KINSHASA, July 23, 2007 (AFP) - An opposition party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday accused the government of dithering while a "humanitarian catastrophe" wracked the east of the country.
"The government is nowhere to be seen while urgent challenges and crises are rocking the republic," the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) said in a statement.
It cited "insecurity and serious rights violations in the east" and the loss of control of diamond-rich territory there to fighters from Rwanda and possibly Angola.
The United Nations has expressed concern at the deteriorating situation in the region, where it estimates 700,000 people have been displaced amid a brutal campaign by 10,000 Rwandan Hutu fighters.
Some of the Rwandan rebels are accused of having participated in the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
The MLC, the second-biggest opposition grouping, said Congo was experiencing a "security and humanitarian catastrophe".
The party is led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader and failed presidential candidate who now lives surrounded by armed guards in Portugal after clashes in March between his men and the army forced him to flee Kinshasa under UN escort.
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