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Kuito — Bié deputy governor for organization and technical services sector, Andrade Adolfo, urged religious institutions, Non Governmental Organizations and other partners in Kuito to help the government to rescue civic and moral values and preservation of peace.

Speaking to Angop on the occasion of April 4, a date dedicated to peace, the deputy governor stressed that participation of every living force of the province in rescuing ethic values and other actions, influences better improvement of attitude in the society.

Andrade Adolfo stressed that the government will continue working to promote social justice, respecting political differences, racial, religious and cultural, among other issues, aimed at raising a state of peace and law, for social economic progress.

The official assured that Bié governor will continue with construction programmes of schools, hospitals and other social infrastructures.

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Luanda — The Angolan ambassador to Zambia, Pedro Neto, Saturday in Livingstone, Zambia, stressed the benefits of the eight years of peace in Angola.

The diplomat was speaking during the celebrations of peace's day, 4 April, which gathered the Angolan community living in the neighbouring country.

Pedro Neto mentioned the Constitution, reconstruction of the country's infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, free movement of people and goods, as well as the national reconciliation, as the peace's achievements.

In his turn, the leader of the Angolan community in Zambia, Isaías Mussole, expressed the desire to return to Angola.

To this purpose, Pedro Neto appealed to the Angolan community in Zambia to join the voluntary repatriation under the process being carried out by the two governments and the UN Refugee Agency.

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Nairobi — An advance team from the International Criminal Court lands in Kenya this week to launch investigations that could see some Cabinet ministers and other top politicians, civil servants and businessmen taken to The Hague to answer charges of crimes against humanity.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who plans to visit next month, has already informed Kenyan authorities of the advance team's visit.

Sources at The Hague said the team would lay the groundwork for investigations into the roles of specific people seen as the key planners and financiers of the violence, following the disputed 2007 elections.

The advance team has set up appointments with some of the government and private institutions that carried out investigations into the violence in which 1,133 people were killed.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo's team intends to talk to the ministries of Internal Security and Provincial Administration, Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the Attorney General's office and the police force.

The team will also be talking with the official and independent organisations like the statutory Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, that inquired into the blood-letting in which at least 650,000 people were uprooted from their homes.

Last Wednesday, the Pre-Trial bench allowed the prosecutor to start investigations into the post-election chaos.

A day after, Mr Moreno-Ocampo addressed a press conference at The Hague with a video link to Nairobi during which he said he would launch quick, robust, independent and impartial investigations.

He said he would be arriving in the country in May to meet President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga before embarking on his mission.

The team, sources said, would work with the local agencies that investigated the chaos, to identify the addresses of the witnesses, their locations and the risks they faced for being lined up to give evidence against the masterminds of the killings.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo has said the names consist of key leaders from PNU, whose candidate was President Kibaki, and the ODM, whose flag bearer was Mr Odinga. Also on the list are businesspeople associated with the two parties.

Key to the investigations would be the safety of the witnesses who have been threatened if they implicate some key leaders.

The prosecutor has said that ICC will help protect the witnesses, but also stressed that their safety is the responsibility of the government.

Contacted by the Nation on Monday, Attorney-General Amos Wako was optimistic that Parliament would speedily pass the Witness Protection (Amendment) Bill.

"I am expecting Parliament to act quickly on the amendment, now that the issue of the (draft) constitution has been dispensed with, so that we can have a mechanism in place," he said.

Mr Wako presented the Bill in the House on Thursday and it is now before the Parliamentary Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs.

The current law has been faulted for failing to put in place an effective witness protection programme, putting at risk the lives of those who give evidence.

"We want to be in a position, if asked by the ICC, to be able to help. However, the ICC can also provide its own protection of witnesses," said the AG in a telephone interview.

Sources at the Office of the President said Internal Security minister George Saitoti had received communication from Mr Moreno-Ocampo's office over the investigations.

On Monday, Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo said his ministry would only intervene if The Hague team faced difficulties or some government officers failed to cooperate.

He, however, urged MPs to agree on a national mechanism that would deal with those who would not face justice at The Hague.

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Kampala — A new research has revealed that there are a striking number of similarities between Arabic and several Bantu languages.

