Congo rebel fighters fail to turn in as promised

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - A renegade Congolese general said on Wednesday he would disband some of his rebel soldiers to help bring peace to an eastern province, but U.N. officials said there was no sign of his fighters turning themselves in.

General Laurent Nkunda had said he would send more than 500 of his Tutsi soldiers on Wednesday to a specially prepared camp in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, for them to be integrated into the national army.

His announcement appeared to signal that he was willing to participate in the demobilisation process demanded by President Joseph Kabila, who has given the go ahead for an army offensive to forcibly disarm Nkunda's men if they fail to disband.

But as night fell over North Kivu, where Nkunda has fought battles against the army since August when his soldiers abandoned a January peace deal, United Nations officials said there was no sign of Nkunda's fighters coming in from the bush.

"It's getting dark here and unfortunately no combatants have come in," Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman in North Kivu for the U.N. mission in Congo (MONUC), told Reuters.

"We're starting to worry that General Nkunda will not live up to the promise he made in a public statement to international media that he would send more than 500 of his men to Kirolirwe integration centre," she added.

There was no immediate word from Nkunda as to why he had failed to send his men for integration as he had promised.

Earlier, the insurgent general, who has led a rebellion since 2004 in defence of the Tutsi community in Congo, said he was in contact with MONUC. He said U.N. peacekeepers had prepared the logistics to receive his men.

"I'm doing this to show the international community that we Congolese want peace ... because civilians are continuing to die without reason," Nkunda said, referring to civilian casualties in recent fighting.

"SEEING IS BELIEVING"

Diplomats said Nkunda had previously made similar public promises to disband his men without following through.

"We'll believe it when we see it. We've seen these promises before," one Western diplomat in Kinshasa said. Experts estimate Nkunda's total forces may number at least 4,000.

MONUC has called on Nkunda's men to make the short trip out of the bush and report to special camps so they can be integrated into the national army as part of a nationwide peace process that followed the country's 1998-2003 war.

Kabila, who has vowed to pacify all of his vast, mineral-rich country since winning elections in the former Belgian colony last year, said last week he had given a "green light" for the armed forces to move against Nkunda.

But the president, who is currently visiting the United States, declined to say when the offensive would start.

Nkunda says he is defending Congo's Tutsi ethnic community against attacks by Rwandan Hutu rebels he says are supported by Kabila's army. The Congolese leader denies such support and says he also plans to disarm the Hutu rebels, who are accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide killings of Tutsis.

U.N. relief agencies fear an all-out army offensive will sharply worsen the humanitarian situation in North Kivu, where 370,000 people have fled fighting this year. (Additional reporting by Themistocle Hakizimana in Kigali)

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