U.N. opens investigation of Congo war crimes

Last week, the Security Council unanimously approved sending almost 3,100 additional peacekeeping troops, which would bring the total in Congo, including police, to more than 20,000.

British deputy ambassador Karen Pierce stressed the importance of getting the reinforcements on the ground as soon as possible. European nations, the most likely to provide troops for such a force, have so far been reluctant to commit troops.

But Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht said at U.N. headquarters that his and several other European nations are considering pooling soldiers to supplement the U.N. force — a "bridging" force in the coming months that has Ban's support.

De Gucht has called for the European Union to send at least 2,000 soldiers, but support for that has been lukewarm.

Conflict between Hutus, Tutsis
In a letter made public Wednesday, Rwanda's foreign ministry urged the regional nations and international community to support an agreement between Rwanda and Congo earlier this month.

The two nations agreed to take military action to root out Hutu militias operating in eastern Congo and to promote a political solution to the differences between the Congolese government and Nkunda's forces.

Nkunda says he is protecting minority Tutsis from Hutus who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Critics say he is more interested in power and accuse his forces of committing human rights abuses.

Rwanda's Foreign Ministry said "the root cause of the conflict" in eastern Congo is the Rwandan Hutu FDLR militia, which incorporates some combatants who participated in the Rwandan genocide.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the U.N. envoy trying to help end the recent fighting, said this week that the issue of what to do about the FDLR must be addressed.

A third element in the violence in the Congo this year has been the Mai Mai militias that operate between the margins.

Since the fighting intensified in August with an offensive by Nkunda to seize large sections of the country, more than 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, and cholera has become a major problem in camps for the displaced.

The rebel forces also have set up their own local administrations and are collecting taxes on the region's rich minerals and other goods moving through their territory.

3,000 gather for aid
Meanwhile, about 3,000 people massed in a rebel-held town in eastern Congo Wednesday to receive the largest distribution of aid since fighting engulfed the area a month ago.

The U.N. Children's Fund handed out soap, blankets and water containers, supplies that can help combat diseases such as cholera, said spokesman Jaya Murthy.

Over the next six days, the agency will distribute these supplies to nearly 100,000 residents, he said.

Murthy said hundreds of cholera cases have been reported in the past three weeks in Rutshuru, the de facto capital of rebel-held territory where people gathered to receive aid about 45 miles north of the regional capital of Goma.

"This intervention is particularly critical," Murthy said. "With the frequent movements of people, that's how cholera spreads."

Rutshuru, which was taken by rebels in a swift and bloody cordon-and-search operation, appeared calm Wednesday. Businesses that had been shuttered during the fighting have reopened, and a steady flow of people walked the streets and visited the markets.

Outside Goma, where 70,000 refugees have fled to a sprawling refugee camp in recent weeks, camp officials are preparing to move people to a more secure location.

Thousands of refugees at risk
U.N. officials say the site in Kibati, which sits just three miles from a tense front line between soldiers and rebels, is not safe. In the past week alone, camp residents say soldiers have looted, and two women have been killed by stray bullets.

U.N. refugee officials said they are preparing facilities at a new camp northwest of Goma to accommodate 30,000 refugees.

Years of sporadic violence in eastern Congo intensified in late August, when rebel leader Laurent Nkunda launched an offensive and took control of large sections of territory. The rebels have set up their own local administrations and collect taxes on goods moving through their territory.

Nkunda says he is protecting minority Tutsis from Hutus who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Critics say he is more interested in power and accuse his forces of committing human rights abuses.

Some fear the crisis could again draw in neighboring countries. Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war split the vast nation into rival fiefdoms and embroiled a half-dozen African armies in a scramble for the country's rich mineral resources.

President Joseph Kabila, himself a former rebel leader whose father seized power in 1997 after years of war in Congo, won the country's first democratic election in more than 40 years in 2006.

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