The research carried out by Mr Dennis Asiimwe, who describes himself as an inter-disciplinary researcher based in Kampala, was presented to a panel of Makerere University academics last week.

It has been generally agreed that Arab influence in East and Central Africa was confined to the coast where the hybrid language of Swahili was created from a combination of Arabic and Bantu languages.

Mr Asiimwe's research however exposed a number of similar linguistic intonations between Arabic, Luganda and Runyankore.

"There have been some views that pre-colonial Africa is thought to have possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities.

"And most of them lacked written languages. This fragmentation can be viewed as a consequence but also an indicator of a lack of continuity and standardisation due to the absence of the written languages in most of Africa prior to colonisation," Mr Asiimwe told Daily Monitor over the weekend.

The research suggests possible Arab occupation of Black Africa long before 1844 when the first official communication between Uganda and Arabs was made.

The researcher revealed to the panel of historians several instances that suggest Arabs were in Uganda several centuries before European exploration.

"An Arabic word like abaad, which means slave is similar in construction to Muddu or buddu which is slavery in Luganda. Soroti Rock may also have got it's name from salaat, which is Arabic for rock," he said.

"Where the words might not mean exactly the same thing, the proximity of what they mean or the messages they portray, may definitely point to the presence of a common contextual denominator," he added.

Mr Dixon Kamukama, a senior lecturer in the History department at Makerere University says Asiimwe's research is instructive.

"The research brings new dimensions of how we should view our history. We have known Arabs to have been here pursuing slave trade in the mid nineteenth century and only in particular places," he said.

"They were not known to have reached deep Buganda. We might have to revisit the whole story of migration and settlement in Africa," Kamukama said.

Mr Asiimwe's research revealed that a place like Kisumu most probably got it's name from Qisum, which is the Arabic for division.

Kamukama said the research should be furthered to establish who influenced the other.

"The research raises questions of who wrote the history we read. As we say might makes right," he added.

Asiimwe holds a Bachelor of Psychology degree from Makerere University and Master of Arts degree from University of Nairobi. He also studied Arabic at Islamic University in Uganda. He says a revision of our history will help solve the 'African State crisis'.

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Mogadishu — Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, the spokesman of al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist movement that fights the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia has sworn that his group will capture Mogadishu before the supposedly EU trained forces in Uganda reach the Somali capital.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon in Mogadishu, Sheikh Ali Dhere reacted to the notion that 2,000 soldiers were going to be trained in the East African country by European instructors in order to perk up the military capability of the TFG.

He said the EU had supported both the pro-government forces and the peacekeepers serving the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).

"This is an extension of the Europeans' service to the government and Amisom," said Sheikh Ali Dhere.

He added that his movement was planning to overwhelm both the TFG and Amisom before the new force comes to Mogadishu. "By capturing the city, we are going to deprive the new force a place to land and operate from," said the sheikh.

According to Reuters, European Union governments said last Wednesday they had given the go-ahead for a military mission to start on April 7 to train Somali forces battling an Islamist insurgency. The mission is going to be led by Spain.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Ali Dhere warned the pirates operating along the Somali coast to refrain from hijacking boats and ships.

The clergyman was retorting to reports that the pirates have recently captured several boats and ships sailing towards Mogadishu and Kismayu ports in Southern Somalia.

"I advise the pirates to stick to their former excuse of countering foreign ships trespassing the Somali waters and illegally exploiting resources," he remarked.

Somali businessmen have recently complained of pirates seizing nine boats on their way to Kismayu and Mogadishu ports, affecting their businesses and commodity prices.

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Tunis — During a ceremony held on Monday morning, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali handed to Mr. Elhaj Gley and Mr. Chokri Hermassi their credential letters respectively as Tunisia's new ambassadors to Turkey and Senegal.

Mr. Chokri Hermassi took the oath of office before the President of the Republic.

The ceremony was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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Tunis — President Ben Ali conferred on Monday, with the Prime Minister, Mr. Mohamed Ghannouchi.

The meeting focused on the upgrading program services, in light of the presidential measures taken to boost investment in this sector as well as the added value of its different components and broaden their export prospects.

In this connection, the President of the Republic recommended to launch the pilot phase targeting 100 companies operating in the services sector.

