Rebels Offer to Hand Town Over to U.N.
Rwandan-backed rebels who threw peace efforts into disarray by seizing a town in eastern Congo said they were ready to hand it over to the United Nations to try to revive reconciliation talks.
The capture of Moliro by the Congolese Rally for Democracy threatened to derail negotiations aimed at ending three years of war that have claimed 2 million lives, mainly through hunger and disease.
Peace talks in South Africa were suspended last week after the government protested the seizure of Moliro and France accused the rebels’ Rwandan backers of deploying their own troops in the fighting.
The U.N., which has troops monitoring the cease-fire in Africa’s biggest war, has not entered the town.
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