Global Policy Forum

Growing violence in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo threatens to derail efforts to end the war in the vast African country, U.N. officials said on Wednesday. A revived peace process has made substantial progress since Congolese President Joseph Kabila succeeded his murdered father in January, but though the warring sides have pulled back from parts of the front line, fighting has continued in some areas.

Gen. Mountaga Diallo, the commander of the U.N. force in Congo, told a news conference in the capital Kinshasa that militia groups must be disarmed in order to halt attacks such as one last week on Lake Tanganyika in which three civilian women and a child died. ''Things are intensifying,'' Diallo said. ''This threatens to derail the peace process if the clashes between armed groups are not stopped.''

At U.N. headquarters, U.N. envoy Kamel Morjane told reporters he delivered a similar message to the 15-nation Security Council, cautioning that ''we have not yet reached the no-return point when it comes to the war. Relations with the parties are much better today, and a cease-fire has extended six months now, but there are still difficulties,'' said Morjane, who is Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to Congo.

Diallo said that a particular concern was fighting in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, where pro-government groups were operating even though the United Nations had previously regarded the area as being free of government troops. Diallo said U.N. officials had brought up alleged cease-fire violations with the Joint Military Commission -- set up under the peace deal with representatives of the warring parties. Officials said the commission had this week denounced ''grave violations of the cease-fire'' by the Congolese armed forces.

A government statement televised on Tuesday said those involved in the hostilities were not regular troops but resistance fighters -- code for loyalist Mai-Mai militiamen fighting against rebel forces backed by Rwanda and Uganda.

Diallo said his force would send a reconnaissance team next week to the eastern towns of Uvira and Bukavu to assess the situation on the ground. Both Diallo and Morjane called on Rwandan-backed rebel troops to leave the key northeastern city of Kisangani as agreed under the disengagement plan. Rwanda and Uganda, which backs a rival rebel faction, have both pulled their own armies out of the war-scarred city.

Diallo also urged Ugandan-backed rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba to surrender control of local authorities in areas vacated by his forces under the agreement. ''Jean-Pierre is effectively disengaging, but still retains the administration and the police in areas which by rights should revert to government control,'' Diallo said.