DR Congo accuses UN over killings

1 The Democratic Republic of Congo has accused UN

peacekeepers of failing to stop rebel troops killing civilians in
the east of the country.

2 "People are being slaughtered and [UN peacekeepers] did

nothing," a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila said.

3 The comments came as regional leaders met UN Secretary

General Ban Ki-Moon in Kenya for crisis talks.

4 There were also reports that fresh fighting has broken out
between rebels and government troops north of Goma.
See detailed map of the area The UN says it is investigating the killings in
Kiwanja

5 Congolese rebels have been fighting government troops in eastern Congo since August, causing
tens of thousands of civilians to flee. The summit in Nairobi will be a diplomatic banging together of
heads to avoid the fighting escalating into a regional conflict, says the BBC's Karen Allen.

6 Mr Ban's aim is to get a peace deal which was signed earlier this year back on track. Rebel leader
General Laurent Nkunda is not attending the talks, but he is in contact with the UN and other
delegates at the summit.

7 'Killed by guns'
Congolese army General Vainqueur Mayala, the head of government forces in North Kivu province,
told the Reuters news agency that there had been a "clash" between his troops and rebels loyal to
Gen Nkunda near a refugee camp in Kibati on Friday. Thousands fled towards Goma when the mortar
and small arms fire broke out, a reporter for Agence France Presse said.

8 Meanwhile, the UN said it was investigating reports that rebels led by General Nkunda had killed
civilians in their homes in the eastern town of Kiwanja.

9 At least 12 bodies were found in the town, which was retaken by rebels loyal to him earlier this
week. "They knocked on the doors, when the people opened, they killed them with their guns," said
Simo Bramporiki, whose wife and child were killed during the night. One woman showed journalists
the bodies of five men inside her house, one of them her husband, and two more lying outside.
Gen Nkunda claimed his fighters, who have also seized control of the town of Nyanzale, about 80km
(50 miles) north-west of Goma, had attacked armed pro-government militia. However, reports say
there was nothing to indicate the men, most of whom were wearing civilian clothing, were fighters.
10 A spokesman for the UN in DR Congo, Madnodje Mounoubai, told
the BBC that the UN was doing its best to help civilians, but that
peacekeepers could not fire at rebels when they were surrounded by
civilians.

11 "You cannot fire when you have civilians on the road running in
all directions. If you start firing in that situation you end up killing a
lot of civilians," he said. The fragile ceasefire in eastern Congo is
unravelling

12 "We have to be responsible when we are using our fire power, that's our problem."

13 The situation in DR Congo has been described as a humanitarian catastrophe, and an estimated
250,000 people have been made homeless by the conflict.
The UN has 17,000 peacekeepers in DR Congo, making the mission, Monuc, its largest in the world.
But only a few hundred peacekeepers are in the areas affected by the latest violence, and human
rights groups have also criticised the UN for failing to prevent the killings. However, Monuc says it is
reinforcing its troops in the regional capital, Goma, and has warned that soldiers will fire on any
armed group trying to enter the city.

14 Child soldiers
The charity Save the Children says there has been an increase in the kidnapping of children to
become child soldiers. Before the fighting began in earlier this year, there were an estimated 3,000
child soldiers across the country, but that number is now expected to be higher.

15 "At the beginning of June we were thinking that in this region there were about 3,000 child
soldiers... The numbers now, after this latest upsurge of recruitment and violence, are likely to be
very much higher," said spokeswoman Ishbel Matheson.

16 Gen Nkunda has threatened to topple the DR Congo government in Kinshasa, 1,580km (980
miles) west of Goma, unless President Kabila agrees to hold direct talks.

17 The Congolese government has refused to negotiate with Gen Nkunda, calling him a terrorist.
He says he is fighting to protect his Tutsi community from attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels, who fled to
Congo after the 1994 genocide.

18 The Congolese government has often promised to stop Hutu forces from using its territory, but
has not done so. For its part, the Congolese government accuses Rwanda trying to destabilise it of by
backing the rebels, which Rwanda denies. Gen Nkunda also objects to government plans for foreign
involvement in exploiting the country's vast mineral wealth.

19 Correspondents say a ceasefire around Goma appears to be holding, but the latest clashes have
sparked fears the rebels could follow through on their threat to attack the city. Tens of thousands of
people have sought refuge there.

20 Meanwhile, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has blamed the international community for failing to
address what he says are the root causes of the crisis, despite channelling tens of millions of dollars
into the region. He said the real reason for the crisis was what he described as the weak leadership of
the Congolese government, which had failed to disarm Hutu rebels.