By Thomas Hubert
KINSHASA (Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo is looking to intensify military operations against rebel groups on its territory, a top aide to President Joseph Kabila said on Monday despite a U.N. appeal for negotiated solutions.
Seraphin Ngwej, Kabila's diplomatic advisor, also told Reuters the president would stick to a 2011 target date for U.N. peacekeeping forces to leave the country, a move some observers fear will lead to further bloodshed and humanitarian problems.
Seven years after the 1998-2003 war that claimed more than five million lives, Congo is still riven by insecurity with Rwandan Hutu and local Mai-Mai militias at large in its east and Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the north.
"In South Kivu, we need to intensify the current operations," Ngwej said of the conflict in the east, where government forces backed by the U.N. peacekeeping force MONUC have fought since July 2009.
Congo launched a new wave of military operations against the FDLR rebels in the east in March, committing 18 battalions to a series of targeted attacks on north and south Kivu provinces. A battalion typically comprises at least several hundred soldiers.
Referring to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group now chiefly based in north-eastern Congo and in the Central African Republic, Ngwej said: "The President does not believe in a political solution".
"For the president, the only solution is an intensification of military operations after June 30. With the Ugandans, we are going to reinforce our troops along the border to make sure it is clean," Ngwej said.
Ugandan forces moved into Congo to take part in joint military operations against the LRA last year and have remained in the country informally since then.
He gave no details on reinforcement plans but visiting U.N. Under-Secretary-General John Holmes separately voiced concern at the prospect of fresh offensives, which rights groups say have provided cover for mass abuses of civilians by both sides.
"Those military operations have very serious humanitarian consequences. Their consequences are even more negative in the short term because those groups tend to seek revenge against the population," he said after a meeting with Kabila at his farm just outside Kinshasa.
"If those military actions can create the conditions ... for development to be possible, despite their humanitarian consequences, those operations are justified. But you need results," added Holmes, winding up a five-day visit.
Kabila and Holmes also disagreed on the timetable for the withdrawal of MONUC. Ngwej said Kabila maintained his 2011 deadline for the departure of the last U.N. peacekeeper while Holmes has called for a gradual pull-out as security allows.
Reuters Africa
