President Joseph Kabila

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Lawyers warned the United Nations in April of the risks of backing military operations in which Congolese soldiers are now accused of massacring hundreds of civilians, internal U.N. documents showed on Friday. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, has backed government forces in a nine-month operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo's east. The world body says they are bolstering stability by supporting the operation but aid agencies argue the level of abuse and civilian casualties mean U.N support for operations should end. In an internal memo, seen by Reuters on Friday, the United Nations' Office of Legal Affairs wrote ... Read Full Story

A human rights group says more than 1,400 civilians have been killed in eastern Congo during army operations to oust militiamen from the area. In a report released Monday, Human Rights Watch said that both Congolese army soldiers and Hutu militiamen had shot civilians as people fled. It said others killed between January and September were burned inside their homes. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, has backed the Congolese army in the region since March. MONUC has said that the U.N. is working hard to protect civilians in the region. But Human Rights Watch urged the U.N. to immediately end ... Read Full Story

The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) plans to step up its strength at Gemena in the northwest to stop tribal strife getting worse, MONUC chief Alan Doss said Wednesday. "Today, the force commander, General (Babacar) Gaye went to Gemena," Doss told a Kinshasa press conference. "We're reinforcing our presence there to discourage any mischief." Doss added that MONUC wanted to get to the roots of the conflict in Equateur province, which erupted between the Lobala (or Enyele) tribe, which has been joined by former soldiers, and the Bomboma people late in October. The violence has claimed about 100 lives, mostly ... Read Full Story

President Joseph Kabila on Monday vowed that "public order will be restored" in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where deadly tribal strife has erupted. "Public order must be and will be restored" in the Dongo region of Equateur province, said Kabila in a televised address to parliament on the third anniversary of his election to lead the vast country. Kabila denounced the "tribalism of another age" that has pit fighters of the Lobola tribe against those of the Bomboma, at the cost of at least 100 lives and scores of thousands of displaced people and refugees. On Sunday, a commando battalion ... Read Full Story

Two Norwegians who have been sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo asked Saturday for a presidential pardon, their lawyer said. A military tribunal in the northern DR Congo has rejected an appeal by Tjostolv Moland, 28, and Joshua French, 27, who had been sentenced to death for the May 5 murder of the driver of a vehicle they rented. "The request was sent Saturday morning to President (Joseph) Kabila," their lawyer Giovanni di Stefano told AFP. In a letter to Kabila, seen in by AFP in London, Di Stefano said that under article 78 of the constitution, Kabila had the power ... Read Full Story