Civilians flee as Congo rebels attack militia

More than 10,000 Congolese civilians fled to Uganda in a matter of hours Thursday to escape renewed fighting, the U.N. refugee agency said. Roberta Russo, the UNHCR spokeswoman in Uganda, said the refugees reported attacks by rebels who launched a fresh offensive in August after years of low-level fighting among armed groups in eastern Congo. The new refugees bring the number of Congolese who have fled to Uganda since August to more than 27,000. "They say they have seen many dead bodies on their way to Uganda," Russo told The Associated Press. All fighters in Congo have been accused of gross human rights abuses, including the government army. In New York, the U.N.'s top Congo envoy told the Security Council that peacekeepers have opened several investigations into whether war crimes are being committed in eastern Congo, pointing to evidence of targeted killings. Rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa said the insurgents began an offensive Saturday in Ishasha border town to expel some of the perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide out of Congo. Ishasha, on Congo's border with Uganda, is about 35 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of the de facto rebel capital, Rutshuru. Bisimwa said the rebels were operating in a "lawless" area full of hideouts used by the Hutu militia who fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide that killed more than 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. "There is no government army there," Bisimwa said. "There is only (Hutu militiamen). We wanted to secure our population there. We want this (Hutu militia) to leave this area." The rebels, led by Tutsi Laurent Nkunda, have sworn to hunt down Hutu militiamen hiding in Congo. More than 250,000 people have been displaced since August, many fleeing into Uganda or refugee camps. Many of the Hutu extremists who orchestrated the mass killings have remained in Congo, prompting Tutsi-led Rwanda to invade the mineral-rich nation twice. There are fears this latest fighting could again draw in neighbors as in Congo's 1998-2002 war, which brought in armies from six African nations in a greedy scramble for the country's vast mineral riches. Nkunda fought in Rwanda to end the genocide, then joined rebels in Congo who won power. He quit Congo's army in 2004, claiming he is fighting to protect the country's tiny Tutsi minority. Congo has an estimated 200 ethnic groups, but Hutus are the biggest majority group in eastern Congo.