Congo Troops Capture Strategic Town In South - Rebels
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP)--Congolese government troops and their allies have captured the southeastern Congolese town of Pewit, five months after rebels demilitarized the strategic town, a rebel official said Friday.
The government troops, assisted by Rwandan and Burundian insurgents, captured the town Thursday, said Joseph , foreign affairs chief of the Rwandan-backed rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy, or RCA. Several people were killed and the rebel civilian administrators were forced to flee to neighboring Zambia.
Hamden Tour, spokesman for the U.N. observer mission in Congo , confirmed the capture of Pewit, but said the mission was still trying to identify which group has taken over.
Eight U.N. military observers deployed in the town are assessing the situation, Tour told The Associated Press from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
Congo government officials weren't immediately available for comment.
Other U.N. officials based in Congo said the town was captured by the May Mayi tribal militia allied with the Congolese government in the nearly four-year civil war in Congo .
At least four rebel policemen were killed during a low intensity battle for the town, the U.N. officials said on condition of anonymity.
The commander of the U.N. forces in Congo dispatched an envoy to meet Rwandan military top brass Friday to diffuse tension over the capture of Pweto, said Brigadier General Karenzi Karake, Rwanda's chief of military operations.
Congolese Defense Minister Irung Awan rejected the accusation that government troops captured Pweto, but said that he was informed by U.N. observers that some Mayi Mayi fighters - a tribal militia allied to the Congolese government - are in the town.
Updated June 21, 2002 9:37 a.m. EDT |
