Holocaust-denier removed from Argentine seminary

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – An ultra-traditionalist Roman Catholic bishop who has drawn sharp criticism from the Vatican and Jewish groups for denying the extent of the Holocaust was removed as the head of an Argentine seminary, a Catholic Church official said on Sunday.

Pope Benedict angered Jewish leaders and progressive Catholics last month when he lifted excommunications on the bishop, Richard Williamson, and three other traditionalists to try to heal a 20-year-old schism within the Church.

The Vatican has since ordered the bishop to publicly recant his views questioning whether the Nazis used gas chambers and the number of Jews who died.

But Williamson, who is British-born, recently told Germany's Spiegel magazine he must first review historical evidence before considering an apology.

In a statement, Father Christian Bouchacourt, the head of the Latin American chapter of the Catholic Society St. Pius X, said Williamson had been relieved as the head of the La Reja seminary on the outskirts of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

"Monsignor Williamson's statements do not in any way reflect the position of our congregation," it said.

The decision came hours after Pope Benedict and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who publicly criticized the pontiff for his decision to rehabilitate the bishop, spoke by telephone.

The two had a "cordial and constructive" conversation on the issue, the Vatican said.

The Vatican has been at pains since the excommunications of the four bishops were lifted on January 24 to contain damage provoked by Williamson's comments, which he made during an interview with Swedish television last month.

The Vatican has said Pope Benedict, who expressed his full solidarity with Jews, was not aware of Williamson's denial of the Holocaust when he rehabilitated the bishops.

Official: Jordanian nurse detained by Egypt on suspicion of money smuggling

A Jordanian nurse was detained by Egyptian securities at the Rafah border crossing on suspicion of money smuggling, local daily The Jordan Times on Sunday quoted a foreign ministry official as saying.

Salman Masaeed, the nurse, was reported missing on Thursday at Rafah on the way to Gaza, where he would join others to help Palestinians injured during the 22-day blistering Israeli attack that started on Dec. 27, 2008.

No further information was available from the Jordanian embassy in Cairo, especially whether Masaeed is suspected of smuggling money for Hamas in Gaza, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It is premature to decide whether he will be transferred to Jordan or tried in Egypt in case he was indicted," added the official.

Earlier on Saturday, activists staged a sit-in at the Professional Associations Complex in Jordan's capital of Amman, demanding the release of the medic.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6587943.html.

Short-eared owl

Asio flammeus

Though they're as much an owl as any other species, short-ears have some behavior not generally attributed to the family.

Short-eared owls commonly hunt during the first and last hours of daylight.

They also hunt while flying low and slowly and may roost on the grassy ground as often as in trees.

Short-eared owls seldom nest in Kansas, but are common winter migrations.

The birds have recently been seen in some grassy fields near northeast Wichita.

Like most owls, they largely prey on small mammals like mice and voles.

Australian fire zone declared a crime scene

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

WHITTLESEA, Australia – Suspicions that the worst wildfires ever to strike Australia were deliberately set led police to declare crime scenes Monday in towns incinerated by blazes, while investigators moving into the charred landscape discovered more bodies. The death toll stood at 130.

Officials believe arson may be behind at least some of the more than 400 fires that tore a destructive path across a vast swath of southern Victoria state over the weekend. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, visibly upset during a television interview, reflected national disgust at the idea.

"What do you say about anyone like that?" Rudd said. "There's no words to describe it, other than it's mass murder."

Police have sealed off at least two towns — Marysville and Kinglake — where dozens of deaths occurred — setting up roadside checkpoints and controlling access to the area.

Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon said specialist fire investigators were on the ground at one fire site, in Churchill, east of Melbourne, and would go to others.

Kinglake is "where the most deaths are, but wherever a death has occurred we investigate that as a crime," Nixon told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Anyone found guilty of lighting a wildfire that causes death faces 25 years in prison in Victoria. However, a murder conviction could result in a life sentence, said federal Attorney General Robert McClelland.

At least 750 homes were destroyed. Officials said both the tolls of human life and property would almost certainly rise.

Stunned survivors were gathering at dozens of emergency relief centers at town halls and schools.

At the town of Whittlesea, 7 miles (12 kilometers) west of the Kinglake region, survivors sat in the dirt outside, accepting cups of coffee and sandwiches being handed out by volunteers. Others hugged each other with tears in their eyes.

