(Adds defence minister, paragraph 4-5) By Joe Bavier GOMA, Congo, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Thousands of civilians fled heavy fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled North Kivu province after clashes erupted before dawn on Thursday between government forces and renegade soldiers. Some 1,000 fighters loyal to rebel Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda attacked a Congolese army brigade headquarters in Katale, around 60 km (38 miles) northwest of the provincial capital Goma, at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), witnesses said. Exchanges of machinegun and heavy weapons fire continued for more than six hours and sporadic fighting followed. Military sources said 31 soldiers were wounded on the government side. "Those who are shooting on their comrades are criminals. He (Nkunda) killed in Kisangani, he killed in Bukavu and he continues to kill ... he must answer for his acts," Defence Minister Chikez Diemu told Reuters. He said two brigades of government soldiers were heading towards Katale, but added: "We must take a responsible approach. We are in favour of a peaceful solution." Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, army operations commander in North Kivu, told Reuters the insurgents had attacked first. "We're taking steps this time to finish with this situation, which is beginning to make us look ridiculous," he told Reuters. Nkunda's spokesman Rene Abandi denied the insurgents had struck first, blaming the army for provoking the violence. "We think they're envisaging an apocalyptic scenario. They want to exterminate us," he said. A witness in Masisi, a nearby town of more than 10,000 residents, said several civilians had been hit by stray bullets and that the population there had fled. "Masisi has completely emptied of all inhabitants. They've all run away," Jean Kugaya, an aid worker with the relief agency World Vision, told Reuters. WAR FEARS In 2004, Nkunda led two army brigades, around 4,000 men, into the bush and briefly captured Bukavu, the capital of neighbouring South Kivu. He faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes allegedly committed at the time. President Joseph Kabila promised to bring peace to the east of Congo after last year winning the first democratic election in more than four decades, a vote meant to draw a line under a 1998-2003 war that killed an estimated 4 million people. Thousands of Nkunda's fighters were brought into special mixed brigades within the army as part of a January truce brokered by neighbouring Rwanda. But violence has continued and those fighters began abandoning their positions last week. The troop movements, carried out without the blessing of government commanders, sparked fears of a return to war in the east, a stronghold of militias and foreign and domestic rebels. At least five government soldiers have been killed in fighting since the split, but there had been hope that, after meetings earlier this week between army officers and Nkunda's commanders, the violence had ended. "This is a very serious and obvious lack of respect for the commitment made by the pro-Nkunda elements (within the mixed brigades)," said Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, spokeswoman in North Kivu for the country's 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission. The U.N. World Food Programme estimates at least 200,000 people have been displaced by violence related to Nkunda's fighters since the beginning of the year.