He recommended to hold national and regional conferences in order to sensitize stakeholders to the importance of their adhering to this program and to devise a comprehensive strategy that would associate the sector's professionals and experts with a view to boost services exportation.

The Head of State also stressed the need to make the most of the available incentives to develop the services sector's competitiveness and increase its contribution to the growth rate and speeding up the pace of job creation, mainly for the benefit of university graduates.

President Ben Ali also focused on the progress of the development strategy of the communication technologies sector, reiterating his interest in improving Tunisia's international rating in this sector, by drawing on the available potentials to strengthen the efficiency and quality of this sector's services and consolidate components of the knowledge economy and information society.

In this regard, President Ben Ali recommended to duly follow- up development and modernization of the communication infrastructure through the setting up of a optic fiber network within the major services zones, so as to provide a broadband Internet connection, concurrently with the expansion of the technological spaces to house companies operating in the transfer of network-based services dedicated to foreign sides to meet the growing demands of investors in this area.

He also recommended gathering all conditions that would ensure success of the training program which is crowned with skills certificates in several specialties related to information and communication technologies, as part of a partnership between the public and private sectors.

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Tunis — An awareness and information seminar "on funding mechanisms of the new continuous training program", was recently held in Bizerta, by the National Center for Continuous Training and Vocational Development (CNFCPP)in collaboration with the European Regional Industry, Trade and Handicrafts Union.

Representatives of vocational training structures, as well as representatives of hundreds of economic enterprises operating in the region, took part in the event.

The event was an opportunity to launch the debate about priorities and regional programs in continuous training for the years 2009-2010.

On the fringes of the seminar, seven grants decisions totaling 70, 000 dinars, were awarded to beneficiary enterprises: the decisions are related to 22 training operations which benefited 300 workers.

CAIRO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- In the bright sunshine of Cairo, Michell, 31, who sat with his wife and two toddlers under a tree in Fustat Park, was eating fish and, apparently, listening to pop music which could be heard from far away. It is the day of Spring Day.

At the gate of the park, the guardian was extremely busy ticketing the visitors. "More people flocked to the garden this year. There is not enough place for so many cars to park," said the guardian.

In the garden, people were spreading all over the green areas. Some young people and children were roaming, others were playing football.

Sham El-Naseem, the Spring Day, is a pure Egyptian festival which dates back to 2700 BC when Pharaohs firstly called it Shamus, which means life resurrection.

As time passed, the name was changed to Sham, and then Naseem, which means pleasant breeze, was added in reference to the start of spring season.

Egyptians are used to flock to parks on this oldest festival, which falls on the first Monday after Eastern Easter celebrations. Some others prefer to take a felucca to enjoy the fantastic view of the Nile River.

They never forget to take the special food: colored eggs for their breakfast, and feseekh (salted fish), onions and lettuce for lunch. They prefer to enjoy meals in the open air with their families and relatives.

Despite warnings by the government against the dangers of feseekh and media reports over seizure of tons of unfit fish in markets this year, most people insist that feseekh is indispensable for Sham El-Naseem.

Health experts warn that eating salted fish might cause disease or physical disability as some manufacturers lack necessary health safety measures while producing this kind of fish.

A report published by the local daily Al-Wafd said some manufacturers even use rotten fish to prepare feseekh.

Moreover, doctors warn that salted fish is life-threatening to those who suffer from hypertension due to the huge quantities of salt used in the fish.

Dr. Abdel Rahman El-Naggar, a toxin expert, said the unfit salted fish is extremely poisonous and costs much for recovery.

Emad, a 45-year-old man who was chatting with his friends on the lawn of the Fustat Park, said "we go to gardens and eat salted and smoked fish every year on this day. It is a habit that we cannot give up."

However, Emad said he refrained from buying salted fish this year, as "it is so expensive that I couldn't afford. I am satisfied with celebrating with chicken and ordinary food."

Khaled, a 22-year-old sportsman, however, believes that eating salted fish is a life-threatening habit due to the fish's high probability of being contaminated.

"I ate fried fish instead, it is good for health," the young man said, adding "feseekh eaters have increased in numbers despite warnings made by the government."

Meriam, 28, believes that the government's warnings are not so serious.

