Congo army says kills 12 militiamen ahead of polls

KINSHASA, Oct 3 (Reuters) Congolese government forces have killed over a dozen militia fighters in clashes in the lawless east weeks before a decisive presidential run-off to decide the winner of historic polls, the army said yesterday.

The fighting on Sunday, which highlighted security fears ahead of the October 29 vote, pitted troops from a fledgling national army against one of several armed groups still resisting government authority in the mineral-rich east.

The presidential run-off, and provincial elections the same day, are the last stage of a years-long transition process aimed at pacifying the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been at war for most of the last decade.

''The Ituri Patriotic Resistance Front (FRPI) militia attacked our soldiers on Sunday,'' Gen Nsiona Mbuayama, the commander of the government forces in Ituri district, told Reuters by phone.

''The fighting was very serious and lasted seven hours,'' he added. ''The militia fled in the end, taking some dead, but they left at least 12 bodies.'' Mbuayama said two government soldiers were killed and seven others injured during the fighting.

Some of the worst fighting of Congo's 1998-2003 war, which has killed more than 4 million people mostly through hunger and disease, took place in Ituri where local ethnic conflicts were fuelled by clashes over minerals and border trade.

The FRPI militia, led by a fighter known as Cobra Matata, is one of several militia groups that has not joined the peace process and continues to operate in the northeastern district.

The UN peacekeeping mission -- the largest in the world with some 17,600 blue helmets -- said it was aware of the clashes, which took place at Mbau around 60 km west of Ituri's main town Bunia, but could not give further details.

The first round of voting in July was a relative success and nearly 18 million Congolese voted freely for the first time in more than 40 years, despite fears of violence and the logistical nightmare of organising elections in the vast, chaotic country.

Tensions between incumbent President Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba, his election rival and one of Congo's vice-presidents, have mounted in the capital Kinshasa, where their forces fought each other in August.

But Congolese and UN officials had been hoping the east would remain quiet for this month's polls.

''We regret the incident as we are in defensive positions, respecting a truce until the new government is sworn in,'' the army's Mbuayama said.

Reuters SBA VP0432