19 07 13 Reuters: Protests against Kabila erupt in eastern Congo, U.N. worried

The United Nations voiced
concerns about recent clashes and said it was prepared to intervene if
necessary.

Heavy fighting erupted
between the army and the M23 rebel group on Sunday 12 km (7.5 miles) northeast of
Goma, ending several weeks of relative calm and reviving memories of an attack
in November when the Tutsi-led insurgents briefly seized the city of 1 million
people.

After four days of
clashes, during which the army pushed the rebels several kilometres further
from the city, the front line was quiet on Thursday.

U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon is "deeply concerned about the latest round of hostilities
initiated by the M23 movement north of Goma," Ban's press office said in a
statement.

He said the United
Nations' MONUSCO peacekeeping force was not involved in the fighting, though he
added it was ready to get involved.

"The mission remains
on high alert and is prepared to intervene, including through the Force
Intervention Brigade, should the fighting threaten civilians, particularly in
Goma and in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps," it said.

The so-called
Intervention Brigade is a new kind of peacekeeping force the United Nations is
now deploying with a tough mandate to aggressively take on rebel groups to try
to end the decades-old conflict in Congo's mineral-rich east in which millions
have been killed since the 1990s.

The 3,000-strong
Intervention Brigade has begun patrols but has not yet entered into combat.

During the demonstrations
in Goma, police fired teargas to disperse the crowd from the centre of Goma
where protesters blocked roads and displayed a sign saying "Kabila Must
Go". Shops and businesses were shuttered.

Even after the rebels
were repelled, "there were rumours circulating this morning that the
government was going to replace senior army officers," said local
journalist Charles Lwanga. "The population staged peaceful demonstrations,
trying to block the airport and the port."

Lambert Mende, spokesman
for the Kinshasa
government, said it had no plans to replace the military command in Goma and
that the rumour had been circulated by M23 itself.

Some Goma residents
accused members of MONUSCO of blocking the path of the Congolese army as it
sought to push northward to overrun M23 positions.