Insurgents loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have walked out of a conference aimed at restoring peace and stability to the eastern Kivu provinces after one of their number was mistaken for a fugitive assassin of the late president Laurent Kabila and briefly arrested.

The conference only got off the ground on 9 January, after several days' delay caused by logisitical problems and rows over exactly who was entitled to attend.

"We have temporarily suspended our participation in this conference because we want official safety guarantees," head of the rebel delegation Kambasu Ngeve told IRIN.

"We were meeting yesterday [9 January] with representatives of the European Union and other diplomats when an officer of MONUC [United Nations Mission in Congo] supported by elements of President Joseph Kabila's guards came over to Major Seraphin Mirindi and said he was under arrest for his involvement in the 2001 assassination."

He added that conference officials intervened to secure Mirindi's release.

"After verification, we established that Maj. Seraphin Mirindi was mistaken for Col. Georges Mirindi [one of the late Kabila's bodyguards] who has been accused of being one of the assassins," said Ngeve.

"We expect to have official guarantees otherwise we will not be there [at the conference]," said Ngeve, speaking on behalf of Nkunda's National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP).

Explaining the circumstances that led to the incident MONUC's spokesman, Kemal Saiki, told Radio Okapi: "MONUC was approached by someone representing the Congolese authorities and asked to find someone by the name of Georges Mirindi in the CNDP delegation. It seems Georges Mirindi has been convicted in relation to the assassination. It had been made clear that people who are involved this case would not be allowed to participate in the conference".

"The head of the MONUC team which was approached went to see the person concerned and informed him of concerns that had been expressed. The person concerned has said his name was Seraphin and not Georges Mirindi," said Saiki.

According to Seraphin Mirindi, MONUC's head of political affairs had informed that he was being placed under arrest.

"I said that I did not understand. And he realised that the person sought was a certain Colonel Georges Mirindi, not me, Seraphin Mirindi," he told the AFP news agency.

The conference, however, continued on 10 January despite the CNDP walk out.

Laurent Kabila was shot dead by one of his bodygurds on 16 January, 2001. About 30 people were convicted in connection with the assassination and sentenced to penalties ranging from death to life in prison.

Georges Mirindi was convicted in absentia, but he remain at large.

There are several parties to the fighting in North Kivu, including the regular army, dissident troops loyal to Nkunda, remnants of the Rwandan soldiers and militia that carried out much of the killing in that country’s 1994 genocide and a variety of Congolese armed groups collectively known as Mayi Mayi.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes in the province over recent months.