Rebel Pullback Fails to Halt Riots

General Laurent Nkunda and Colonel Jules Mutebutsi said that only about 120 of their troops remained in Bukavu, 930 miles northeast of Kinshasa, and that the rest would be out by this afternoon.

The capture of Bukavu by the former rebel commanders posed the most serious challenge yet to the transitional government formed to end the devastating 1998-2002 war in Africa’s third-largest nation.

Anti-government and anti-UN riots erupted in the capital yesterday. Mobs blamed Congo’s army for giving up Bukavu and Congo’s 10,800-strong UN force for standing by as it was seized.

Kabila addressed the country on state television last night in an effort to calm the situation.

“I understand your anger and indignation that you expressed when Bukavu fell. This shows your attachment to national unity,” he said. “Nevertheless, the solidarity you’re expressing cannot at all justify the excesses that took place.”

He also continued to insist that Rwandan forces were in Bukavu, a charge the Rwandan foreign minister has strongly denied, and UN peacekeepers say they have no evidence to support.

“I will not accept that the destiny of our people is taken hostage by another country. The insurgents must lay down their arms and the Rwandan troops must retreat,” Kabila said. He also asked the United Nations to “get involved with more determination.”

Nkunda and Mutebutsi said they took military action because the local military commander was persecuting the Congolese Tutsi minority in Bukavu.

In Kinshasa, UN troops shot and killed at least two protesters who stormed a UN base in a day of massive protests yesterday. There were more demonstrations today, but on a smaller scale.

Crowds heaped piles of tyres, scraps of wood and tree branches to block streets on the sprawling capital’s outskirts.