ANGOLA MANDA TROPAS PARA O CONGO

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Angola sending troops to Congo
By ANITA POWELL – 7 hours ago

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Angola is mobilizing troops to send to Congo, heightening fears that the fighting there would engulf other countries in the region.

Angolan Deputy Foreign Minister Georges Chicoty did not say how many troops will go to Congo or what their mission will be. But it may be that they will support the government in its fight against rebels led by Tutsi former general Laurent Nkunda rather than act as peacekeepers.

Congo asked Angola for political and military support Oct. 29. And Associated Press reporters have already seen Portuguese-speaking soldiers wearing green berets with pins in the shape of a map of Angola appearing to guard a road alongside Congolese soldiers.

Chicoty made the announcement on Angolan national radio after attending a meeting in Brussels with European foreign ministers Tuesday.

Southern African regional leaders meeting at a summit Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya, discussed sending troops to reinforce the scattered Congolese army near Goma, a provincial capital on the border with Rwanda.

The presence of Angolans in the volatile region could be seen as a provocation by Rwanda — the country whose 1994 ethnic genocide ignited the tensions that still roil the region today.

At least 500,000 Tutsis were slain in 1994; some of the Hutus who participated in the slaughter escaped to Congo. Nkunda says he is fighting to protect minority Tutsis in eastern Congo from those Rwandan Hutus.

Congolese officials sought Angolan help as Nkunda's rebels were advancing toward Goma. Nkunda called a unilateral cease-fire last week when his forces reached the outskirts of the city, but the truce has crumbled amid persistent reports of fighting.

The rebels have promised to fight any African troops that aid the Congolese army.

At least at least 250,000 people have been displaced by fighting that the largest United Nations peacekeeping force struggled to contain. U.N. officials say both the rebels and government troops have committed crimes against civilians.

U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich said Congolese army troops had reportedly raped civilians near the town of Kanyabayonga, 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Goma, in attacks that began Monday night and lasted into Tuesday morning.

The army troops are notoriously ill-disciplined. In recent days, some have been seen manning checkpoints drunk.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire so aid workers could urgently help "at least 100,000 refugees" cut off in rebel-held areas north of Goma.

The U.N. chief also said he was "very concerned by reports of targeted killings of civilians, looting and rape."

Ban said about 3,000 more U.N. peacekeeping soldiers and police were urgently needed to bolster the 17,000-strong U.N. force in Congo, which has been unable to stop the fighting or halt the rebel advance.

A rare nighttime gunbattle erupted late Tuesday between rebels and the army just north of Goma, and the U.N. said it was trying to get the warring sides to move further apart. Mortars were used during the nearly one-hour fight near Kibati, Dietrich said.

Kibati is six miles (10 kilometers) north of Goma and home to 75,000 people who have fled the fighting.

"There is a big tension because there are so many people there and it's so close to Goma," Dietrich said.

Closer to Goma, the situation for displaced refugees was dire.

"I haven't eaten properly in three weeks," said Teoneste Dies, 22. He fled his home three weeks ago with his wife and three children, surviving on whatever potatoes they could scrounge.

Associated Press Writers Todd Pitman in Goma and John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report.