GOMA - Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has threatened to occupy an eastern city unless UN peacekeepers guarantee a ceasefire, while foreign envoys scramble to secure peace on the Rwanda-Congo border.
Yesterday's threat followed a four-day offensive by Nkunda's Tutsi rebels that sent tens of thousands of civilians fleeing in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, raising fears of a repeat of the 1998-2003 war in the African state.
Nkunda, who declared a ceasefire late on Wednesday after his forces advanced almost to the limits of the provincial capital, Goma, said UN soldiers failed to stop civilians there being killed and robbed overnight by government troops in retreat.
"We will go into Goma if there is no ceasefire, no security and no advance in the peace process," he said by satellite phone. He said he was talking from his headquarters at Kirolirwe, eastern Congo.
Nkunda, who has said he is fighting to protect the ethnic Tutsi minority in eastern Congo, rejected any return to a broad peace deal signed in January in North Kivu, saying the process was too dominated by Congolese president Joseph Kabila's government.
He said he was ready to talk peace, but with a neutral mediator.
As tension persisted in Goma, the UN, EU and US lobbied Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to end the rebellion on their common border, with EU presidency holder France pressing for deployment of an EU force.
Several people were killed in looting overnight as gunfire rang out across the provincial capital and artillery boomed by the nearby border. Shooting subsided in the early hours.
Kevin Kennedy, a spokesman for the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc), said that while the ceasefire was holding in North Kivu, the Congolese army was "running amok" in parts of Goma. Monuc was redeploying peacekeepers from its 17,000-strong force the Democratic Republic of Congo to reinforce some 850 troops in Goma.
"We are talking about a mission that is absolutely stretched to the limit," Mr Kennedy added.
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo each accuse the other of border incursions but both deny entering each other's territory.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke to Rwandan president Paul Kagame, while EU aid commissioner Louis Michel met Mr Kabila, hoping to get the two leaders to meet. "That will no doubt help to put in place political processes which are absolutely necessary," Mr Solana said.
"We urgently need a ceasefire to stop the chaos and the suffering," Mr Michel said.
Renegade Tutsi general Nkunda and his 4,000 rebels have fought on and off since 2004 against the Congolese army, which he accuses of siding with Rwandan Hutus who took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
A January ceasefire collapsed in August. Nkunda, whose campaign to defend Tutsi communities has widened into a broader revolt, has demanded direct talks with Mr Kabila's government, which has in turn insisted any talks should take place in the framework of the UN-brokered January deal.
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who proposed on Wednesday that the EU send up to 1,500 troops, said EU members would meet by the weekend to discuss sending a humanitarian force.
A western diplomat said on Wednesday Germany was resisting France's plan to send troops.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon is sending envoys to the Rwandan and Congolese capitals. Earlier he said the violence was creating a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis.
Congo's 1998-2003 war and a continuing humanitarian emergency have killed an estimated 5.4 million people.
Asked about government accusations that Rwandan troops were fighting with his rebels, Nkunda said: "There is no Rwandan army in my movement." - ( Reuters)