By David Lewis KINSHASA, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Congolese government forces prevented thousands of civilians from voting in elections on Sunday by setting up roadblocks and demanding money for passage in the lawless northeast, an international observer said. Between 15,000 and 25,000 people in Congo's Ituri district could not vote in a presidential run-off and local elections, said Anneke Van Woudenberg, a researcher for U.S. based Human Rights Watch, who witnessed the army's actions. Democratic Republic of the Congo held the final round of elections on Sunday ending a long and costly peace process after a decade of war and chaos in the former Belgian colony. Voters were choosing between incumbent President Joseph Kabila and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. But the incident highlighted continuing lawlessness and abuse in the east, where violence still simmers despite three years of official peace. "There has been a lot of interference by the Congolese army in the vote," Van Woudenberg told Reuters from Bunia, the main town in Ituri, which suffered some of the war's worst violence. "They have set up barricades demanding money from voters as they moved to the polling stations. As a result, between 15,000- 25,000 people have not been able to vote," she said. Congo's 1998-2003 war, during which there was wholesale plunder of the nation's rich mineral resources, lured in six neighbouring armies and killed over 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease. Tens of thousands of gunmen from army factions, rebel groups and militias were due to be integrated into the national army under a peace process that has stalled. The army is often the worst rights abuser. Van Woudenberg said the checkpoints were in northeastern Ituri, near the town of Nizi, and civilians were being asked to pay between 100 and 200 Congolese francs ($0.20-$0.40) each to pass through. "Rumours have spread that people were being forced to pay so many got scared and didn't come and vote," Van Woudenberg said. The election was overseen by the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping force, backed up in Kinshasa by a European Union contingent sent to intervene in case of a crisis.