Australian Red Cross officials were compiling lists of survivors to make it easy for family members to track them down. The Red Cross said more than 4,000 people had been listed across the state.

Jack Barber said he fled his house in Pheasant Creek with his wife and a few belongings on Saturday and spent the night on a sports field dodging flames that licked at them from different directions as wind gusts blew them closer.

They drove out of the disaster zone on Sunday.

"There were dead horses, live horses, kangaroos bouncing down the road with flames at their back. It was horrific," Barber said.

Victoria state Premier John Brumby on Monday announced a royal commission would be held. A royal commission is among the highest-level investigations that can be called under Australian law. Usually, a former judge is appointed to take extensive evidence and make formal findings that can lead to charges or changes in the law.

While weather conditions have eased since Saturday's inferno, more than one dozen fires still burned in Victoria and gusting winds threatened to fan them toward towns not previously hit. Forecasters said temperatures may rise again later in the week.

Blazes have been burning for weeks in the southeastern state of Victoria but turned deadly Saturday when searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across the region. A long-running drought in the south — the worst in a century — had left forests extra dry and Saturday's fire conditions were said to be the worst ever in Australia.

From the air, the landscape was blackened as far as the eye could see. Entire forests were reduced to leafless, charred trunks, farmland to ashes. The Victoria Country Fire Service said some 850 square miles (2,200 kilometers) were burned out.

Only five houses were left standing out of about 40 in one neighborhood of the hard-hit Kinglake district that an Associated Press news crew flew over. Street after street was lined by smoldering wrecks of homes, roofs collapsed inward, iron roof sheets twisted from the heat. The burned-out hulks of cars dotted roads. A church was smoldering, only one wall with a giant cross etched in it remained standing.

Residents were repeatedly advised on radio and television announcements to initiate their so-called "fire plan" — whether it be staying in their homes to battle the flames or to evacuate before the roads became too dangerous. But some of the deaths were people who were apparently caught by the fire as they fled in their cars or killed when charred tree limbs fell on their vehicles.

Russia to supply uranium to India

Russia will become the first supplier of nuclear fuel to India since a club of uranium producers lifted a three-decade ban on sales to the south Asian country.

A unit of Rosatom Corporation, Russia’s holding company for all nuclear assets, will sign a contract with Indian atomic energy monopoly Nuclear Power Corporation on February 11 in Mumbai to deliver 2,000 metric tons of uranium pellets, both companies said.

India will pay $780 million for the fuel, Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said by phone from Moscow today. “We’re very glad that a Russian company will be the first to supply India with low-enriched uranium after the Nuclear Suppliers Group canceled its restrictions,” Novikov said.

The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, founded after India detonated a nuclear device in 1974, ended its boycott of the country in September. India has since signed nuclear accords with the US, France and Russia.

Nuclear Power Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said after the ban was lifted that India’s next task would be to “ensure fuel supplies for our ongoing and planned projects.” India also held talks on uranium supplies with Canada, Kazakhstan, and African countries before selecting Russia, Jain said in October.

India, where homes and industry suffer peak power shortages of as much as 17 per cent, needs uranium to fuel the 28 reactors it plans to build to meet its target of adding 40,000 Mw of nuclear generation by 2020.

IOF soldiers bulldoze agriculture lands in southern Gaza

Feb 7, 2009

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces advanced into Fakhari area east of Khan Younis district, to the south of Gaza Strip, at an early hour on Saturday amidst indiscriminate shooting.

PIC reporter said that a number of IOF tanks and bulldozers advanced hundreds of meters in the area and bulldozed Palestinian cultivated lands.


IOF troops in the West Bank kidnapped at dawn Saturday five Palestinian young men during incursions in a number of villages in the Nablus district.

Other IOF units roamed the streets of Jenin villages but without any arrests made although tension is running high in those villages after the IOF claimed aborting a human bombing operation that was being planned by Palestinian resistance in Jenin to coincide with the Israeli general elections scheduled next Tuesday.

108 killed in deadliest-ever Australian wildfires

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

HEALESVILLE, Australia – Entire towns have been razed by wildfires raging through southeastern Australia, burning people in their homes and cars in the deadliest blaze in the country's history. The number of dead Monday stood at 108, a grim toll that rose almost by the hour as officials reached further into the fire zone.

Searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country's Victoria state, where at least 750 homes were destroyed and all of the victims died.

"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. "It's an appalling tragedy for the nation."

If any of the deadly fires were deliberately lit, "There are no words to describe it other than mass murder," he said on Nine Network television.

The skies rained ash and trees exploded in the inferno, witnesses said, as temperatures of up 117 F (47 C) combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.

The town of Marysville and several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles (100 kilometers) north of Melbourne, were utterly devastated.

At Marysville, a winter tourism town that was home to about 800 people, up to 90 percent of buildings were in ruins, witnesses said. Police said two people died there.

"Marysville is no more," Senior Constable Brian Cross told the AP as he manned a checkpoint Sunday on a road leading into the town.

At least 18 of the deaths were from the Kinglake area, where residents said the fire hit with barely any notice.

Mandy Darkin said she was working at a restaurant "like nothing was going on" until they were suddenly told to go home.

"I looked outside the window and said: 'Whoa, we are out of here, this is going to be bad,'" Darkin said. "I could see it coming. I just remember the blackness and you could hear it, it sounded like a train."

Only five houses were left standing out of about 40 in one neighborhood that an Associated Press news crew flew over. Street after street was lined by smoldering wrecks of homes, roofs collapsed inward, iron roof sheets twisted from the heat. The burned-out hulks of cars dotted roads. A church was smoldering, only one wall with a giant cross etched in it remained standing.

Here and there, fire crews filled their trucks from ponds and sprayed down spot fires. There were no other signs of life.

From the air, the landscape was blackened as far as the eye could see. Entire forests were reduced to leafless, charred trunks, farmland to ashes. The Victoria Country Fire Service said some 850 square miles (2,200 square kilometers) were burned out.

Rudd, on a tour of the fire zone, paused to comfort a man who wept on his shoulder, telling him, "You're still here, mate."

Police said they were hampered from reaching burned-out areas to confirm details of deaths and property loss. At least 80 people were hospitalized with burns.

On Sunday temperatures in the area dropped to about 77 F (25 C) but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.

Thousands of exhausted volunteer firefighters were battling about 30 uncontrolled fires Sunday night in Victoria, officials said, though conditions had eased considerably. It would be days before they were brought under control, even if temperatures stayed down, they said.

Residents were repeatedly advised on radio and television announcements to initiate their so-called "fire plan" — whether it be staying in their homes to battle the flames or to evacuate before the roads became too dangerous. But some of the deaths were people who were apparently caught by the fire as they fled in their cars or killed when charred tree limbs fell on their vehicles.

Rudd announced immediate emergency aid of 10 million Australian dollars ($7 million), and government officials said the army would be deployed to help fight the fires and clean up the debris.

Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment spokesman Geoff Russell said early Monday that 108 deaths had been confirmed.

Australia's previous worst fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia state during "Ash Wednesday." Seventy-one died and 650 buildings were destroyed in 1939's "Black Friday" fires.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.

Victoria police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately.

Dozens of fires were also burning in New South Wales state, where temperatures remained high for the third consecutive day. Properties were not under immediate threat.

Iraqi women's minister resigns in protest

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – Iraq's state minister for women's affairs has quit to protest a lack of resources for a daunting task — improving the lives of "a full army of widows" and other women left poor or abandoned by war.

In an interview Sunday with The Associated Press, Nawal al-Samarraie described how her office's budget was so tight that she often found herself dipping into her own pockets for the women who came begging for help.

She said she finally submitted her resignation last week in part because her budget was slashed from $7,500 to $1,500 per month — part of overall government spending cuts forced by plunging oil prices. The figure didn't include staff salaries.

"I reached to the point that I will never be able to help the women," said al-Samarraie, whose job lasted just six months. "The budget is very limited ... so what can I do?"

Al-Samarraie's resignation has cast a spotlight on the overwhelming problems facing Iraqi women, tens of thousands of them left poor or widowed by war.

An untold number have lost their husbands or other male relatives to violence or detention since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, often leaving them alone with children and virtually no safety net or job opportunities.

Al-Samarraie claimed Iraq has 3 million widows, calling it "a full army of widows, most of them not educated." The figure, which she said came from a government survey, includes those who lost their husbands under Saddam Hussein's regime and was impossible to verify.

