About 400 of Zaire's elite soldiers are to be withdrawn from this border town following a protest by thousands of residents and refugees fed up with their thievery and thuggery.
Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo acknowledged Thursday that the troops, sent to Goma to help with the Rwandan refugee crisis, "got the situation out of control.""In view of what happened, the first decision is that troops responsible for that situation must be arrested and brought to court," Kengo wa Dondo told Radio Zaire.
"Second, all units in Goma and in Bukavu must be withdrawn and replaced by other contingents in order to avoid the recurrence of this situation," the prime minister said.
The soldiers sent to Goma were drawn from the presidential guard and other elite units, raising concern about the quality of the troops that will replace them.
Kengo wa Dondo spoke in Kinshasa, the Zairian capital, after briefing President Mobuto Sese Seko on a riot by more than 5,000 people in Goma on Thursday that briefly blocked food convoys.
The nearly two-hour protest by residents and some refugees was set off by the shooting death of a well-known currency dealer by a Zairian soldier demanding money.
The victim's body was carried through the streets on a wooden stretcher by the demonstrators, who pelted troops with stones and blocked streets with large rocks and trash.
Goma residents claim that the soldiers have conducted house-to-house extortion campaigns and robbed Zairian citizens and Rwandan refugees alike at gunpoint.
Two soldiers were killed by outraged refugees last week. But the protests in Goma were the first significant sign of the frustration boiling over in the city of 80,000.
The city has been converted to a dollar economy by the influx of aid workers, journalists and American and other Western troops. Prices for scarce basic commodities have soared while the value of Zaire's currency has plummeted.
Aid officials warned Friday that the death, disease and hunger infesting the refugee camps could affect all of central Africa if Rwandans don't return home soon.
Refugees are still leaving Rwanda and migrating through neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire, said Jose Riera, a senior official with the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium.
Relief workers fear the refugee influx will strain the resources of the host countries and spread disease. There are also concerns that the September rainy season could turn the camps into mud baths, creating a sanitation nightmare.
Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office in Goma said Friday it was moving all available resources to Bukavu, about 60 miles to the south.