Red Cross Reports on Congo Deaths

By HRVOJE HRANJSKI
Associated Press Writer

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) _ At least 518 people, including 319 Congolese civilians, died during the week Rwandan and Ugandan troops battled over the northern Congolese city of Kisangani, the International Red Cross said Monday.

In Geneva, the United Nations' special envoy for Congo, Kemal Morjane, said both Rwanda and Uganda had completed withdrawing their troops from Kisangani as demanded by the U.N. Security Council in a resolution adopted Friday.

``I can confirm that today there are no soldiers officially in the town of Kisangani, Rwandan or Ugandan,'' Morjane said.

Philippe Spoerri, a Red Cross representative in the city, said the death toll could rise as local aid workers clear away the rubble of bombed-out houses and apartments. In addition to the 319 civilian deaths, 120 soldiers died, he said, but he did not give their nationalities.

The Rwandan army said it had killed at least 140 Ugandan soldiers. The Ugandans did not say how many Rwandans they killed. Neither side mentioned its own losses.

An additional 1,668 people were injured in the heavy shelling and automatic weapons fire, including 569 wounded who received treatment in Kisangani's four hospitals and medical centers, Stoeri said.

Three rebel factions are fighting to oust President Laurent Kabila, and five foreign armies are backing one side or the other. Rwanda and Uganda fell out over their support for rival insurgent forces.

Morjane said he was now concerned whether two of the Congolese rebel factions would start fighting over Kisangani now that their Rwandan and Ugandan backers have withdrawn.

The United Nations, which has only 30 unarmed military observers in the city, has put in an urgent request that at least 240 armed troops be deployed to Kisangani to fill the vacuum left by the Rwandan and Ugandan withdrawal.

Morjane said Tunisia will send a technical team to Congo on June 30, the 40th anniversary of Congolese independence. Deployment of armed troops would depend on whether the U.N. criteria of freedom of movement and a commitment to a cease-fire could be met, he said.

The Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy, the main rebel group in control of much of eastern Congo, is the only armed force in Kisangani. Although it earlier promised to leave Kisangani, rebel spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba said the Rally for Democracy forces would remain as the ``legitimate Congolese authority.''

The Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement, based in northwestern Congo, has threatened to take Kisangani. Its units fought alongside Ugandan forces during the June 5-10 clashes.

Originally, the Red Cross estimated that 150 civilians had died in the fighting between the two erstwhile allies in Congo's 2-year-old civil war. The fighting ended when the Rwandans drove the Ugandans out of the city.

Both sides dumped an estimated 6,000 mortar rounds and artillery shells on Congo's third-largest city.

Monday's announcement that both sides had withdrawn from Kisangani came a day after U.N. military observers there said the Rwandan army had withdrawn to at least 60 miles south and southeast of Kisangani, while Ugandan forces were in the process of withdrawing.

A group of European Union diplomats who visited Kisangani Saturday from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, said the Ugandan troops had requested more time to complete their withdrawal from Kapalata camp 6 miles north of Kisangani.