All Iraqis have undergone difficulties, but women face the additional danger of being sidelined in a male-dominated society. Widows in Iraq, for example, traditionally move in with their extended families, but many families find it increasingly difficult to care for them.

Other problems for women include homelessness, domestic violence and the random detention of women caught up in U.S.-Iraqi military sweeps.

Female lawmakers Sunday urged al-Samarraie to change her mind, and demanded that the government get serious about helping women.

"Iraqi women need a national strategy to empower them and support their constitutional, legal, health and social rights," Safiya al-Suhail, a lawmaker from a secular party, said at a news conference.

Al-Samarraie, a 47-year-old gynecologist and mother of five, said things quickly went downhill after she assumed her post on July 22, when her Sunni political party ended a boycott to rejoin the Shiite-dominated government.

The former lawmaker, who previously served on the Iraqi parliament's health committee, was full of ideas about how to help Iraqi women, from establishing regional offices and vocational programs to building a women's center that would double as a mall.

But her office — with a staff of 18 — was not a full ministry and had insufficient authority or resources to help women facing great hardship after nearly six years of war, she said.

She gave some of her own money to one woman who was left homeless with her four children after her husband was detained, her two brothers were killed and her father died.

"She's not educated, so she and her four children were in the street," al-Samarraie recalled. "I felt if I will not help her she will go in a wrong way. So I tried to help her to make a small shop."

Al-Samarraie warned of the desperate Iraqi women who have become suicide bombers.

"Many of them are widows, or homeless or hopeless," she said. "No one opened the door for them."

Other Iraqi ministries have faced the same, steep budget cuts, but al-Samarraie insisted women should be given priority because they make up 65 percent of the population and because so many have been stranded by the war after their husbands and brothers were killed or detained.

Al-Suhail, the female lawmaker, urged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to refuse al-Samarraie's resignation and instead work with her to create an independent commission for women, with a larger budget.

But al-Samarraie said al-Maliki signed her resignation the day she submitted it.

A government spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

"It's not such an important issue for him," she said. "It doesn't have the priority in the Iraqi government and not even the second or third."

But she said she planned to travel to Turkey for an international conference on Iraqi women soon and would think about the pleas for her to return to the job.

"Maybe with the next government it will be a priority," she said.

Iraqi shoe thrower due in court

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at ex-President George W. Bush faces trial next week for allegedly assaulting a foreign leader after an appellate court refused to reduce the charge, a judicial official said Sunday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, 30, who won folk hero status throughout the Arab world for his protest, has been in custody since the Dec. 14 outburst at Bush's joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

He had been due to stand trial in December but his defense team won a delay as it sought to reduce the charges to simply insulting Bush.

However, court spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said an appellate court rejected the request and ordered the journalist to face trial on Feb. 19 on the original charge. He did not say when the appeals court issued its decision.

Bayrkdar refused to speculate what sentence al-Zeidi might receive if convicted, saying it would be up to the court. The defense has said the assault charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The bizarre act of defiance transformed an obscure reporter from a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with the nearly six-year U.S. presence here.

The case also drew worldwide attention and became a rallying cry throughout the Muslim world for critics who resent the U.S. invasion and occupation.

Thousands demonstrated for al-Zeidi's release and hailed his gesture, which came in the waning days of the Bush administration. The incident also embarrassed al-Maliki, who was standing next to Bush at the time.

Neither leader was injured, but Bush was forced to duck for cover as the journalist shouted in Arabic: "This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

Al-Zeidi's lawyer, Dhia al-Saadi, said the defense would urge the court to consider his act as "a nationalistic expression" which was not intended to harm Bush physically but express opposition to "the occupation."

"This type of expression is well-known in America and Europe, where people throw eggs or rotten tomatoes at their leaders to express their rejection of their policies," al-Saadi told Associated Press Television News.

"When al-Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush, it was this kind of political expression. Therefore, there should be no criminal charges," he said.

Al-Zeidi was a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia, a satellite television station based in Cairo, Egypt. Station director Abdul-Hamid al-Saeh said he was disappointed that the charge was not reduced.

"We stress again that Muntadhar's case puts before the government a challenge that any democratic state must deal when it comes to an expression of opinion," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

Al-Zeidi's brother, Dhargham, said the family has not yet been informed of the trial date.

