11/28/2012 17:22 GMT
GOMA, DR Congo, Nov 28, 2012 (AFP) - Congolese rebels said Wednesday they were starting to pull out from the eastern city of Goma as the United Nations issued a new call for an end to foreign support for the fighters to prevent the conflict spreading across the volatile region.
The UN Security Council call came as Kinshasa demanded new sanctions against regional rival Rwanda over its alleged backing for the M23 rebel group, which swept across the resource-rich east of the central African country last week.
A French-drafted resolution passed at the UN meeting said the council would consider sanctions against more M23 leaders and "those providing external support" though it did not name any country.
The DR Congo government also accused the M23 of widespread looting in Goma, while the Red Cross reported that it had buried dozens of people whose bodies were found in the streets following the rebels' capture of the city over a week ago.
M23 military commander Sultani Makenga said the rebels would start returning to positions 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Goma on Thursday in line with a deal struck in Kampala with east African leaders, although the UN said their movements were unclear.
The dramatic escalation in the M23 uprising since it was launched in April heightened international fears of a fresh conflict and a major humanitarian crisis, with reports of atrocities and tens of thousands of people displaced in the fighting.
Goma is the main city in the Kivu region abutting Rwanda and Uganda and has been the flashpoint for past wars fought largely over control of its vast mineral wealth including cobalt, copper, diamonds, gold and coltan, a key component in mobile phones.
The rebels agreed to withdraw from Goma after talks in Kampala but have issued a list of demands in its dispute with the government of President Joseph Kabila.
"Tomorrow morning, they will begin to move towards Sake, then Goma, to continue towards our original positions," said Makenga, who has personally hit with UN and US sanctions this month over allegations of atrocities including killings, rapes and abductions.
Sake, which lies west of Goma on the road to South Kivu, was seized by the rebels last week.
A spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, Manodje Mounoubai, told AFP that he had seen rebel vehicles drive both in and out of the city. "Does this mean they're regrouping before pulling out? We don't know."
Government spokesman Lambert Mende charged that the rebels had plundered buildings "from top to bottom" across the city and taken the loot -- including trucks, mineral stocks and even a morgue refigeration system -- across the border to Rwanda.
The United Nations accuses Rwanda, and to a lesser extent Uganda, of aiding the rebels, charges both countries vehemently deny although they have played roles in previous wars in central Africa's largest country.
Residents said dozens of trucks carrying food and ammunition had left Goma, where life appeared to be returning to normal.
Shops were open, taxis were running and while there were a few rebels posted at junctions, their presence has been scaled down considerably.
A Western military source has estimated the number of rebels at 1,500 in the North Kivu region of which Goma is the capital.
A local official said residents had reported that the trucks were heading towards Rutshuru and Rumangabo, both rebel-held towns north of Goma.
The rebel moves come after a weekend summit of regional African leaders called on the M23 to leave Goma, but also urged the Kabila government to address their grievances.
The rebellion erupted when the M23, largely made up of ethnic Tutsis, broke away from the DR Congo army, complaining that a 2009 peace deal to end a previous conflict had not been fully implemented.
M23 political leader Jean-Marie Runiga said the group had a list of demands, including direct talks with Kabila, who was re-elected last year in a flawed presidential vote, and the dissolution of the electoral commission.
The government had ruled out any peace talks until the M23 quit Goma and Mende said on Tuesday that Kinshasa was waiting to see if the withdrawal actually took place.
On Wednesday, Congo's Red Cross said its workers had picked up and buried 62 bodies from the streets of Goma in the days following its capture.
"They are those of civilians and soldiers, only adults," its president Dominique Lutula told AFP.
Rights group and UN officials have accused the rebels of atrocities, including the killings, rapes and abductions of civilians, which forced tens of thousands to flee their homes in the power-keg region which was the cradle of two wars that shook DR Congo between 1996 and 2003.
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