French kill two as security in Congo worsens
By Matthew Green
BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - French soldiers sent to stop tribal fighting in Bunia killed two militiamen who attacked them Monday and the United Nations warned that the situation in the Congolese town was worsening despite the troops' arrival.
It was the first time the troops had killed any militiamen since they started arriving in Bunia on June 6 as part of an international force to protect civilians from fighting between ethnic Hema and Lendu militias. The fighting has killed an estimated 500 civilians in the past month.
"Warned earlier this morning of aggressive actions to the southwest of Bunia, a patrol of the multinational force went to the area," said Major Xavier Pons, deputy spokesman for the international force.
Pons said the patrol was attacked by two militiamen killed when the soldiers returned fire.
"The multinational force will respond firmly to all armed people threatening the life of the population and the soldiers of the multinational force," Pons told reporters.
The head of a Hema militia that seized control of Bunia from Lendu rivals in fighting last month said he was still gathering information on the incident.
"If they came upon militiamen spreading destruction somewhere and they intervened within the terms of their mandate, then they cannot be criticized for that," Thomas Lubanga, head of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia, told Reuters.
The soldiers clashed with tribal militiamen for the first time Saturday, when a patrol exchanged fire with gunmen beyond the outskirts of the town. No casualties were reported.
'RED LINE'
Francois Grignon of the International Crisis Group think-tank said Monday's deaths showed "there has probably been a red line drawn, showing where the militia were not entitled to cross."
"They probably needed to show that if they come under attack they were ready to strike back and not only shoot in the air," he told Reuters by telephone from Nairobi.
Militias and rebels rape, pillage and murder with impunity in Bunia, in the northeast of Congo, where a larger civil war has left 3 million dead since 1998. Residents fear the militia of the Hema-based Union of Patriotic Congolese, who effectively control Bunia, and hope the French can prevent attacks.
Some 500 French troops have arrived to secure the airport and mount limited patrols, but the French force said Monday it might not be able to guarantee residents' safety until it reached full strength over the next few weeks.
Madnodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for the U.N. Mission in Congo, said: "The security situation in Bunia is worsening."
He told reporters that of 48 kidnappings in the past week, 14 occurred last weekend. Eight people were murdered, one by beheading, and one person kidnapped last week was found dead.
A 60-year-old described how her brother had told her to flee when men approached them as they gathered sweet potatoes.
"When I was running I heard some screaming behind me," she told reporters, by her brother's freshly dug grave. "I thought it was a woman, when I came back to look I found he had been murdered."
Her brother was killed by a machete blow to the neck.
06/16/03 16:07 ET
