French give deadline in Congo fight

BUNIA, Congo -- The commander of a French-led emergency force on Saturday gave tribal fighters controlling Bunia 72 hours to get out of the northeastern Congolese town or have their weapons taken away.

The head of the Union of Congolese Patriots -- a militia drawn from the Hema tribe -- said he agreed to pull out his fighters.

"I have no problem with that and, in fact, I have already started withdrawing troops from the town," Thomas Lubanga said.

Lubanga said the emergency force agreed that his militia's leaders can keep bodyguards, who will appear armed on the streets only when they are with those they are protecting.

Brig. Gen. Jean-Paul Thonier, head of the more than 600 French troops in Bunia, handed Lubanga the ultimatum, which expires at 4 a.m. Cape Girardeau time Tuesday, spokesman Col. Gerard Dubois said.

Hema fighters gained control of Bunia, capital of resource-rich Ituri province at the beginning of May after battles with rival fighters from the Lendu tribe.

More than 500 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the fighting, which prompted the U.N. Security Council to authorize the deployment in Bunia of the emergency French-led force of 1,400 with a mandate to shoot to kill.

The 700 U.N. troops already in Bunia since April have a lesser mandate that only permits them to protect U.N. installations and unarmed military observers and to fire only in self-defense. They did not intervene in the fighting in early May.

The UPC and Lendu fighters clashed again the day after the French arrived. Since then, UPC fighters, some as young as 10, have been swaggering down Bunia's rutted streets.