Congo army fights on a shoestring in lawless east

SEJABU, Congo, May 22 (Reuters) The Congolese army commander screamed over the radio for more ammunition as mortars pounded down and machinegun fire rattled around him.

Several hours later about 20 mostly barefoot villagers -- offered as porters to the army by a local chief -- trudged towards the front line with mortar tubes and cases of ammunition balanced on their heads.

''We can't fight properly without civilians,'' said an army officer walking with the villagers, urging them to push on to the front 16 km up through steep hills.

''We have no trucks or tanks so we have to use them to help carry our equipment,'' he said.

Democratic Republic of Congo's fledgling army, backed by the UN's largest peacekeeping mission, is trying to pacify the mineral-rich east ahead of long-awaited elections on July 30, the first democratic polls in four decades.

Some 1,000 Bangladeshi, Pakistani and South African UN peacekeepers are backing 3,000 Congolese troops in an offensive to regain control of Tchei, a rebel stronghold in Ituri district where militia violence has killed tens of thousands since 1999.

The UN blue berets followed at a distance as Congolese soldiers led the ground assault on the town over the weekend. Fighting with heavy machinegun and mortar fire has so far killed 32 rebels, according to the army.

UN helicopter gunships known as Firebirds hovered overhead, communicating with the troops in English, French, Bangladeshi, Swahili and Lingala, airlifting in more ammunition and evacuating wounded soldiers.

CHAOTIC Previous operations have been compromised by ill-disciplined Congolese soldiers, some of whom mutinied and attacked the UN after being sent to the front without enough ammunition or food in the last attempt to take Tchei in March.

The poorly-paid soldiers are notorious for looting and harassing people they have been sent to protect.

''They are not paid. They are not fed. But they are sent off to fight on foot,'' a senior UN peacekeeper told Reuters. ''Of course they are going to live off the back of the population.'' July's presidential and legislative polls are meant to draw a line under a war which was officially declared over in 2003 but sparked a humanitarian crisis that has killed 4 million people since the conflict began in 1998.

Instability in the east and the slow pace of security sector reform have complicated preparations for the polls.

Diplomats have repeatedly pressured the authorities in Kinshasa to ensure that money released from the central bank for paying army salaries and training men is not stolen before it reaches foot soldiers in the east.

The International Crisis Group think-tank warned in a report earlier this year that the army ''could collapse again quickly if faced with a serious threat'' and said the leaders of some former factions were deliberately keeping it weak to preserve their ability to destabilise the country.

REUTERS PG RN1722