Congo Rebels Claim Advances as Kabila Arrives at Regional Summit

Warring parties in Congo claimed gains Friday as President Laurent Kabila joined regional leaders in Zimbabwe to seek a solution to the conflict.

Tutsi-led rebels waging a weeklong campaign against Kabila claimed fresh advances in eastern Congo. In Kinshasa, state radio said loyalist troops had retaken the airport in the north-central city of Kisangani.

Kabila, who accuses neighboring Rwanda and Uganda of fomenting the revolt, made little comment on his arrival in the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls for summit talks starting today.

“Not now. Tomorrow,” he said when asked of his hopes for the summit, which will focus on the conflict and is expected to include the leaders of both Rwanda and Uganda.

Rwanda, which backed Kabila on his way to toppling veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in May 1997, denies involvement this time. It has sent President Pasteur Bizimungu to the talks.

“We are all interested in a Congo that is properly managed and a Congo that is stable,” Bizimungu said.

Within hours of his Kabila’s departure, Congo troops looted shops and harassed ethnic Tutsis in Kinshasa amid suspicions that Tutsis are behind the military push for the president’s ouster.

“In the army, the soldiers are very unhappy,” said a senior police commander with the city’s intelligence branch. The officer, who was patrolling the streets to stop the looting, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The capital was tense, with troops deployed at key government and commercial buildings and checkpoints erected to search all traffic entering and leaving the city.

In Geneva, the United Nations human rights agency condemned the attacks on Tutsi neighborhoods and urged Kabila to provide better security in the city.

“I am aware that there have been reports of looting and burning of shops targeting certain segments of the population in Kinshasa,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.

The apparent revenge attacks on Tutsis reflect a growing instability in Kinshasa and elsewhere in Congo, formerly called Zaire. The United States and several European countries have warned their citizens to avoid traveling to the country.

Sylvain Bikelenge, a rebel commander, said from the eastern border town of Goma, where the revolt erupted Sunday, that Kabila should go and that the guerrillas’ ultimate target is Kinshasa.

State radio in Kinshasa said Kabila’s troops retook Kisangani airport on Friday after fighting but gave no details.

Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, whose country’s vitally important copper mining industry lies close to the border with the Congo, said: “We are all worried about events in the Congo, and it is my hope that we can get a settlement because a stable Congo is important for the region.”

Earlier Bizimungu repeated Rwandan denials that its army was fighting in the territory of its giant neighbor, but added that the situation could change.

Uganda also dismissed charges of involvement in the revolt.