Zimbabwe troops, refugees flee Congo fighting

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Up to 300 Zimbabwean and 1,000 Congolese soldiers fled to Zambia on Tuesday to escape fierce fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo, senior Zambian security and defense sources said.

The sources told Reuters by telephone from the Zambian capital, Lusaka, that the Zimbabweans and Congolese had fled the southeastern Katanga province port town of Pweto, captured by Rwandan-backed rebel forces.

The capture of Pweto, on Lake Mweru near the Zambian border, would be one of the most significant blows yet to a fragile peace deal signed in Lusaka last year.

"We have under our protection 300 Zimbabwean soldiers. The Zimbabweans crossed into Zambia today. Another 1,000 Congolese government soldiers also crossed into Zambia today," a senior security officer said.

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The official said Zambia was now holding a total of 2,000 Congolese government soldiers.

"Our orders so far are to disarm all these armed soldiers and to confine them in camps far away from the border," another defense ministry official told Reuters.

In the Rwandan capital Kigali, a senior military officer confirmed the capture of Pweto and said Rwandan-backed rebels were now in complete control of Pweto port, airport, the main town and the border crossing to Zambia.

The officer said a Congolese government helicopter was also shot down in the fighting on Sunday and vast quantities of equipment including several tanks, armoured personnel carriers (APCs), machine-guns, howitzers and ammunition was captured.

"The (Congo) government forces and their allies are in bad shape. They lost a lot of equipment and they lost a lot of (human) forces," the officer told Reuters by phone from Kigali.

The officer said some bodies (of government troops) had also started floating on Lake Mweru. Rebel frontline units had meanwhile moved outside Pweto towards the town of Kasenga.

"The rebels are consolidating in positions outside Pweto. It is a purely defense strategy," he added.

Zimbabwe is alliance backbone

Zimbabwe is the backbone of a three-nation military alliance, with Angola and Namibia, backing the embattled government of President Laurent Kabila. Rwanda and Uganda support separate rebel groups fighting to topple Kabila.

Zambian intelligence officials said the fall of Pweto had put the town of Kasenga under rebel threat. Kasenga is a gateway to Lubumbashi, the capital of the mineral-rich Katanga province and the country's second largest city.

"It appears that the Congolese government and their allies are desperately trying to reinforce Kasenga. Militarily it appears the rebels are targeting Kasenga and that is bad news for the government in Kinshasa," the Zambian official added.

The fighting in the Congo escalated as defense chiefs from the countries involved met in Harare on Tuesday to discuss a timetable for withdrawal from front-line positions.

Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge, who chairs a committee on the implementation of a ceasefire agreement to end the 29-month-old war, urged defense chiefs on Tuesday to sign plans drafted by the panel last month.

Dubbed "Africa's World War One," the Congolese conflict has claimed thousands of lives and displaced more than 1.5 million people in Africa's third largest nation.

In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency said up to 60,000 refugees fleeing fighting between government and rebel forces in the Congo had reportedly gone to Zambia in less than a week.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said more Congolese could join the outflow as fighting continued around Pweto, which has changed hands several times in recent days.

Only 10,000 refugees were confirmed to have arrived in the northern Zambian border town of Chiengi as of Monday, but the Lusaka government estimates that 50,000 more could be scattered in the woods and surrounding villages, according to UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski.

"Up to 60,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have now reportedly fled to Zambia," Janowski told a news briefing in Geneva. In all, more than 80,000 Congolese may have fled the former Zaire since last May, according to the Geneva-based agency.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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