Militia group withdrawal proceeding without incident

The Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), a militia group that had been controlling the town of Bunia in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was on Tuesday complying with demands by a multinational force to canton its forces outside the town, the peace enforcement mission's spokesman told IRIN. Speaking on the telephone from Bunia, Col Gerard Dubois said that the Hema militia group had begun withdrawing its forces from the town on Monday, ahead of the Tuesday 11:00 deadline that the multinational force had imposed. "I am confident that the UPC will comply with our demands so that all Congolese can have freedom of movement and no arms will be carried in the town," Dubois said. He said that the withdrawal was proceeding with "no real incident", and that talks between the multinational force, UPC and the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC, were ongoing to determine the locations to which the UPC would withdraw. Following the withdrawal ultimatum issued on Saturday, the UPC said it would maintain its headquarters in Bunia, although it would inform the multinational force of the locations and number of personnel assigned to each. In a statement issued on Sunday, the UPC said it had agreed to cooperate with the multinational force in the formation of a committee to discuss creation of a force capable of assuring the security of the population, "a sort of police force". Final verification of the UPC withdrawal would be possible by Wednesday, Dubois told IRIN. In a related development, the withdrawal of some 400 police officers sent from the capital, Kinshasa, continued on Tuesday, following an order issued on Saturday by Vital Kamerhe, the Congolese commissioner-general in charge of the peace process in the Great Lakes region. The move followed protests from the UN Security Council, the multinational force and MONUC, who warned that the deployment would hamper the demilitarisation process in Bunia. In its statement, the Kinshasa government urged the three bodies to "spare no effort" to assure the security of people and goods in Ituri in the wake of the Kinshasa police pullout. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Uganda, The New Vision state-owned daily reported that the multinational force had reached 1,400 troops, 700 of whom were deployed in Bunia to secure the town and airport, according to force spokesman in Entebbe, Capt Frederic Solano. The remaining 700 were at Entebbe airbase for logistical back-up.