UN peacekeeping chief urges reconciliation between DR Congo and Rwanda

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But as recently as earlier this month, military sources in eastern DRC said at least five people were killed in an attack by Rwandan rebels on an army patrol near Goma, in the east of the country.

"The international community can only act in support of the central role that will be played by the citizens of the DRC and Rwanda," Guehenno said, adding that he had congratulated DRC President Joseph Kabila and other government members on the progress of transition started in April last year.

Guehenno will head on to northeastern Bunia, the main town of the Ituri region, where intertribal violence has left 50,000 dead and 500,000 displaced since 1999 and a 4,700-strong UN peacekeeping force (MONUC) is deployed.

The UN official will head next to the eastern DRC cities of Bukavu and Uvira before returning to Kinshasa, where he will attend the unveiling of a monument to the memory of 37 MONUC soldiers who have died in the DRC since the peacekeepers arrived in late 1999.

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http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=2668

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1. Refugees make good business as tribes battle

Refugees make good business as tribes battle
By Rodrique Ngowi
Associated Press



BUNIA, Congo -- Dealers buy flakes of gold from small-time miners. Hunters peddle monkey meat to mothers with families to feed. And women hawk everything from soap to vegetables to pirated CDs.

Nestled in the corner of a muddy camp for 10,000 people displaced by tribal fighting in northeastern Congo, the bustling market is an unlikely success story in a land devastated by decades of ruinous dictatorships and civil war.

"Business is thriving here because there is something for everyone," says Rashidi Mahamudi, a gold dealer who opened shop in the camp after abandoning his store in Bunia's nearby downtown because of the conflict between rival tribes.

Like millions around Africa who have lived under brutal dictatorships and through civil wars, the residents of Congo's Ituri region have found ways to survive in an area where more than 50,000 people are thought to have been killed since 1999 in battles involving soldiers, rebels and tribal fighters.

Accurate economic statistics are hard to come by for Ituri -- or for any part of the vast country of at least 50 million people. In many parts of Ituri, frequent clashes between tribal militias have brought business to a standstill.

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http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2165803,00.html