SOUMOUNA, Congo — A former rebel leader in the Republic of Congo, Pastor Ntumi, has denied that his forces are behind recent attacks near the capital Brazzaville.
Ntumi, who in 2003 signed a peace deal that ended the central African country's civil war, said attacks in the Pool region, where he has lived for more than a decade, were not his responsibility.
"If there are hold-ups in the Pool, they are caused by other Congolese citizens," Ntumi, also known as Frederic Bintsamou, told journalists late Wednesday at his home in Soumouna.
"The National Council of Republicans (a political party set up by the former rebel National Council of the Resistance) bears no responsibility for what is happening in the Pool," Ntumi said.
Soumouna lies 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital and lies about halfway between Brazzaville and Kinkala, the main town in the densely forested region, which was between 1998 and 2003 wracked by civil war.
The latest violence in the Pool has affected the vital rail link between Brazzaville and the Republic of Congo's oil city on the Atlantic, Pointe Noire. The line was often a target during the war.
On September 28, passengers on a train were held up and robbed at Kibouende, which was once a key strategic point during the wars in the Congo. The violence was blamed on Ntumi's ex-rebels, known as the Ninjas.
But Ntumi said there had been and would be no breach of the peace agreement signed in 2003. "Since the signing of the peace accords, we have never risen up to torpedo peace," he said. "I've done all that the government asked of me: to demobilise and disarm."
In fact, some 5,000 former Ninjas are still awaiting their integration into society.
Ntumi has never wanted to go to Brazzaville to accept a post offered him by President Denis Sassou Nguesso. His one bid to accept this job, where he would be responsible for promoting peace and handling war reparations, led in September 2007 to clashes between his followers and the police.
"I never resigned," Ntumi said Wednesday. "I'm still waiting for my start of employment note. For the moment, I have neither a salary nor (special) treatment."
Copyright © 2009 AFP
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