MONUC to begin training police in Kisangani

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, is due to begin training police instructors in the eastern city of Kisangani on 29 July, the MONUC spokesman, Hamadoun Toure, told IRIN on Wednesday.

He said the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) - the rebel movement governing the area - and MONUC had on Tuesday reached an agreement clearing the way for the start of the six-week training course for 54 police instructors.

"The primary emphasis will be on human rights, on how to respect the human rights of individuals who are arrested," Toure said. After completing their training, the instructors would begin training the city's civilian police force. "We will then do an assessment, and if needs be, we will extend the programme to other areas in the east of the country."

In a separate development, Toure confirmed reports that all parties to the conflict in the DRC had accepted the idea of establishing a buffer zone on the border between the DRC and Rwanda to prevent incursions of Hutu militia groups into Rwanda. "It's an idea at this stage, but the technicalities have to be worked out," he said.

Rwanda's special envoy to the DRC, Patrick Mazimhaka, told AFP that Rwanda's understanding of the zone was that both DRC and Rwandan troops would patrol it, under the supervision of the UN. Mazimhaka said Rwandan President Paul Kagame and DRC President Joseph Kabila might meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki to discuss the plan.

"We have decided we would withdraw [from DRC] if the zone is established," Mazimhaka told AFP. "What we now have to do is to decide when and where it will be, how deep the joint force can go into the Congo."

Rwandan Hutu militias now in the DRC were responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which about 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed. Rwanda has repeatedly refused to withdraw its troops from eastern DRC, where it backs the RCD-Goma, before the Hutu militias have been disarmed.

The DRC government has continued to host the Hutu militias, whose presence was a major factor in the war which has dominated the region since 1998.