of students hurled stones at the MONUC headquarters in the city.

"We are demonstrating to say that MONUC must apply Chapter Seven [of the UN Charter under which MONUC is mandated to use force to maintain peace] so that Congo's transitional process will lead to elections," Antoine Kabuya, a demonstrator, said.

MONUC troops and Congolese police fired tear gas and bullets into the air to disperse the protestors. The unrest spread to the towns of Lubumbashi, Kisi, Bukavu and Goma before being put down by MONUC.

The MONUC spokesman, Hamadoun Toure, said in Kinshasa that two people had died and several others were wounded.

On the situation in Bukavu, he told IRIN that, after talks with MONUC, Col Jules Mutebusi had agreed to reassemble his dissident forces in a section of the town. UN troops are now patrolling Bukavu's streets.

The DRC Red Cross in Bukavu reported that four people had been killed on Wednesday. For her part, Lucia Alberghini, the senior official of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bukavu, told IRIN there had been looting in the town early on Thursday.

The dissidents said they had moved on Bukavu to defend members of their Banyamulenge community, who are Congolese of Tutsi origin, against violence.

Thursday’s nationwide riots followed an appeal by DRC President Joseph Kabila for citizens to rise against Mutebusi's men, who, he said, had received Rwandan government aid. DRC Environment Minister Anselme Enurunga told IRIN that Rwanda had sent 5,000 troops to help the dissidents take Bukavu.

However, in Kigali, Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande has denied his nation's involvement. "We have no forces in the DRC. I think the Congolese authorities have not been able to handle the rebellion within the army and are trying to use Rwanda as a scapegoat," he said.