He also repeated complaints that relatives and lawyers have been denied access to al-Zeidi, saying authorities turned down the family's request to meet with him last Thursday.

"This court works according to orders from the Cabinet," the brother said. "He has been deprived of his simplest rights."

Al-Zeidi's family claims he was beaten and tortured in detention.

The investigating judge who reviewed the case said al-Zeidi had been struck about the face and eyes, apparently by Iraqi security agents who wrestled him to the floor after he hurled his shoes, forcing Bush to duck for cover.

One brother who visited al-Zeidi last month said he appeared in good shape and his injuries wounds had healed.

Dhargham al-Zeidi said his brother's guards threw him a birthday party last month complete with a cake.

Iran's Khatami to run in presidential election

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Former President Mohammad Khatami, who pushed for detente with the West when in office from 1997 to 2005, said on Sunday he would run in Iran's June presidential election.

The announcement sets up a choice for voters between Khatami and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose first four-year term have witnessed a sharp deterioration in ties with the West as tensions over Iran's nuclear work have mounted.

"Here I am announcing that I will seriously take part as a candidate for the election," Khatami told a meeting of pro- reform politicians.

The election is being keenly watched abroad because U.S. President Barack Obama has offered a new U.S. approach to engage Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, saying he would extend a hand of peace if Tehran would "unclench its fist."

Some analysts say Washington may wait until the June result before spelling out any offer in detail. Iran, meanwhile, has set tough conditions for opening any dialogue, a move seen as a bid to buy time in part because of the pending election.

The foes have not had diplomatic ties since shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

The vote will not determine policy in the Islamic Republic where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say. But the president can influence how Iran acts as Khamenei tends to look for consensus among the political elite, analysts say.

"People feel the need for change because of Ahmadinejad's foreign policy and economic policies. Therefore we think people will vote for Khatami, for change," said Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a vice president under Khatami and close political ally.

"With Khatami running, the election will be polarized."

Ahmadinejad has faced mounting criticism over his economic management and surging inflation, which climbed to almost 30 percent last year. Reformists, in particular, say his fiery foreign policy speeches have further isolated Iran.

HARDLINERS

The West accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting its aim is to make electricity. But Tehran's failure to convince world powers about its intentions has led to three rounds of U.N. sanctions.

Khatami worked for detente abroad and for political and social change at home while president. But hardliners in charge of major levers of power in the Islamic Republic blocked many of his reforms, costing Khatami some key supporters.

Ahmadinejad, who an aide told Reuters in January would run again, came to office pledging to share out Iran's oil wealth more fairly and a return to Islamic revolutionary values.

Both also differ markedly in appearance. Khatami is a cleric who wears a black turban signifying he is a descendant of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad. Ahmadinejad, Iran's first non-cleric president in more than quarter of a century, is mostly seen in trademark zip-up jackets said to be worth no more than $25 each.

"I have always insisted on the formation of civil organizations," Khatami said, echoing a slogan from his first term when he pushed for creation of a civil society.

"The Iranian nation's historical demand is to have freedom, independence and justice and I will work for that," he said.

Although many of Khatami's reform plans were blocked, such as a law to ease press restrictions, the media did become more vibrant during Khatami's term -- even if many newspapers were banned -- and some social strictures did loosen.

But some of Khatami's main supporters became disillusioned by the end of his presidency, saying he should have done more to push through change. Students, who were once the vanguard of change, accused him of making big promises he didn't keep.

Analysts say the result could hinge on whether Ahmadinejad retains support of Khamenei, who has publicly praised the president and whose words could sway millions of loyalists.

Ahmadinejad may also be able to call on the backing of Iranians in poorer and particularly rural areas where the impact of his spending has been most obvious, analysts say, although they add that his largesse is why prices have climbed so fast.

Attention has focused on Ahmadinejad and Khatami, but former parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi, who lost in 2005, has also said he will run, alongside a former interior minister in Ahmadinejad's cabinet, Mostafa Pourmohammadi.

Iranian presidents can serve two consecutive four-year terms but must then step down. They can run again at a later date.

Congo refugees have little to return home to

By MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer

KIBATI, Congo – Sylvie Manyamangu gave birth last week out in the open on a chilly night.

