A meeting of representatives of the governments of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda on ways of handling foreign armed groups based in northeastern DRC did not take place on Thursday in Uganda as had been announced earlier, a Ugandan government official said.

A county court in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern town of Bunia in Ituri District sentenced a local militia leader to 15 years imprisonment on Thursday for forgery and extorting money from the public.

Thirty-some militiamen of two different armed groups were killed by the armed forces in a series of operations aimed at regaining control of territory in the Ituri province, in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has rejected a proposal by Uganda to redeploy its troops to eastern Congo to hunt Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels as well as other Ugandan rebels groups there, Congolese government spokesman and Minister for Information Henri Mova Sakanyi said on Friday.

Uganda sought approval on Thursday from the Democratic Republic of Congo to redeploy troops into eastern Congo to hunt members of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who entered the country in September, Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said.

Following the broadcasting of messages inciting hate and violence in Rwandan' style - where the radio had a decisive role in the 1994 genocide - the United Nations peace mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) suspended its collaboration with a radio television network of Lumumbashi.

At least 15 people, including six children, were killed yesterday in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said UN (MONUC) sources to MISNA.

Thousands of civilians began arriving in the town of Walungu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday following attacks on four nearby villages, in which at least 24 civilians were hacked to death.

It would seem that the 3-400 Ugandan rebels of the LRA that were said to have been in the northeast of the Congo have disappeared.

The last attempt for mediation to secure the voluntary disarmament of 300 (or 400 say other sources) Ugandan rebels of the LRA that have been staying in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past few days according to MONUC's Radio Okapi.