Nairobi/Kinshasa - The Congolese government has said that it does not want Indian peacekeepers to be among the 3,000 troops the United Nations has agreed to send to help stop fighting in the east of the sprawling Central African nation.

"There are already enough Indian troops in Congo, and the UN reinforcements should come from other countries," government spokesman Lambert Mende told the BBC on Wednesday evening.

Around a quarter of the 17,000 peacekeeping troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo are Indian.

Kinshasa - Congolese state security forces have killed an estimated 500 people seen as opponents to President Joseph Kabila and detained another 1,000 in the two years since internationally backed elections brought him to power, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

"While everyone focuses on the violence in eastern (Democratic Republic of) Congo, government abuses against political opponents attract little attention," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

"Efforts to build a democratic DR Congo are being stifled not just by rebellion but also by the Kabila government's repression," she added.

Nairobi, Kinshasa - Calm has returned to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission said Thursday after four days of fighting that saw Tutsi rebels come close to taking the city of Goma.

General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), Wednesday evening announced a unilateral ceasefire to "prevent panic in Goma." The CNDP had been engaged in fighting with Congolese and UN troops.

Nairobi, Kinshasa  - Calm has returned to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission said Thursday after four days of fighting that saw Tutsi rebels come close to taking the city of Goma.

General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), Wednesday evening announced a unilateral ceasefire to "prevent panic in Goma."

The UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) said that the ceasefire was holding.

Nairobi/Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo has accused Rwanda of planning to attack the eastern Congolese town of Goma in support of Tutsi rebels, reports said Thursday.

The UN-backed Radio Okapi said that Atoki Ileka, DR Congo's ambassador to the United Nations, late Wednesday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to ward off the alleged impending attack.