Envoy Says Congo War Has Flared

At least 10,000 Rwandan troops have launched an offensive in eastern Congo in a major resumption of the country’s 3 1/2-year war, France’s ambassador told the U.N. Security Council on Friday.

Jean-David Levitte said fighting in the region of Moliro, a government-held town in Katanga province, was “particularly serious.”

“It seems that seven battalions of Rwandan troops--10,000 people at least--are engaged in an offensive action,” he said. “It is a serious resumption of the war.”

Rwanda denied that any of its troops were engaged in combat, but a Rwandan-backed rebel group confirmed the fighting.

Azarias Ruberwa, secretary-general of the Rwandan-backed rebel group Congolese Rally for Democracy, known as the RCD, blamed the Congolese army for the resumption.

“We are acting in legitimate defense. . . . We are victims of attacks by the government,” he said.

Karenzi Karake, the Rwandan army chief of operations, said all Rwandan troops in the region were in Kalemie, 185 miles north of Moliro on Lake Tanganyika.

Diplomats in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, said they did not believe that the Rwandan army was involved and that any fighting was likely to be between the RCD and the Congolese army.

The Security Council on Thursday demanded an end to all fighting in Congo just as the Congolese government pulled out of talks on the future of the Central African nation as a protest against recent attacks.

On Friday, the council scheduled talks for Tuesday on the situation.

Levitte demanded that the U.N. peacekeeping mission monitoring a 1999 cease-fire in Congo “shed light on what is now happening in Moliro.”