"The government says meat contains harmful worms and the chicken is infected with the bird flue, they want people not to eat in order to control consumption," said Meriam, adding "I will eat feseekh this year and the coming years."

NAIROBI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- European Naval Force on Monday rescued a German-flagged and owned container ship east off the Somali coast with 13 crew members on board, officials confirmed late on Monday.

The EU Naval Force said in a statement that the MV Taipan of deadweight of 12,612 tons, was on route to Mombasa, Kenya, from Djibouti when pirates attacked and took control of the ship, about 500 nautical miles east off the Somali coast early on Monday.

The statement said the pirates attacked and go onboard the MV Taipan but were later overwhelmed, leading to the arrest of ten gunmen. "As the pirates boarded the ship, the MV Taipan crew followed EU NAVFOR Best Management Practice, retreated to a secure strong room and locked themselves in; they were able to stop all engines and thereby disable the ship, before alerting EU NAVFOR that the ship had been taken," it said.

According to the statement, the EU Naval force sent HNLMS Tromp immediately to the scene and located the pirated ship.

"Initially HNMLS Tromp attempted to negotiate with the pirates to avoid casualties but when it became clear that the pirates intended resisting, HNMLS Tromp launched a highly professional operation to recapture the ship," it said. "Marines from the TROMP have now boarded and retaken control of the ship from the pirates," the statement said.

It noted that the crew of two German, three Russian and eight Sri Lankan nationals have been released unharmed while 10 pirates have been taken into custody.

The latest attacks came as the world's maritime body IMB issued an alert to vessels plying the waters off East Africa after five ships were attacked within 12 hours by heavily armed Somali pirates late March.

Hijackings off East Africa are a cause of growing international concern, spurring a number of international navies to patrol the pirate-wracked Gulf of Aden.

An estimated 25,000 ships annually cruise the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's northern coast.

SANAA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- An Indian-flagged ship caught on fire with 13 crew members aboard about 190 nautical miles to the north of the Yemeni island of Socotra, Yemeni Interior Ministry reported on Monday.

The ministry's website cited the Yemeni Coast Guard as saying that the 13 sailors of Indian nationals have been rescued by another ship after receiving a distress call from the Indian ship and transported them to the port of Socotra.

The ship called "Firat" was coming from Pakistan with 13 Indian sailors, carrying a shipment of rice to Somalia, said the ministry in a statement without providing further information.

The Yemeni island of Socotra is located in the middle of the Arab Sea at the Indian Ocean.

SANAA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Somali pirates seized a South Korean- flagged oil tanker about 1,200 nautical miles to the east of the world's most dangerous waters of Somalia, Yemeni Interior Ministry Monday quoted a communique of the Embassy of South Korea in Sanaa as saying.

The ransom-seeking Somali pirates have moved the oil tanker towards the Somali coast, said the ministry in a statement posted on its website.

The statement neither provided the specific date of the hijack process, nor other details.

On March 29, Somali pirates hijacked a United Arab Emirates ( UAE)-owned cargo ship with 24 crew members aboard off Somalia.

The 4,500-ton Panamanian-flagged Iceberg 1, owned by Iceberg International Ltd, was carrying general mechanical equipment from the Port of Aden to UAE.

Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Africa, especially in the waters near Somalia.

Ransoms started out in the tens of thousands of U.S. dollars and have climbed into the millions.

The Gulf of Aden, off the northern coast of Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world.

KINSHASA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- FARDC, the national army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), has regained control of the northwestern city of Mbandaka, but two UN personnel were killed in the clash, according to the government.

FARDC fought back hours after Enyele insurgents claimed to have taken the city and its airport in a surprise attack on Sunday morning.

"The army controls the city and the situation is calm," the governor of Equateur, Jean-Claude Baende, declared late Sunday, adding the Enyele insurgents were routed by the government forces who were pursuing the disbanded elements.

The governor, who has stayed in the capital Kinshasa since last week, said the incursion caused a heavy loss of lives and that some assailants were captured in the fighting. He did not give details.

The slain included a blue casque of MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, who was killed near the Mbandaka airport. The rebels held the airport only briefly. A civilian personnel of the mission also died in the fighting.

