Rebel Holdouts in Congo OK New Government
By RODRIQUE NGOWI
.c The Associated Press
BUKAVU, Congo (AP) - Two small rebel groups - the last rebel holdouts in eastern Congo - have agreed to join the country's transitional government, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.
Leaders of the two groups - Patrick Masunzu and Aaron Nyamushebwa - agreed to join the government and integrate their forces into a new national army at a meeting Saturday with Brig. Prosper Nabyolwa, the new army's regional commander, said Sebastien Lapierre, a U.N. spokesman.
Both rebel groups are based in the South Kivu province and are drawn from the ethnic Tutsis who live in the area.
The deal is expected to ease tensions in South Kivu and give the United Nations and international aid agencies more access to the thousands of people left homeless and destitute by fighting in the 5-year civil war, Lapierre said.
The new government was formed in June and includes former Congolese rebels backed by Rwanda and neighboring Uganda.
Rwanda last poured troops into Congo in August 1998 to back Congolese rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila. The ensuing war drew in half a dozen African countries and left an estimated 3 million people dead, most from war-induced hunger and disease.
The conflict was declared over this year, but the vast central African nation's north and east remain volatile with deadly attacks and ethnic fighting.
11/04/03 05:15 EST
