DRC:UN Chief Calls on DR Congo, Rwanda to Defuse Tension

Kinshasa---UN head Ban Ki-moon has called on presidents of Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Rwanda to resolve tension over a rebellion in DR Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu, a UN spokesman has said.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said that the UN Secretary General held discussions with President Joseph Kabila of DR Congo and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame over the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in eastern Congo after rebels who earlier broke ranks with the government started advancing over the weekend in several towns.

“Stressing the need do everything possible to dissuade the M23[mutineers] from making further advances and to cease fighting immediately, the secretary general urged Presidents Kagame and Kabila to pursue dialogue in order to defuse tensions and bring an end to the crisis,” said Nesirky.

The spokesman said Ban “expressed grave concerns” over reports that the M23 rebels “are receiving external support and are well-trained, armed and equipped,” adding that there was need to identify possible steps to resolve the crisis.

The M23 movement comprised of mostly Congolese Tutsis deserted their ranks in the Army earlier in April over what they claim was government’s failure to honour the March 23 2009 peace deal that saw them integrated into the Congolese army.

The renegades under General Bosco Ntaganda who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes have been holed up in the Virunga National Park near the Rwandan border, since deserting the army.

They recently surfaced, sweeping through towns in the volatile mineral-rich North Kivu Province where they claim that their intention is not to gain territory, but to get the government’s attention into holding fresh talks.

The mutineers have announced that they will push for Goma, North Kivu’s capital city if government forces fail to protect civilians. Bishop Jena Marie Runiga the political leader of M23 said on Wednesday that the group was dissatisfied after mobs in the city have been targeting ethnic Tutsis from Rwanda since Tuesday.

"Now about Goma, if civilians aren't protected… We M23 will take over the city of Goma and protect the civilians - the Tutsis, the Balega and the Bashi," he said during his address to journalists in Bunagana town on the Ugandan border, captured on Friday by the rebels.

He said that the intention of the group was to let the country’s problem known to the international community which are not due to interference from neighbouring countries but were caused within.

The UN has said it will reinforce its 19,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO to protect population centers from advancing mutineers.

An estimated 200,000 people have fled their homes since April, with about 20,000 crossing the border into Uganda and Rwanda.

The eastern DR Congo conflict is said to be a spill over from the Rwandan genocide where Congolese Tutsi rebels are reportedly armed by the Rwandan government officials to fight Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo. The Rwandan government strongly denies these allegations being made by the Congolese government and the UN in its recent report.

Tripoli, Libya

Liberals in Landslide Win in Eastern Libya

Libya’s liberal coalition party is headed for a major poll victory against Islamist party in the national assembly election in the revolution stronghold eastern city of Benghazi, according to preliminary results.

Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril’s National Forces Alliance (NFA) leads in the partial results with 95,733 votes against just 16, 143 for the Islamist Justice and Construction Party (JCP), showed on Wednesday by the electoral commission. Benghazi is mostly seen as the home turf of the Islamists and cradle of last year’s uprising against slain leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi and its fall to the liberals rings a similar sweep by NFA in other regions of the country.

NFA’s early lead throughout Libya shifts the dimension in the country always seen as conservative Islamic state, as the world is keen to see whether it will desist the trend of the Arab uprising, that has brought Islamists into power in Tunisia and Egypt.

Libyans went to the polls on Saturday to vote for the 200-member General National Congress, a legislative assembly that shall be tasked to deliver a new constitution and pave way for peaceful transition of power.

Figures showed that 1.7 million of the 2.9 million registered voters cast their ballots in the Saturday exercise. Full results will be announced in the end of week, after the election commission decided to bring ballot papers to the capital, Tripoli for a centralised count.

The 60-year-old western educated Jibril did not appear on the ballot under rules blocking members of the interim government from running, but has played influential role in uniting the more than 50 parties that form the NFA coalition.

Last week election materials were destroyed following an arsonist attack on a depot in Ajdabiya district in Benghazi allegedly perpetrated by those seeking autonomy in eastern Libya who had called for boycott of the election, in demand for a larger share in the legislative seats for the region.

The interim authorities earlier said they will back that Islamic “Sharia” law should be the main source of legislation and should not be subject to a referendum.

The constitution to be determined by a referendum will seek to lay down form of governance, weight of Islam in the state and the role of women and minorities rights among other key issues.