Meanwhile, hospital sources reported that they had received more than a dozen bodies.

Provincial Minister of Communication Rebecca Ebale said about 100 insurgents had requisitioned the ship "Malaika" owned by a company GAP before landing at the River Congo port of Bankita. They fought their way into the capital city of the province.

The rebel swoop came after Governor Baende announced the end of the months old Enyele rebellion on Tuesday.

Baende said "the Enyele rebellion" was no longer "an organized group, but just as small groups of residual elements who are searching for means of survival."

The armed youths from the Enyele tribe started attacking on Oct. 30 on the Boba tribe over the control of fishing points in Dongo. But when they were carried away by their victories, they formed a rebel movement and began to take away some other localities like Buburu in the Gemena district.

In early January, FARDC said it had taken control of Dongo, driving the insurgents out of the stronghold after fighting.

The Enyele insurgency has killed hundreds of people, including police officers intervening the tribal clash. It has also caused massive displacement. Up to 110,000 refugees fled to the Republic of Congo in the culmination of confrontations.

The influx of refugees across the River Congo has led to tensions between the two neighboring countries. In February, President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo expressed fears about the refugees, wishing that they would quickly return to their own country to avoid conflicts with the local population. He also warned that "these refugees and the natives live in undesirable conditions regarding their health, food as well as their security. "

The tribal clash was the worst flare since the disbanding of the Tutsi rebel CNDP, which rendered 250,000 people homeless in the eastern province of North Kivu in late 2008 and early 2009.

KHARTOUM, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Just a few days ahead of the first multi-party elections in Sudan in more than 20 years, U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration on Monday started a series of talks in Khartoum with different Sudanese political forces.

Gration met with Sudanese Presidential Adviser Ghazi Salahuddin, who is also in charge of the Darfur file.

"Our talks focused on the general elections and the Darfur crisis," Salahuddin told reporters following the meeting with Gration.

"The U.S. envoy is leading intensive talks with the Sudanese political forces to get acquainted with their positions towards the forthcoming elections," he added.

He stressed the importance of organizing the elections as scheduled on April 11 this year, saying that "we are communicating with all the political forces to narrow the gap of difference, but we are committed to the elections timetable."

In the meantime, Salahuddin downplayed the concerns over the difficulty of organizing the elections at some areas in the restive western Sudanese region of Darfur.
If it has become difficult to organize the elections at some areas in Darfur, complementary elections can be held later. It happened in previous elections," he said.

The U.S. envoy returned to Khartoum on Monday after a short visit to the Qatari capital of Doha, which is hosting the peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Darfur armed movements.

Gration is yet to meet some other Sudanese government officials and leaders of some Sudanese political parties in the day.

He is expected to begin on April 9 a tour that will take him to Darfur and south Sudan to get acquainted with the electoral process there.

During his visit in Sudan last week, the U.S. envoy announced his support for holding the general elections in the African country on time.

KAMPALA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has crossed from the Central African Republic to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to reorganize fighters and search for arms, a Ugandan army spokesman said on Monday.

Citing LRA defectors, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye told reporters that Joseph Kony crossed to northeastern DR Congo to dig up the arms cache left behind after his base in Garamba forest was bombarded in a Ugandan-Congolese military offensive in December 2008.

"Kony had comeback to retrieve hundreds of gumboots and guns he had hidden in Camp Swahili," he said while parading LRA's political commissar Solomon Patrick Okello who was captured on March 30 by Ugandan troops in Sudan.

Kulayigye said the rebel leader, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in northern Uganda, keeps moving between DR Congo and the Central African Republic.

Okello who claimed was on his way to Uganda to deliver a message from Kony to resume peace talks with government said that he left Kony in DR Congo with about 200 fighters
Kulayigye said although Kony is no longer a threat to Uganda, he still remains a big threat to the region's stability.

"Kony is a regional problem that should be dealt with decisively. As long as Kony is free, there is going to be insurgency in this region," he said.

He said the rebel group last week killed 10 people and abducted 13 others in northeastern DR Congo.

This killing came at a time when the New York based Human Rights Watch released a report detailing how the LRA killed at least 321 civilians and abducted 250 others in the Makombo area of Haute Uele district in northeastern DR Congo. The massacre is reported to have taken place in December.

