Rebel group vows to root out "invading forces"

The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie - Mouvement de liberation/Kisangani (RCD-ML/K) vowed on Sunday to root out all "invading forces" within its territory.

In a statement, the group accused the leader of the Gbadolite-based Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), Jean-Pierre Bemba, of breaking the Lusaka cease-fire agreement by killing innocent civilians, yet nobody had condemned his acts.

"Given all this, RCD-Kisangani has no choice but to defend itself, making sure the invading forces are pulled out of his official territory," the RCD-Kisangani said.

"We are going to use everything to make sure the Lusaka peace accord is fully respected, because we believe all those who are very busy attacking us are aiming to break down the Lusaka process by starting the full-scale war they have been gaining a lot from," it said.

RCD-Kisangani added that Bemba and his allies took control of the Dungu and Mungbere roads leading to the gold-mining town of Watsa, in northeastern DRC, on Saturday. Last week, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (known by its French acronym, MONUC) told IRIN that fighting had taken place between rival armed opposition groups in and around Isiro and Buta, in the northeast of the DRC. The fighting was between Bemba's troops and those of an RCD-ML-K faction leader, Mbusa Nyamwisi, over territorial disputes.

At a meeting between representatives of MONUC and rebel leaders at MLC headquarters in Gbadolite, northwestern Congo, the UN had expressed concern over MLC troop advances towards Isiro, Sqn-Ldr Nigel Hillary of MONUC told IRIN on 7 January.

"However, despite assurances by the MLC that they would not enter Isiro, they have," he said. "We're working on a number of solutions, but the ultimate aim is to clearly define boundaries between the MLC and RCD-ML," Hillary said.

"There was no confrontation, simply clashes between armed bandits who got into territory we control," Bemba was reported by AFP last week as saying.