U.N. peacekeeper shot dead in eastern Congo
KINSHASA, the Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen shot dead a South African United Nations peacekeeper in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile eastern town of Bukavu, a U.N. official said Tuesday.
"We don't exactly know the circumstances. He was off duty and walking to his camp in civilian clothes when two shots were heard," U.N. spokeswoman Eliane Nabaa said of the shooting late Monday.
The soldier was found with gunshot wounds by Uruguayan peacekeepers who went to investigate the shots. He died later from his injuries.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, was carrying out a full investigation of the incident, the United Nations announced in New York.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan "is deeply saddened by the killing of a MONUC contingent member near Bukavu yesterday," spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. "While the perpetrators of the incident remain unknown, he condemns in the strongest possible terms any attempts to deter MONUC from carrying out its mandate."
In South Africa, military spokesman Kwena Mangope told the domestic news agency SAPA that the South African government also was investigating the shooting.
U.N. troops have struggled to cement a fragile peace process in the central African's country's mineral-rich east, a wild region with few roads, rugged mountains and dense jungles where rag-tag armed groups roam.
The attack comes two days after an apparent coup attempt in the capital Kinshasa against a power-sharing government which took office last year, officially ending a five-year war in which more than 3 million people were killed.
Bukavu was the scene of clashes last month between rebel hard-liners and pro-government loyalists, prompting the largest ex-rebel group to threaten to pull out of the government.
In February, a Kenyan U.N. peacekeeper was shot dead when a U.N. team came under fire outside the northeastern town of Bunia, in the troubled Ituri district further north.
(Additional reporting by Manoah Esipisu in Johannesburg and Irwin Arieff at the United Nations)
03/30/04 14:38 ET
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