VOA常速英语2007-Ceasefire Breaking Down: Deadly Combat In DRC

By Selah Hennessy
Dakar
08 October 2007

Renegade general Laurent Nkunda says his rebel forces are abandoning a U.N.-mediated¹ ceasefire with the Congolese government. Congo's defense² minister says the government wants to use dialogue to solve the crisis in eastern DRC, but rebel forces say they have been repeatedly attacked by army troops in recent days. Selah Hennessy reports from the VOA West and Central Africa bureau in Dakar.

"From yesterday we have decided³ to attack them on all the sides: to North Kivu and South Kivu and Itori," said Bwambale Kakolele, an ally of renegade general Laurent Nkunda.

He says fighting continues in several places in North Kivu.

The U.N. mediated a ceasefire between warring army and rebel troops at the beginning of September.

But Kakolele accuses the army of continuing attacks despite the ceasefire. Now, he says, his men are going on the offensive.

"We cannot accept every day to attack us and we still quiet," said Kakolele. "It is not good."

Army officials say more than 70 rebels have been killed in a series of battles that started Thursday.

Kakolele says his men are protecting ethnic⁴ Tutsis against attacks by ethnic-Hutu rebels from Rwanda, known as FDLR. Kakolele accuses the government of allying with the FDLR.

He says his men will not stop fighting until the Hutu combatants are ousted⁵.

"We are going to make guerrilla warfare⁶ for [the Hutus] because we want to finish their military forces, we want to finish them," said Kakolele.

Congo's defense minister Chikez Diemu says fighting restarted because Nkunda's men were smuggling⁷ weapons into Congo, near the border with Rwanda.

"When he attacks people, of course we attack as a reaction, but we do not have a national policy to attack him," said Diemu.

He says his government is working with Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda to bring peace to the east and to disarm⁸ and repatriate⁹ the FDLR.

"Four states that have met, we committed all of us to say what should we do with negative forces, what should we do with refugees, what should we do for development and peace," said the defense minister.

Fighting spread Saturday to Virunga National Park, home of endangered Congolese mountain guerrillas. Animal welfare charity Wildlife Direct said park rangers¹⁰ had to flee because Nkunda's men were trying to forcibly recruit them to their ranks.

Wildlife Direct spokeswoman Samantha Newport told reporters that the guerrillas are now unprotected and extremely vulnerable.

Only 700 of the endangered guerrillas are left in the wild, 10 are known to have been killed and two are missing from the park since January.

1 mediated   

调停，调解，斡旋( mediate的过去式和过去分词 )； 居间促成； 影响…的发生； 使…可能发生

参考例句：

• He mediated in the quarrel between the two boys. 他调解两个孩子之间的争吵。
• The government mediated between the workers and the employers. 政府在工人与雇主间搞调和。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

5 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

6 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

7 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

8 disarm   

v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和

参考例句：

• The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. 全世界等待伊拉克解除武装已有12年之久。
• He has rejected every peaceful opportunity offered to him to disarm.他已经拒绝了所有能和平缴械的机会。

9 repatriate   

v.遣返；返回；n.被遣返回国者

参考例句：

• The government safely repatriates victims.政府安全遣返了受害者。
• In this part,you need to formulate in detail repatriate the plan.在这一部分，你需要制定详细的归国计划。

10 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册