LRA fighters have been on the run since the December 2008 joint military offensive aimed at capturing Kony after he refused to sign a two year negotiated peace deal with the Ugandan government.

They have been moving in the jungles of northeastern DR Congo, southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

The rebel group's guerrilla-style warfare of more than 20 years has left tens of thousands of people dead and 2 million others homeless in northern Uganda, before the army in 2006 pushed it to southern Sudan and eventually northeastern DR Congo.

JOHANNESBURG, April 5 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's extremist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB, Afrikaner Resistance Movement) said on Monday that it will not retaliate for the killing of its leader Eugene Terre'Blanche amid fears of a backlash to spark racial tensions.

In a statement, Pieter Steyn, an AWB general, appealed for "calm" and not to engage "in any form of violence."

Earlier in the day, a delegation led by the head of North West province met with the Terre'Blanche family, apparently in a bid to deflect chain reactions after the 69-year-old leader of the extremist AWB was brutally killed by black workers on his farm on Saturday evening.

David Sengiwe, an official from the office of the premier, said after the meeting, "The family told us that the funeral will take place on Friday at noon, at a local church here in Ventersdorp."

President Jacob Zuma has strongly condemned his murder, calling upon politicians not to inflame race tensions after the killing of the fiery leader.

JOHANNESBURG, April 5 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's extremist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB, Afrikaner Resistance Movement) leader Eugene Terre'Blanche will be buried on his farm on Friday, provincial government authorities said on Monday.

According to South African Press Association, a delegation led by the provincial head of North West province was told of funeral arrangements when they met the Terre'Blanche family in the morning.

"The family told us that the funeral will take place on Friday at noon, at a local church here in Ventersdorp," said David Sengiwe, an official from the office of the premier.

The 69-year-old leader of the extremist AWB was brutally killed by black workers on his farm on Saturday evening, sparking fears of renewed race tensions.

President Jacob Zuma has strongly condemned his murder, calling upon politicians not to inflame race tensions after the killing of the fiery leader.

KINSHASA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- FARDC, the national army of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has regained control of the northwestern city of Mbandaka, hours after Enyele insurgents claimed to have snatched it in a surprise attack, according to the military.

"The army controls the city and the situation is calm," the governor of Equateur, Jean-Claude Baende, declared late Sunday, adding the Enyele insurgents were routed by the government forces who were pursuing the disbanded elements.

The governor, who has stayed in the capital Kinshasa since last week, said the incursion caused a heavy loss of lives and that some assailants were captured in the fighting. He did not give details.

The slain included a blue casque of MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, who was killed near the Mbandaka airport. The rebels held the airport only briefly.

Provincial Minister of Communication Rebecca Ebale said about 100 insurgents had requisitioned the ship "Malaika" owned by a company GAP before landing at the River Congo port of Bankita. They then launched the raid on the capital city of the province.
The rebel swoop came after Governor Baende, announced the end of the months old Enyele rebellion on Tuesday.

Baende said "the Enyele rebellion" was no longer "an organized group, but just as small groups of residual elements who are searching for means of survival."

The armed youths from the Enyele tribe started attacking on Oct. 30 on the Boba tribe over the control of fishing points in Dongo. But when they were carried away by their victories, they formed a rebel movement and began to take away some other localities like Buburu in the Gemena district.

In early January, FARDC said it had taken control of Dongo, driving the insurgents out of the stronghold after fighting.

The Enyele insurgency has killed more than 100 people, including police officers intervening the tribal clash. It has also caused massive displacement, with 50,000 refugees still taking shelter in Impfondo in the Republic of Congo.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's government and Darfur's most powerful rebel force accused each other of breaking a recently-signed ceasefire on Monday, undermining already stalled peace talks between both sides.

The insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) told Reuters that Sudan's army bombed its positions in Darfur, close to the Chad border, from midnight through Monday morning, wounding six civilians and killing their livestock.

Sudan's army denied launching any attacks on JEM and a senior government official accused the rebels of seizing new territory in the remote western region, against the terms of the same agreement.

Sudan's president Omar Hassan al-Bashir declared the seven- year Darfur conflict over after his government signed a ceasefire and initial peace deal with JEM in the Qatari capital Doha in February.

