Congo violence sparks exodus

CIBITOKE, Burundi -- More than 22,000 Congolese refugees fleeing fighting in eastern Congo have crossed the border into Burundi in the past week, a local official said Wednesday.\nThe refugees have been put into two camps in Cibitoke and Rugumbo, two towns just miles apart near the Congolese border. Refugees were separated because of tensions between different tribes in eastern Congo, said Onespohore Nduwumwami, mayor of Rugombo.\n"It is very difficult for us to handle this situation now, particularly with this situation of suspicion prevailing," Nduwumwami told The Associated Press in this small town, 28 miles northwest of the capital, Bujumbura.\nBrig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a renegade ex-rebel commander, and fellow commander Col. Jules Mutebutsi captured Congo's eastern border town of Bukavu on June 2 to stop what they claimed were atrocities against Congolese Tutsi, a minority known as the Banyamulenge.\nA U.N. investigation Tuesday reported it found no evidence of massacres of minority ethnic Tutsi in Bukavu.\nThe surprise takeover represented the biggest military challenge in the 14 months of Congo's post-war power-share government, whose forces retook Bukavu on June 9.\n"Our neighbors were threatening us saying we are the supporters of Jules Mutebutsi and the suspicions continue here," in Burundi, said Mathias Bahungu, a 58-year old Banyamulenge.\nThe United Nations refugees agency has set up two camps, one of 8,027 Banyamulenge in Cibitoke and another of 14,534 people from other Congolese tribes five miles away.