France urges U.N. Congo peacekeepers to get tough

By Hez Holland

RUTSHURU, Congo (Reuters) - France called on Monday for United Nations peacekeepers in east Congo to be tougher in protecting civilians from violence, while aid workers searched for tens of thousands of people who have fled recent fighting.

A U.N. aid convoy which traveled to a rebel-held zone in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province found refugee camps there empty, their occupants vanished into the bush.

Relief workers escorted by U.N. troops drove to the eastern town of Rutshuru, captured by Tutsi rebels last week. They found camps previously run by U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, and housing at least 50,000 people, leveled and deserted.

"All the camps are empty. They have all left. All the shelters have been destroyed. Nothing remains," U.N. humanitarian officer Francis Nakwafio Kasai told Reuters.

Last week's rebel offensive by fighters loyal to renegade Congolese Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda had ended with the declaration of a ceasefire after the insurgents reached the outskirts of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma.

Both Goma, still in government hands, and rebel-held Rutshuru, 70 km (45 miles) to the north, were calm on Monday.

But aid agencies have called the humanitarian situation triggered by the fighting "catastrophic" and say that tens of thousands of civilians are roaming the hilly countryside unprotected, in need of shelter, food, water and medical care.

"Without improvements in the security situation, people will be forced to continue running," the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement.

"Even with today's widely reported aid delivery, displaced people ... continue to be in urgent need of food, clean water, healthcare and basic items like blankets," MSF said.

Speaking in Marseille, France after his return from a tour of the Great Lakes region, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo (MONUC) should be more robust against armed groups.

"We need to change things ... We need to be a bit more offensive. I'm not saying we have to wage war, but we need to take part in the defensive operation," he said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

He did not rule out the possibility of sending EU troops to help out.

RISK OF EPIDEMICS

The MONUC force, stretched across a nation the size of Western Europe, has been criticized by Congo's government and eastern civilians for failing to confront the North Kivu rebels.

The new commander of MONUC, a Spanish general, resigned last week after only seven weeks in the job, citing personal reasons.