Renegade general abandons eastern Congo ceasefire

Here's the most recent news on the conflict related to the refugees I've been talking to here in Burundi, though they've now been moved, and their number has increased in Burundi to 7,000. We're taking a team of Frontliners to them next month. This also has the documented fact that I think escapes most western audiences that aren't looking for this sort of news, and that is that an estimated 4 million have died do to conflict in this region between 98-2003 alone. This is one of the more beautiful regions in the heart of Africa, but the level of suffering is un paralleled. I'm hoping to have a video up showing one of the camps soon.

KINSHASA, Oct 8 - Congolese renegade general Laurent Nkunda on Monday abandoned a month-old ceasefire in an eastern border province, blaming attacks by the government which in turn accused him of pushing the country towards war.
Nkunda's announcement heralded more conflict and suffering in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, where fighting between his soldiers and government troops have already forced tens of thousands of civilians from their homes.
The province, has long been a tinderbox of ethnic tensions and clashes between the army and rival rebel and militia groups.
After fighting in the east in August and early September, the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) announced on Sept. 6 a limited truce between the rebel Tutsi general and the army.
But fresh clashes between the two sides broke out last week and over the weekend, and U.N. military sources said fighting continued on Monday in several parts of North Kivu.
Nkunda accused the government army, which said it killed at least 35 of his fighters last week, of attacking his positions.
"There is no ceasefire. ... We have told ourselves we will no longer stand with our arms crossed while people are dying. We must react. We are soldiers," Nkunda told Reuters by telephone.
"MONUC thinks there is a ceasefire, but we've abandoned it."
In response, Congo's Defence Minister Chikez Diemu accused Nkunda, who says he is defending the interests of Congo's Tutsi ethnic group, of trying to "Balkanise" the country.
"He's playing a dangerous game. Now he's pushing us towards war," the minister told Reuters.
He added Congo would implement measures agreed with its Great Lakes neighbours Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. He did not spell these out but the states have been discussing cooperation to counter rebel groups operating in eastern Congo.

ETHNIC ENMITY
Some of the recent North Kivu fighting took place in Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest park, forcing rangers to flee and putting endangered mountain gorillas there at risk.

Nkunda, who led a 2004 rebellion, accuses Congo President Joseph Kabila's government and armed forces of supporting Rwandan Hutu rebels -- traditional ethnic enemies of the Tutsi.
The largely Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels are accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide that saw the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by a Hutu-led government and ethnic militias.
Kabila denies supporting the FDLR.
The North Kivu fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians and foreign relief agencies have warned of a fresh humanitarian catastrophe in Congo, which is still recovering from a 1998-2003 war that killed some 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease generated by conflict.