But further talks quickly stalled after JEM objected to Khartoum starting parallel discussions with another rebel group.

The peace push was also marred by reports of clashes between Khartoum and a third insurgent force in the Jabel Marra area.

Violence surged in 2003 after JEM and other mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing it of neglecting the development of the region.

Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militias to crush the revolt, unleashing a wave of violence that Washington and some activists have call genocide, a charge Sudan's government rejects.

"The bombing started at midnight and continued this morning ... These people (the government) are not interested in finding a political solution to the problem," said JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam, speaking from Qatar by phone.

Adam said government planes bombed JEM positions around the North Darfur areas of Abu Hamra, Furawiya and Jabel Moun.

He said the rebel force was "considering its position" over future talks but there were no immediate plans to walk out of negotiations.

Sudan dismissed JEM's accusations. "The Sudanese Army is committed to the ceasefire it has signed with JEM. It has not bombed any JEM positions," an army spokesman told Reuters.

JEM's main negotiator Ahmed Tugud told Reuters both sides were in stalemate over details of how the ceasefire would be monitored and managed, together with other issues he did not want to discuss in the media.

Khartoum's main Darfur negotiator Ghazi Salaheddin said JEM has been looking to take more territory.

"They (JEM) have been fanning out in the area and trying to establish themselves in Kulbus and Jabel Moun which is a violation of the ceasefire declaration," Salaheddin told reporters in Khartoum.

Darfur's under-equipped joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force said it could not confirm whether any fighting took place. "We are not present in the area so we can not confirm," UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters.

VENTERSDORP, South Africa (Reuters) - The party of murdered South African white supremacist Eugene Terre'blanche has said it will not take violent action to avenge the death of its leader after his brutal killing on Saturday sparked fears of racial unrest.

Terre'blanche, who led the Afrikaner Resistance Movement that pushed to preserve apartheid in the 1990s, was hacked and battered to death by two black farm workers in a suspected dispute over pay.

Leaders of his party, which has been marginalised in recent years, initially vowed to avenge his death, blaming it on sentiment whipped up by the leader of the youth league of the ruling African National Congress.

But a spokesman for Terre'blanche's AWB told reporters on Monday that the party was not planning violent action.

"The AWB is not going to engage in any form of violent retaliation to avenge Mr Terre'Blanche's death," Pieter Steyn, a general in the AWB, said. "We appeal for people to remain calm. Anyone engaging in any form of violence is not doing it as AWB."

South African leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, have also urged calm since the killing. The so-called "Rainbow Nation", already saddled with a reputation for crime and violence, will be in the international spotlight in a little over two months when it hosts the soccer World Cup.

Whatever the motive for the killing, it has exposed the deep racial divide that still exists in the country 16 years after the end of apartheid.

Opponents of the ANC accuse its youth leader Julius Malema of stoking that through rhetoric and his singing of an apartheid-era song containing the words "Kill the Boer" -- now banned by the courts as hate speech.

Malema was in Zimbabwe over the weekend, where he praised President Robert Mugabe's seizures of land from white farmers to give to landless blacks -- a policy critics say has helped ruin Zimbabwe.

MOURNERS LAY FLOWERS

Terre'blanche had lived in relative obscurity since his release from prison in 2004 after serving a sentence for beating a black man nearly to death.

His sympathisers drove from around South Africa on Monday to lay flowers at the gate of his farm in Ventersdorp, over 100 km (60 miles) west of Johannesburg.

Evidently angry, many of the mourners would not speak to reporters. One brought a large white teddy bear. Police kept watch from cars to prevent any trouble.

"Emotions are running very high at the moment," said Andre Nienaber, a relative of Terre'blanche.

Potential flashpoints this week include the court appearance on Tuesday of the two men accused of the killing, and Terre'blanche's burial on Friday.

The AWB, whose flag resembles a Nazi swastika, has a tiny following among whites, who make up 10 percent of South Africa's population. Afrikaner groups say anger in white agricultural communities has been growing because of a series of farm murders.

"Unfortunately if the government is not seen to do something very serious and effective now, people are going to take the law into their own hands," Dan Roodt of the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group told South Africa's etv.