The mortar shells, apparently fired by Ugandan forces in the region, set the roof of the cathedral on fire. The attack occurred on the third day of fighting in the city between Ugandan and Rwandan forces who were involved in a UN-supervised withdrawal. “This is a breach of a cease-fire,” said Lt. Col. Akram Hossein, head of the UN military observer force in Kisangani.

Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi each support a separate rebel faction in Congo’s 22-month civil war. Rwanda and Uganda had previously been allies in the effort to oust the regime of President Laurent Kabila, using Kisangani as their supply base. Under the Lusaka agreement signed by Rwanda, Uganda, and the rebels as well as Congo and its allies (Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia) foreign troops were to withdraw from Congo under the supervision of a 5,537-strong UN force.

The papal nuncio in Democratic Congo sharply criticized the artillery attack on Kisangani, charging that it was a continuation of a systematic attack on Christians. “The situation is tragic and unjustified,” said Archbishop Francisco Javier Lozano. He said that “for some time now Rwandans and Ugandans have targeted Church institutions, members of the hierarchy, priests, and seminarians.”

The nuncio observed that in recent months, in the eastern part of the country where the rebel forces are most powerful, several bishops and priests had been forced to leave their dioceses: Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko has been prevented since February from returning to his diocesan residence in Bukavu; Bishop Gapangwa Nteziryayo of Uvira was forced to take refuge in Rome; in November 1999 the parish priest of Kalonge, Father George Kakuja was murdered; and at the end of May, during an attack on the major seminary at Murhesa, seminarian Claude Gustave Amzati was killed. Archbishop Lozano said the Church seems to be a common target of both rebel groups because “the Church is now the only institution which unites the people, in a country torn apart by conflicts arising from political, economic and ethnic motives.”

The bishops who signed the statement included Cardinal Etsou Nzabi-Bamungwabi of Kinshasa, and Archbishops Kumuondala Mbimba of Mbandaka, Mukenga’A Kalond of Kananga. They condemned aggression by Rwandan, Ugandan, and Burundian troops in east Congo, calling it “a new colonization of the 21st century,” and charged that the foreign powers were “systematically robbing” the region of its resources. They also scolded the governments of France, Italy, Britain, Belgium, the United States, and Israel for selling arms to the warring parties and for supporting the foreign corporations which have been taking advantage of the conflict to exploit Congo’s rich mineral resources.

The bishops called on the UN to guarantee the Lusaka peace accords, which were signed last July, and to send a military contingent of UN troops capable of maintaining order in the region. And they asked the International Criminal Court to open an inquiry into ethnic massacres against the people of Congo, which were alleged to have been committed by the occupying armies of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi.

Archbishop Emmanuel Katalikoof Bukavu was not present for celebrations in his archdiocese to mark the third anniversary of his taking possession of that see. Since February 12, when he sought to return home after attending a meeting in Kinshasa, he has been detained in Butembo by the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie group (RCD), a rebel group which declares him persona non grata because of his outspoken opposition to their plan of military tactics.