KINSHASA: Thousands of Congo troops backed by UN peacekeepers battled Ugandan rebels hiding in Congo's restive east, leaving dozens of insurgents and one UN soldier dead, the UN said yesterday.

Some 3,500 Congo troops supported by 600 Indian peacekeepers fought the Ugandan rebels on Sunday near the eastern city of Beni, said UN spokesman Hans-Jakob Reichen.

He said 35 rebels and one UN peacekeeper died in the operation part of a weeks-long sweep by Congo government forces in the east, a region still roiled by violence and largely out of state control after the 1998-2002 war.

About 1,000 Ugandan fighters are in Congo, running guns, poaching endangered wildlife and terrorizing Congolese civilians, Reichen said. "Our goal is to free the people from the effects of the rebels," he added.

Government troops are trying to re-establish authority nationwide before elections planned for next year, battling home-grown militia fighters as well as rebels from neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda.

Some 15,000 UN troops are in Congo to help provide security in a country the size of Western Europe and long wracked by war, army revolts and coups d'etat.

Next year's elections are meant to select Congo's first democratic government in over 30 years, to replace a transitional administration set up after Congo's war, which drew in the armies of six nations and left some 4 million dead, mostly from strife-induced hunger and disease.

Last week's voting saw millions of Congolese deciding on a new constitution for their country. With the majority of votes counted, the charter seemed headed for approval.

Congolese had not voted en masse since 1970, when the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko stood as the sole candidate. His reign ended in 1997 in the first of two wars that wracked the country until 2002.

The referendum is viewed as a crucial step toward lasting peace.

The charter would grant greater autonomy to mineral-rich regions, but is viewed by many as another attempt by corrupt politicians to enrich themselves.

The charter was written by members of the transitional government, including many former rebel leaders and partisans of President Joseph Kabila. But many Congolese are suspicious, seeing manipulation that puts politicians' interests ahead of their own.

For example, the charter would lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 30 allowing an election bid by Kabila, a 33-year-old who inherited the presidency in 2001 after the assassination of his father, whose rebel army ousted Mobutu.

Source: China Daily