Nkunda explains ceasefire breach

NORTHERN PROVINCE GOMA—Rebel general Laurent Nkunda has spoken on the events which recently transpired on Friday, Spetember 7 after a fragile and day-old ceasefire was broken in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “On Thursday, we agreed to a ceasefire to stop fighting in the town of Sake. The government troops tried to get back positions we captured in Rumangabo, which we are resisting. That is why there is fighting. It is as if they are using the ceasefire as a method to get back to positions we have already captured,” Nkunda said. Government troops could not be reached for a comment but according to Sylvie van den Wildenberg, spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in the Congo (MONUC), the mission announced the ceasefire on Thursday after nearly two weeks of fighting in North Kivu province in which rebels loyal to Nkunda battled both UN and Congolese troops. “We facilitated a ceasefire between Nkunda’s troops and the government in Sake town. Nkunda’s men agreed to withdraw from Sake into the hills surrounding the town,” she said. Meanwhile, hundreds of Congolese in Goma town are currently climbing hills in efforts to capture signals of a newly launched rebel-owned radio station “Umoja FM.” General Nkunda says the station is meant to inform the local population of the reasons for the rebel group’s existence and rebellion. “Various radio stations have been confusing people, calling us names like enemies and terrorists whose objective was to destabilise peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All those are lies. We are fighting for our rights as Congolese. We have a new vision of liberating this country. After the war we shall go to political bills,” Nkunda said. Nkunda left the Congolese army and launched his own rebellion after large-scale fighting in the Congo ended in 2002. He is also believed to have rebelled to fight against FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) forces in North Kivu. He collects his own taxes and commands an army believed to number in the thousands in his own territory in the hills near Goma. Ends