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2 united nations peacekeepers killed in eastern congo { June 7 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/africa/07cong.html http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/africa/07cong.html http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=54&u_sid=1115953 June 7, 2004 2 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Eastern Congo By SOMINI SENGUPTA DAKAR, Senegal, June 6 - The crisis deepened in the eastern frontier of Congo on Sunday, as two United Nations peacekeepers were fatally shot in the city of Goma. The killings coincided with a lull in fighting in nearby Bukavu, where dissident soldiers had laid siege to the city in recent days. Riots followed in the capital, Kinshasa, including attacks on United Nations workers. Virtually all international flights to Kinshasa have been canceled. The events of the last week signal the most alarming threat to peace in the country since a power-sharing government, composed of leaders of former warring factions, took over a year ago. Until then, Congo had been partitioned and riven by war for more than four years. Most worrying, given the history of conflict in the region, were tensions between Congo and its eastern neighbor Rwanda. The Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, has accused the Rwandan government of helping the former rebel soldiers who stormed Bukavu last week. Rwanda has denied responsibility. Rwandan troops attacked Congo twice in recent years, contending that Congo's dense forests were sheltering the militias responsible for the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Some of those militia members have re-entered Rwanda in recent years. Gen. Laurent Nkunda, the rebel commander who stormed Bukavu, told reporters on Sunday that he was pulling his troops from the city. Eighty miles to the north, just outside Goma, United Nations officials reported that two South African peacekeepers traveling in a convoy had been ambushed and shot to death. United Nations officials did not say who was responsible. The mission in Congo has been among the most daunting peacekeeping challenges for the United Nations. Earlier this year, another peacekeeper was killed in an ambush in the northeastern region of Ituri. Thousands of demonstrators, angered by what they said was the United Nations' failure to stop the rebel takeover of Bukavu, stormed its headquarters in Kinshasa last Thursday. United Nations troops fired at protesters, killing two. Slightly more than 10,000 United Nations troops are in Congo, roughly the size of Western Europe. War in Congo has claimed an estimated 3.3 million lives, more than any conflict since World War I. A vast majority of deaths are the results of disease and malnutrition. The United Nations World Food Program said Sunday that looting in several cities, including the capital, had forced it to suspend food distribution. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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