independent reaction to the story, page-2

I'm going back over the past news stories that were posted at the time. Amazing how different ABC reported what was believed back then.


This is from Reuters :

Wednesday October 20, 03:04 PM. Perth-based mining company Anvil has sent staff back to a southern Democratic Republic of Congo mine after security forces shot and captured the leader of an armed group which seized the Kilwa mining town last week.

Anvil said it is due to resume operations on Tuesday.

Government forces retook control of the lakeside town late on Friday, killing 30 of the insurgents.

"Yesterday, our men near Kilwa arrested Alain Mukwali, the leader of the movement, along with two of his lieutenants," Chikez Diemu, Vice-Governor of the copper-rich Katanga province, told Reuters.

"He was their leader and he commanded their troops but he was injured in the arm during fighting for the town and we will bring him to Lubumbashi (the capital of Katanga) tomorrow."

Gunmen seized Kilwa last week, prompting 3,000 civilians to seek shelter in neighbouring Zambia and Anvil, which runs a nearby copper and silver mine, to suspend operations and evacuate some staff.

The identity of the estimated 100 armed men who seized Kilwa is still unclear, though they are thought to include some of Mukwali's local Mai Mai militia fighters and a few Angolan-based Portuguese-speaking Congolese rebels known as Katangan Tigers.

Mr Diemu said civilians who had fled the fighting were still camped on Kilwa island, which is in Zambia about 7 kilometres from the southern town.

Zambia said on Monday that more than 3,000 refugees had fled the town.

"They are on the island but I think they will return as soon as they can. It is just a matter of logistics and we are talking to the mining company to see if they can lend up a barge to get them back," he said.