By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Tutsi rebels and militia groups in eastern Congo clash almost daily despite the signing of a peace deal last month, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The government, Tutsi insurgents loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and Mai Mai militia agreed a ceasefire on January 23 to end months of fighting and draw a line under a decade of violence in eastern Congo.
However, U.N. peacekeepers have registered 17 armed clashes, mainly between Nkunda loyalists and PARECO Mai Mai militia, since the deal was agreed.
"These clashes are still minor but we are worried because they don't help establish trust," Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, spokeswoman for Congo's MONUC peacekeeping mission told Reuters.
"It's very difficult for us to establish who starts (the clashes). It's always the same pattern. They always blame each other for starting it," she said.
MONUC set up its provisional ceasefire monitoring cell on February 1 and now has more than 30 bases in North Kivu as part of efforts to set up a buffer zone between the warring factions.
However, PARECO spokesman Theophile Museveni said the United Nations was not doing enough to intervene and prevent fighting.
"As long as there isn't an effective force between the two sides, there will be clashes. This is a very weak cell that is not doing its job," he said.
Nkunda's military spokesman Seraphin Mirindi said they were repeatedly attacked by PARECO, who he said were collaborating with their traditional enemies the Rwandan Hutu rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
At least three of the seven clashes registered since MONUC began monitoring followed looting or attempts to steal cattle. Congo's army was not involved in any of the fighting.
Last month's peace accord was the fruit of more than two weeks of intense negotiations between the warring parties in Congo's eastern borderlands, where conflict has raged for years despite the formal end of the country's 1998-2003 war.
Around 450,000 North Kivu residents fled fighting between government soldiers, Mai Mai, and Tutsi insurgents in the year leading up to the peace deal.
Foreign diplomats, who pressured all sides to sign the agreement, hope the ceasefire will allow refugees to return home and alleviate a growing humanitarian crisis in the province.
A survey published last month by the International Rescue Committee aid group said Congo's war and its lingering aftermath had killed 5.4 million people in a decade, the highest toll of any conflict since World War Two.
