Congo tin exports rebound despite U.N., campaigners

* Congo tin exports bounce back after two-month slowdown

* U.N. experts accuse traders of funding rebel groups

By Joe Bavier

BUKAVU, Congo, June 16 (Reuters) - Tin exports from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are back up despite the threat of United Nations sanctions and pressure from rights campaigners linking the trade to local conflicts, mining officials said.

Some mineral buyers in the eastern Kivu provinces halted purchases of the tin ore cassiterite in January after a U.N. report linked traders there to the Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels.

Critics say the mineral trade is helping fuel one of the world's bloodiest conflicts, which has already killed some five million people. But traders say bans will only hurt locals more.

North and South Kivu provinces export the vast majority of the tin from Congo, Africa's primary source of an ore used to make devices including mobile phones and video game consoles.

"We got towards the end of February and there still wasn't any exporting. For more than a month and a half, they weren't exporting," said Colette Mikila, South Kivu's mines minister.