Congolese-Rwandan clashes leave 61 dead, 14 wounded

KIGALI, Rwanda -- Clashes between Congolese troops and Rwandan insurgents in eastern Congo killed at least 61 people over the weekend, officials said Monday. The Congolese army killed 39 Rwandan insurgents in a series of battles near the borders with Rwanda and Burundi in the volatile South Kivu province, said Didas Namujimbo, the provincial governor's spokesman.\nThree Congolese soldiers were also killed and 14 others wounded in the clashes, Namujimbo told The Associated Press, adding that Rwandan rebels killed 19 civilians while attacking and looting a village.\nAlthough Congo's civil war ended last year, fighting has continued in parts of eastern Congo where tribal factions and rebels from Rwanda and Burundi are still operating.\nThe Rwandan rebels fled to Congo after leading the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. At least 500,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi minority, were killed in the slaughter orchestrated by a government of extremists from the Hutu majority that was then in power.\nRwandan troops have twice gone into Congo to root out the insurgents. But the last Rwandan soldiers left Congo in October 2002 as part of a peace agreement that stipulated the Congolese government deal with the remaining rebels -- a responsibility Rwanda says Congo has not fulfilled.\nSaturday the United Nations warned Rwandan troops entered Congo April 21 in violation of the deal. Although Rwandan officials have denied they entered Congo, President Paul Kagame has threatened to send Rwandan soldiers back into the vast central African nation if the rebels are not defeated.