UN Peacekeepers in Congo Fighting Tutsi Rebels Make Urgent Plea for Help

The army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today said it had been attacked by soldiers from neighboring Rwanda amid increased fighting in the east between government troops and forces led by a renegade general, Laurent Nkunda.

Rwanda's Tutsi-led government has denied it is helping Tutsi rebels in eastern Congo but there are fears the conflict is spreading, having already displaced about 100,000 people in a few days.

Nkunda says he is fighting to protect the Tutsi minority in eastern Congo. He commands a small force of several thousand well-trained soldiers widely suspected of being supported by the Rwandan army.

Rwanda backs Nkunda as it is unhappy at the presence of Hutu militias that fled to eastern Congo after taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which 500,000 Tutsis were slaughtered. Nkunda's troops have made significant territorial gains in recent weeks and are said to be within 10 miles of Goma, a provincial capital where thousands of refugees have congregated.

The UN force in the Congo – the biggest UN mission in the world, with17,000 personnel - has been drawn into the conflict and is fighting on the side of the poorly armed Congolese government troops.

Alain Le Roy, the head of UN peacekeeping, told reporters late yesterday that diplomats shared "a sense of urgency" and seemed receptive to sending reinforcements to the UN force.

The security council last night called for an immediate ceasefire and implementation of a disengagement plan. It "strongly condemned the offensive operations" of the rebels and expressed "grave concern" about the resurgence in violence and the humanitarian danger it posed.

The UN force had less than 6,000 troops deployed in North Kivu province, where Nkunda was threatening not only to take Goma but to "liberate" all of Congo, said Alan Doss, the top UN official in the country, in a video conference to New York from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.

"I did say to the council ... we were stretched to the limit, and that, I think, is proving to be now very much the case," he said. "So I obviously hope we can get some additional support as quickly as possible so that we can move this (peace) process back on the right track and get the parties into the disengagement plan."

The extra troops should come through the UN or on a bilateral basis, Doss said, but this was for the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon and the security council to decide.

Civilians frustrated by the inability of the UN to protect them stoned UN bases in Goma and the town of Rutshuru this week. Doss said a civilian was killed on Monday by a stray bullet when UN soldiers fired over the heads of the protesters trying to overrun the Goma base.

Doss said he understood civilian frustration and urged diplomatic efforts to get all groups together for talks. Civilians besieging the bases were slowing down efforts to take on the hostile forces, he said.

''We cannot have a soldier behind every tree, in every field, on every road and in every market; it is impossible," he said.