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Uganda, Rwanda clash againin Congo

By TIMOTHY KALYEGIRA

KAMPALA, Uganda, June 5 -- Ugandan and Rwandan troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo clashed again Monday in the northeastern city of Kisangani.

Ugandan army commander Maj. Gen. Abubakar Jeje Odongo said the Rwandans attacked first.

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Odongo said at about 9 a.m. local time in Kisangani, Rwandan forces opened fire on a Ugandan jeep, destroying it. The Ugandan units fired back.

The Uganda army spokesman, Maj. Phineas Katirima, said Ugandan troops began firing mortar rounds after unidentified assailants attacked and tried to shell a Ugandan army vehicle on the outskirts of the city. He said the first suspects were Rwandan troops. "Some forces who are not interested in the demilitarization of Kisangani moved this morning to ambush our vehicle, destroying it with an RPG (rocket propelled grenade)," he said.

Rwandan government spokesman Joseph Bideri said Ugandan troops began firing at Rwandan positions during the mid-morning hours local time. Bideri hinted that the shooting might have been pre-meditated.

"The shelling came from different sides so what is clear is that the UPDF (Ugandan People's Defence Forces) had been infiltrating bushes in the surrounding areas in preparation for the attack," he said.

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A United Nations cease-fire monitor in Kisangani told BBC radio that the fighting had stopped temporarily during most of the day, but later resumed at about 1700 GMT.

Rwandan soldiers said they had been surrounded by Ugandan troops in an apparent ambush and fought back in self-defense.

Monday's clashes are the third since Uganda and Rwanda sent troops to the DRC in August 1998 to give logistical support to rebels in an uprising against the government of DRC president Laurent-Desire Kabila. The two armies first clashed for four days in August in Kisangani. The most recent clashes took place on May 5, also in Kisangani. More than 150 people are reported to have been killed in the May clashes.

The Rwandans and Ugandans fought alongside each other as guerrillas in the 1981-86 civil war that brought Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni to power. Uganda later gave support to the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front army when it invaded Rwanda in October 1990.

The two armies agreed two weeks ago to withdraw their troops from Kisangani under United Nations supervision.

Meanwhile, Congolese rebel radio on Monday welcomed Saturday's meeting in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret between the Rwandan president Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame and the Congolese President, Laurent-Desire Kabila.

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"It is a step in the right direction as long as it is a move toward peace. Unforturnately, the largest Congolese rebel movement, Mr Kabila, is desperately trying to solve the question of his national status during the transitional government planned in the Lusaka agreement," the radio said.

The Lusaka agreement referred to is the accords signed in the Zambian capital in July 1999 in which all the warring sides in the Congo conflict -- Uganda, Rwanda, and the rebels on one hand, and the DRC government, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia on the other hand -- agreed to a cease-fire.

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