Captured militia fighters escape

Twenty-five Rwandan Hutu militiamen in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) escaped the custody of Congolese army on Tuesday. Not a shot was fired, army spokesman Lt Kasanda Wa Kasanda said.

Congolese troops had captured the militiamen last week in the commune of Buégera, South Kivu Province. They are members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The Congolese handed the militiamen over to the UN Mission in the DRC, know as MONUC, but the peacekeepers handed them back.

"The combatants were delivered to us last Sunday, but they did not want to be disarmed or repatriated," Eliane Nabaa, a MONUC spokeswoman, told IRIN.

She said the fighters were handed back to the government forces because "we do not have the mandate to forcibly disarm and repatriate them."

The army then held the Rwandan in a facility in Buégera, said Nabaa. On Tuesday, MONUC military observers attempted to inspect the facility but were prevented by unidentified armed men, she said.

Gen Mbuza Mabe, the commander of Congo's 10th military region based in South-Kivu, said 100 of his troops had been guarding the militiamen.

More 1,600 Ugandan, Burundian, and Rwandan fighters in the DRC have returned to their countries in the last two years through a MONUC sponsored voluntary repatriation programme but hard core elements within the FDLR have been stopping other fighters from leaving.