UN and Congolese troops fought a bloody battle with Ugandan rebels in Congo?s wartorn east in their latest move to restore order after the huge nation approved a postwar constitution, the UN said on Sunday. Thirty-five rebels were killed in the ongoing operation, UN military spokesman Major Hans-Jakob Reichen said. An Indian peacekeeper was killed and four compatriots injured, and three Congolese government forces were killed and 16 injured.

Since last week?s referendum, which paves the way for elections by the end of June 2006, UN and Congolese forces have tackled militias blamed for undermining the peace process and raping, pillaging and murdering civilians in eastern areas. 


<b>Dislodging the fighters</b>

The latest fighting began on Saturday around 30 km (20 miles) south of Beni in North Kivu district after fighters of the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces/National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF/NALU) ignored an ultimatum to negotiate voluntary repatriation, Reichen said. 

Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda backed rebels in Congo?s complex five-year war and nationals from both countries still operate in militia groups across Congo?s east. 

On Saturday some 300 Nepalese UN peacekeepers and 1,500 government troops backed by helicopter gunships attacked and captured Nioka, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Bunia, the main town in the unruly Ituri district of northeastern Congo. 

UN and Congolese forces have been fighting in the area for several days against an ethnic Lendu militia which has refused to join a UN-backed disarmament process. 

Dozens of militia fighters and a number of Congolese troops have been killed since last Sunday?s vote, the first free national poll for four decades in Africa?s third biggest state. 

Nearly 4 million people have died since war broke out in 1998, mostly from war-related hunger and disease. 

Latest results announced on Saturday showed that with votes from nearly three quarters of polling stations counted, the ?Yes? vote had  83 percent, with just under  17 percent for ?No?. 


<b>Calls for more robust action</b>

?No? campaigners say they will contest the result in the Supreme Court on the grounds that the government?s ?Yes? campaign was unfairly supported by the international community, which has a role as sponsor and guarantor of a 2003 peace deal. 

The referendum won a verdict of ?free and fair? from European Union observers despite some violence and intimidation at some polling stations. But across the vast country, most of which lacks basic roads or phone links, it is still unclear how the vote went in some areas where militia groups operate. 

UN troops and a new Congolese army drawn from the ranks of government and rebel forces aim to establish central government control in areas dominated for years by foreign-backed rebel factions or local militias. 

Last month a delegation of UN Security Council ambassadors visited Congo and its neighbours and backed Ugandan calls for more robust action to dislodge the ADF/NALU and a number of other Ugandan rebel groups from bases in northeast Congo. 

The United Nations estimates around 2,000 armed Ugandans operate in Congo, for a confusing array of foreign armed militias left after years of fighting driven in part by competition to control Congo?s rich mineral resources. 

Willy KABWE