Kampala — The UN Security Council Thursday urged Uganda to use the UPDF in Bunia to protect Congolese civilians.

The UN News Centre yesterday quoted the council president as saying that Uganda should "watch out for the security of the civilian population in and around Bunia, as long as it maintains forces on the spot".

Martin Belinga-Eboutou's statement followed reports that the UPDF risked increasing ethnic violence in Congo by playing off one tribe against the other.

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Co-ordinator Carolyn McAskie told the council Thursday that Ugandan army commanders had been "inflaming ethnic tensions there by siding with the area's Hema militias against its Lendu fighters".

McAskie said the UPDF "must take up its full responsibilities to protect civilians in the areas it controls and do so in a neutral and unbiased fashion".

UN officials are warning of a possible genocide like the one of 1994 in Rwanda if the tensions in Ituri province are not calmed.

Bunia, in Ituri, is the base of the UPDF 53 Battalion, the only one left in Congo.

Belinga-Eboutou, however, said the council welcomed the continued withdrawal of foreign forces from Congo. He said the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) should continue its verification work until all foreign troops have left Congolese territory.