Kinshasa - Congolese state security forces have killed an estimated 500 people seen as opponents to President Joseph Kabila and detained another 1,000 in the two years since internationally backed elections brought him to power, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

"While everyone focuses on the violence in eastern (Democratic Republic of) Congo, government abuses against political opponents attract little attention," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

"Efforts to build a democratic DR Congo are being stifled not just by rebellion but also by the Kabila government's repression," she added.

New York  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned the killing of a journalist working for a UN radio station in the Democratic Republic of Congo - the second such incident within the past year.

Ban said he learned with "deep distress" of the murder in Bukavu Friday of Didace Namujimbo, a journalist from Radio Okapi, the station of the UN mission in Congo, which is managed in partnership with Fondation Hirondelle.

"This crime is all the more devastating as it marks the second time in less than two years that a member of Radio Okapi's staff has been brutally killed in the same city," Ban said in a statement.

New York  - The United Nations Security Council was on Wednesday considering the deployment of an additional 3,000 military and police personnel to the Democratic Republic of Congo, diplomats said.

The extra troops were to man a separation zone between the warring parties in eastern Congo, where fighting has disrupted entire areas and displaced tens of thousands of Congolese.

The UN mission in Congo (MONUC) comprises more than 17,000 military troops, who are stretched thin in the vast Congolese territory.

The 15-nation council was discussing a draft resolution worked out by France to authorize the deployment of the new forces until December 31, with the possibility of a renewal.

Nairobi/Goma  - A Tutsi rebel group that has been battling government forces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo is sticking to its promise to withdraw soldiers from two fronts, the UN said Wednesday.

"Since late yesterday evening we have seen them begin to withdraw," Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, military spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo (MONUC) told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We have been patrolling and monitoring since this morning."

Rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has routed the Congolese army and seized control of territory in the eastern North Kivu province in recent weeks.

Nairobi/Goma  - A rebel group that has been battling government forces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo said Tuesday it would withdraw from two fronts to show its commitment to peace.

Rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has routed the Congolese army and seized control of territory in the eastern North Kivu province in recent weeks.

The CNDP said in a statement on its website it had decided to "immediately and unilaterally" withdraw its troops a distance of 40 kilometres on the Kanyabayonga-Nyanzale and Kabasha-Kiwanja fronts in North Kivu.

Nairobi/Goma - Congolese President Joseph Kabila has sacked his military chief of staff in the wake of rebel gains in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

State television late Monday night said that General Didier Etumba Longomba, the navy chief, would take over from General Dieudonne Kayembe.

Rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has routed the Congolese army in recent weeks and seized control of territory in the eastern North Kivu province.