Still, she decided that was better than returning to the home in eastern Congo that she fled from three months ago, carrying whatever she could in a hefty pile on her head.

"There's nothing left there. They looted everything, even the roof off my house," she said. "If I go back, there will be nothing."

Still, she acknowledged that the sprawling Kibati refugee camp where she and her eight children have landed was not the best solution either.

"Here, I also have nothing," she said, one sickly child wrapped on her back and others scurrying around her skirt.

Manyamangu applauded along with scores of other refugee women when the top U.N. diplomat for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, arrived at their camp to hear their concerns this weekend.

Holmes' four-day trip to Congo comes amid an outcry from aid workers and human rights groups, who accuse U.N. peacekeepers of failing to protect civilians from deadly attacks.

Manyamangu's hometown of Kibumba, just to the north, was among many in eastern Congo overrun by rebels loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda. The rebel leader claimed to be fighting to protect Congo's Tutsi minority from the Hutu militias linked to neighboring Rwanda's 1994 genocide, when some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

Nkunda was captured by authorities in Rwanda last month, who took advantage of a split in his rebel movement. It was a stunning about-turn, for Rwanda's now-Tutsi government had supported Nkunda for years.

"I was so happy when he was caught," Manyamangu said. "It was he who forced us away, so with him there could be no peace."

Nkunda's troops seized great swaths of eastern Congo in a matter of weeks last year, forcing at least 250,000 people to flee the fighting.

Since his capture, thousands of refugees have already gone home — some 24,000 of the estimated 50,000 who flooded into Kibati, just outside the regional capital of Goma, which is on the border with Rwanda.

Holmes toured the sprawling camp on Saturday, viewing huts covered in white tarpaulins and wooden structures with bright blue doors, asking residents questions.

The biggest fear among camp dwellers is whether fighting could erupt again. Numerous militias and rebels have fought and plundered in eastern Congo since the central African nation suffered a decade of wars that ended in 2003.

Etienne Mupenda read a list of the refugees' needs and concerns to Holmes. In addition to plastic sheeting, seeds for planting and food until their vegetables grow, the refugees hoped to be protected by civilian authorities and establish a local civilian administration.

"I can't promise a miracle," Holmes responded. "But we'll do our best in talking to the governor ... I understand that security is the biggest issue."

Later, he told reporters he would look into providing packages of necessities to encourage people to go home.

Groups of children too young to know anything but war and displacement danced and sang under the direction an Italian aid group that works with children in conflict zones.

Eduardo Tagliani explained to Holmes how, when children are encouraged to draw, their trauma comes out in pictures of houses and guns.

"First, they draw the thing they have lost, then they draw the thing that took it away from them — and perhaps the thing that could help them get it back," Tagliani said.

Gogo Kambale Kioma, a local official, said described a cycle in which some refugees go home only to return, because their houses were destroyed or are now occupied by government soldiers, or because of sharp disagreements with neighbors over looting and politics.

Many local administrators loyal to Nkunda remain in place, and returnees are being accused of supporting Nkunda's enemies.

"We really need to sensitize both groups that this really is not the moment to create another conflict," he said. "Whatever people have lost, they need to just blame the war. Otherwise, we could be heading into another tribal conflict."

Eastern Congo has Hutus and Tutsis, just like Rwanda, along with other ethnic groups.

While Rwanda is recovering from its genocide and its Tutsi leaders are trying to turn the tiny mountainous nation into a high-tech service center, eastern Congo continues to be convulsed by violence.

An estimated 5.4 million people — the world's deadliest conflict since World War II — have died in Congo's wars and some 1,500 continue to die every day, mostly from hunger and disease caused by conflict, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

President Joseph Kabila recently invited Sudan and Uganda to send troops into Congo to fight Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army who have fled to Congo's far northeastern forests. The LRA headquarters was bombed, but that only scattered the rebels into villages where they have slaughtered an estimated 900 civilians since Christmas.

Holmes is to visit that area Monday, around the town of Bunia.

Aid workers and U.N. officials, meanwhile, fear another bloody backlash against civilians from Hutu rebels. Those rebels now hiding in Congo's eastern forests but are expected to emerge and retaliate after Rwandan troops that Kabila invited in to hunt them down leave Congo at the end of February.