Rwanda begins withdrawal from Congo city

June 14, 2000
Web posted at: 8:26 a.m. EDT (1226 GMT)

KISANGANI, Congo (CNN) -- Rwandan troops began withdrawing on Wednesday from the Congolese city of Kisangani, the scene of six days of heavy fighting last week between Rwandan and Ugandan troops.

Rwanda's chief-of-staff, Brigadier Nyamwasa Kayumba, told CNN that Rwanda was "unconditionally getting out of Kisangani and its environs."

He said Rwanda had asked the United Nations to deploy a small group of military observers in the city to monitor the pullout.

MESSAGE BOARD Congo peace

Rwanda and Uganda both agreed to pull out of the diamond-mining city after separate meetings with Maj. Gen. Mountaga Diallo, commander of the U.N. Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"We hope it will take a maximum of one week," Diallo said after meeting with Ugandan commander Maj. Gen. Jeje Odongo in Kampala, Uganda.

Diallo spoke with Kayumba by telephone during the meeting with Odongo, and had met in person with the Rwandan chief in Kigali on Tuesday.

Rwanda and Uganda had been allies in a rebel fight against Congo President Laurent Kabila, the one-time rebel leader who deposed Mobuto Sese Seko to take charge the former Zaire. But Rwanda and Uganda now back rival rebel factions, and have been battling for control of Kisangani's diamond industry.

United Nations on hold

On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the organization's Security Council to insist that both Rwanda and Uganda leave Congo immediately under threat of sanctions.

The Security Council has authorized a force of over 5,000 U.N. observers to monitor a cease-fire, but those troops won't be deployed until all sides show concrete signs of abiding by the terms of a peace accord signed last year in Lusaka, Zambia.

Announcing the withdrawal from Kisangani, Kayumba said that his troops were returning directly to Rwanda, but that a complete withdrawal from Congo could take up to a month. He warned that the United Nations might not be up to the task of restoring order once his troops have departed.

"What returns is chaos," Kayumba said, adding that he would send Rwandan forces back if the international community is unable to demilitarize Rwandan militias exiled in Congo.

Nairobi Bureau Chief Catherine Bond, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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