Rebels expel three UN officials from the east

An anti-government movement in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), has expelled three UN officials from areas under its control, saying the officials have carried out hostile acts against the movement, RCD-controlled radio RTNC reported on Friday.

The UN Human Rights chief in Kisangani, Luc Henkinbrant, a Belgian, was given 48 hours to leave RCD-controlled territory on Friday, having been accused of indiscipline and contempt for the group's authority. On Saturday, peacekeeping officials Lionel Gasparot - a French security chief with the UN Mission, (MONUC) - and Magda Gonzales, a Swiss-Colombian political adviser to the mission, were also ordered out for threatening internal security.

The RCD accused Gasparot and Gonzales of having links to a group accused of a grenade attack in a Goma church on 24 March that killed and wounded a number of people. Referring to the expulsion, the BBC quoted RCD foreign affairs chief Joseph Mudumbi as saying, "We must expel them, because their actions are hostile. An enemy must be dealt with, even if he has diplomatic accreditation."

AFP reported that two suspects in the attack had accused Gonzales and Gasparot of giving "moral, material and financial support to negative and terrorist forces", which were working in the city. All three UN officials have since been recalled to government-controlled Kinshasa.

On Saturday, MONUC rejected the accusations against the officials. MONUC said it had recalled the officials to the capital, Kinshasa, on Sunday for their "personal security" and had "strongly protested against the intrigues and intimidatory measures" against the men, notably the deployment of RCD military around their homes. MONUC also demanded an end to "unacceptable harassment" of all UN staff.

A MONUC spokesman told IRIN that the mission would on Tuesday send a delegation for talks. "We will be sending a delegation to talk to them in Goma to see if there is a problem, and what those problems are," he said.

"Our working capacity is not going to be hampered. The staff are going to be replaced," he said.

Tension between the RCD and MONUC rose in May following a UN report accusing the Rwanda-backed forces of gross human rights abuses in Kisangani, following a mutiny within the movement. Last week, the RCD-Goma leader Adolphe Onusumba also declared Amos Namanga Ngongi, the special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the DRC, persona non grata and demanded that the envoy be recalled.