Kagame Urged to Use Influence in Congo Crisis

Britain has urged Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his influence over Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda to help resolve the raging violence and humanitarian crisis in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).Speaking ahead of a meeting with Kagame in Kigali, British Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Mark Malloch-Brown, said he would prevail on the Rwandan leader to get involved in the international community’s search for a solution to the crisis. Malloch-Brown however stressed that Britain did not subscribe to speculation that Rwanda was behind Nkunda’s insurrection. Over 250,000 people have been displaced since Nkunda's Tutsi rebels launched an energized rebellion against the Congolese government in August. Fresh fighting between a pro-Kinshasa militia and the rebels was reported Thursday, barely one day after the rebels withdrew from two key battlefronts.[PE]