Global Policy Forum

By Christopher Wren

Alarmed by what it called a major violation of the fragile cease-fire in Congo's civil war, the Security Council demanded today that rebel forces withdraw immediately from a major port town that they captured last weekend on Lake Tanganyika.

A resolution sponsored by France and unanimously approved by the 15 members of the Council also called upon Rwanda, which has backed the insurgent movement, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, to use its influence to make the rebels withdraw.

The French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-David Levitte, said during a Security Council debate last week that Rwanda, one of a half-dozen countries that have poured troops into the civil war, had 10,000 soldiers inside Congo. Rwanda has denied that. In a country that suffers from insufficient and inadequate roads, the port town, Moliro, is strategically situated just east across the lake from Tanzania and not far from Congo's southern border with Zambia.

The Council demanded that the rebels also leave Pweto, another town on the Luvua River, a little more than 100 miles to the west. It also urged that Kisangani, a major city to the north that was ravaged by previous fighting, be kept demilitarized.

There has been concern that the latest violations of the fragile cease- fire in Congo could not only set off a new wave of civil warfare but also jeopardize the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping troops in Moliro, Pweto and some other towns.

The United Nations has committed more than 3,300 troops, including peacekeepers and military observers, to Congo. An official said today that an observer team was stationed in Moliro.

The civil war broke out in 1998, when the country was still known as Zaire. Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi supported the rebels and Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe sent in troops to shore up the government in Kinshasa. The cease-fire was drafted in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, in 1999, only to unravel, but it has been more or less respected since early last year.

The Security Council said the new fighting posed a threat to peace and security in the region. It asked all forces to return to their defensive positions, and urged the government in Kinshasa to resume talks that it broke off last week with other Congolese parties after the new fighting erupted.

The resolution, drafted by France and approved by the Council today with only minor changes, expressed its determination that that no party to the cease-fire should be allowed to make military gains while the peace process is under way.

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