Philippe Naughton
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, admitted today that Britain may have to send troops to bolster the UN peacekeeping force in violence-torn Congo.
Mr Miliband's remark came as the Congolese Government rejected a rebel demand for negotiations, a demand backed by a direct threat to extend the conflict.
A UN convoy today rolled into the rebel-held town in eastern Congo in the first humanitarian aid delivery behind rebel lines since fighting began in August. A dozen all-terrain vehicles, escorted from the provincial capital of Goma by two truckloads of peacekeepers, arrived in the town of Rushturu, carrying medical supplies for clinics looted by retreating government troops as well as water-purification tablets.
Tens of thousands of people live in camps around Rutshuru and many fled into nearby villages and jungle after renewed fighting between government forces and Mr Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
Today's aid convoy was carrying only a small amount of water and medical supplies, but UN officials were to size up the possibility of sending bigger convoys through rebel territory, UN officials said. "At the moment, we are sending a team to see if it is possible to bring things to Rutshuru in the coming days," said Theo Kapuku, national programme officer for the UN World Food Programme.
After an emergency mission to the region this weekend, Mr Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner are to brief EU colleagues at informal talks in Marseilles later today.
After pouring cold water yesterday on the suggestion that already stretched British troops could be caught up in a new overseas entanglement, Mr Miliband today conceded that such a move was possible. "We have not ruled anything out. It is possible," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
The head of the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, its biggest ever mission, is also in Congo to assess the situation, Mr Milband pointed out, adding: "It is right to see this through the UN perspective".
Laurent Nkunda, the Tutsi rebel leader who has wrested control of several strategic towns, threatened yesterday to launch a campaign to overthrow the Government if his demand for negotiations was turned down, as it was this morning.
The rebels declared a ceasefire last week after surrounding the lakeside city of Goma where more than one million people have been displaced by fighting.
Meeting reporters yesterday at his Nord-Kivu stronghold of Kichangna, Mr Nkunda threatened to oust the Government in Kinshasa unless it holds "direct" talks on his demands. "We say we have to fight until we are going to get resolution of our problems through negotiations or if they ignore [that call], we are going to force them, to liberate Congo," Mr Nkunda said.
"For us, Congo is under occupation. An occupation of negative forces protected by our Government. And our Government has betrayed his people."
Mr Nkunda said that his troops were at the gates of Goma and had infiltrated Goma airport. He said that he had ordered his troops to halt their advance because he saw the suffering of people in Goma, and declared the ceasefire.
While Mr Nkunda's rebels have sought to reassure local people that they would be safe, Western governments have given warning of a looming humanitarian disaster in the central African nation.
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