MONUC counters RCD-Goma charges of partiality

The head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUC, has denied charges of partiality by the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement.

RCD-Goma leader, Adolphe Onusumba has declared Amos Namanga Ngongi, the special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the DRC, persona non grata and demanded that the envoy be recalled.

"We want him to go, because we are most dissatisfied at his bias," AFP quoted Onusumba as saying on Monday.
He was speaking after meeting Ngongi in the eastern DRC city of Kisangani, which is under RCD-Goma control. Onusumba accused Ngongi of "declaring himself a supporter of the Bemba-Kabila accord"; referring to the April agreement reached in Sun City, South Africa, by Joseph Kabila's DRC government, Jean-Pierre Bemba's rebel Mouvement de liberation du Congo, and a majority of political opposition and civil society groups. RCD-Goma refused to sign the deal.

Onusumba also took offence at a recent preliminary MONUC report on a mutiny within RCD-Goma in Kisangani from 14 to 21 May. In the report, MONUC accused RCD-Goma of "grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law" in repressing the uprising.

"In light of overwhelming evidence, and even though a mutiny appears to be at the origin of the reprisals committed by the RCD, MONUC considers the exactions to have been unjustifiable and unacceptable," the report said.

Ngongi countered on Wednesday that MONUC was "impartial, neutral, and transparent", and would take into account RCD objections to its preliminary report. Onusumba has alleged that MONUC "did not play its role during the Kisangani events, by refusing to publicly condemn calls for murder and ethnic hatred" of Rwandans and ethnic Tutsis by mutineers, AFP reported.

Amid widespread criticism from civil society groups in the DRC of MONUC's inability to intervene with military force, Ngongi said on Wednesday that he would convey the aspirations of the Congolese people to UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan.

Until now, he said, the UN Security Council had "almost unanimously" resisted proposals to change MONUC's mandate from peacekeeping to peace enforcement. As a result of recent events in Kisangani, he added, the Security Council might take stronger action to back its resolutions for the demilitarisation of the city.