22/08/13 Reuters: U.N. peacekeepers in Congo ordered to protect civilians after city shelled

The fighting close to Goma,
a city of a million people on the Rwandan border, comes after a relative lull
in the 18-month rebellion. Late last month, the United
Nations pledged to keep the M23 rebels out of range of the town, which they
briefly seized last year.

Rwanda, which has long had strained
relations with its neighbor, accused the Congolese army of deliberately firing
artillery into its territory. Kinshasa denied
the reports and repeated its accusation that Rwanda backs M23. Rwanda denies
it.

Martin Kobler, head of the
U.N. mission known as MONUSCO, said populated areas and U.N. positions had been
directly attacked during the clashes on Thursday.

"I have ordered the
MONUSCO Force to react and to take necessary action to protect civilians and
prevent an advance by the M23," he said, without elaborating.

A Reuters reporter in Goma
said three shells landed in the town and saw the bodies of two children killed
in one of the explosions. Another civilian was killed and four others wounded,
officials at a local hospital said. Two Congolese soldiers were also wounded,
they said.

Fighting initially broke
out late on Wednesday.

A senior U.N. official, who
asked not to be named, said that on Thursday the rebels entered a security zone
surrounding Goma, which was established by a new, robustly-mandated U.N.
Intervention Brigade earlier this month.

The official said M23 had
fired the shells that fell on Goma and across the border in Rwanda.

RWANDA BLAMES CONGO ARMY

Rwanda's defense ministry acknowledged a rocket had hit the Rwandan border village of Buga but blamed it on the Congolese
army, calling it "completely unprovoked and senseless".

No casualties were reported
in Rwanda,
but the ministry said the explosion had damaged property.

In New York, deputy U.N. peacekeeping chief
Edmond Mulet asked the U.N. Security Council to condemn M23's attacks,
diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity. France drafted a council statement
that would have "condemned in the strongest terms the attacks by M23 rebel
group against civilians" and M23's attacks on MONUSCO, according to a
draft seen by Reuters.

But the delegation of Rwanda,
currently a council member, objected to that wording and proposed an amended
text, also seen by Reuters, that would condemn both the Congolese FARDC army
and M23 and urge the "FARDC and M23 to cease violence immediately."

Rwanda also proposed deleting language
noting that targeting peacekeepers is a war crime. Rwanda was the sole member of the
15-nation council that objected to the French-drafted statement, envoys said.

Two Western diplomats said
the Rwandan amendments were an attempt to equate the Congolese army with the
M23 rebels and therefore unacceptable.

The rebels rejected
accusations they were behind Thursday's shelling, saying it was done by
Congolese soldiers in an attempt to draw peacekeepers and Rwandan troops into
the fight.

"We want the
(Congolese army) removed from Goma and for it to be protected by the neutral
forces of MONUSCO and the police. We have no intention of entering Goma,"
M23 spokesman Amani Kabasha said. "We are waiting for negotiations to
start."

The M23 rebels began taking
large swathes of Congo's
volatile east early last year, accusing the central government of failing to
honor a previous peace deal.

They dealt a serious blow
to the image of MONUSCO – at 17,000 troops the world's largest U.N. mission –
last November by marching past U.N. soldiers to briefly seize Goma.

They withdrew under a deal
that called for peace negotiations between the rebels and Congolese government
representatives. However the talks in the Ugandan capital Kampala have made little headway.

The 3,000-member U.N.
Intervention Brigade – made up of South African, Tanzanian and Malawian troops
– was established in the wake of Goma's seizure by M23 and is tasked with
fighting and disarming rebel groups in Congo's volatile east.

MONUSCO said last month the
new security zone established by the Intervention Brigade would keep Goma
beyond the range of M23 and said the city would not come under attack ag