Congo militiamen free Nepali UN peacekeepers

KINSHASA, July 8 (Reuters) Five Nepali UN peacekeepers held hostage for more than a month by militia fighters in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were released unharmed and without conditions today, the United Nations said.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo (MONUC) said the five soldiers, part of a group of Nepali blue helmets captured after a May 27 clash with militia in northeast Ituri district, were released safe and sound by their captors.

Although the release was a relief for the 17,000-strong UN contingent in the vast central African state, violence by rebels and renegade militia groups in the east has dogged preparations for historic elections due to be held on July 30.

One Nepali soldier was killed, three were wounded and seven were captured in the May gunbattle with fighters loyal to Peter Karim, a warlord from the local Lendu ethnic group. The militiamen released two of the Nepalis on June 27.

''While MONUC mourns the loss of the Nepalese peacekeeper, it should like to express its gratitude to the local community and its representatives for their commitment and efforts to secure the release of its seven peacekeepers,'' the U.N. statement said.

A militia source also confirmed the five had been freed and said they were brought back from the bush by a delegation of UN negotiators and leaders of the local Lendu community.

The UN statement said the Nepali soldiers freed today were reunited with their colleagues at their base in Kwandroma in Ituri district.

Karim's militia had been demanding cash and freedom for some of his fighters held by the government.

But the UN statement called the release ''unconditional''.

NO RANSOM UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had led appeals for the release of the Nepalis but U.N. officials always insisted no ransom would be paid.

The upcoming July 30 presidential and parliamentary polls in the Congo will be the first free elections there in 40 years.

They are intended to be the culmination of internationally backed peace accords that ended a 1998-2003 war which sucked in six neighbouring countries.

But violence has continued in several areas, especially the mineral-rich east, and rights groups estimate 4 million Congolese have been killed since 1998 through conflict, hunger and disease in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

UN peacekeepers, thinly stretched across a country the size of western Europe, have been struggling to contain rebel and militia activity in the east alongside a fledgling Congolese national army criticised as corrupt, violent and unreliable.

The run-up to the elections, in which President Joseph Kabila is standing along with more than 30 contenders, has been marred by hostile rhetoric from candidates, attacks on journalists and government attempts to muzzle media critics.

A Congolese journalist who had criticised the government was killed by unidentified gunmen at his home in Kinshasa early on Saturday, a day after foreign donors called on the authorities to guarantee press freedoms ahead of the elections.

REUTERS PDS RAI0232