MONUC to verify RCD claims of 500 dead in Ituri

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - known as MONUC - is to investigate reports of up to 500 people having been killed in recent clashes between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in the northeastern DRC province of Ituri, mission force commander Gen Mountaga Diallo told IRIN on Monday.

"It appears the situation is worsening, and I'm afraid we are yet to see the worst," he said.

He added that eight of his military liaison officers in the region were still awaiting security clearance on Monday from the local authorities - the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML) and their Ugandan backers - to visit the site of last week's fighthing near Bunia. Diallo said he would lead a MONUC delegation to Kampala, the Ugandan capital, this week to consult with government officials on possible ways "to cool down the situation".

On Saturday, the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma armed opposition movement denounced that week's killing of civilians around Bunia; alleging that DRC troops, supported by Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias allied to RCD-K-ML leader Mbusa Nyamwisi, carried out the acts.

RCD-Goma spokesman Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga said his movement was concerned for the safety of civilians in government and RCD-K-ML controlled territory, and called on the international community to condemn "widespread acts" of human rights and international humanitarian law violations.

He urged the UN Security Council to demand that the DRC and Ugandan governments "cease civilian massacres in Ituri, and that a UN international commission of inquiry be created to determine those responsible".

In a letter written on 19 March to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged MONUC to "immediately send more military and civilian observers to the strife-torn Ituri Province", warning that the "conflict between Hemas and Lendus has resulted in hundreds of civilian killings and the displacement of thousands".

From the onset of the Hema-Lendu conflict in 1999 to the current spiral of killings, HRW said, "Leadership disputes within RCD-K-ML and manipulation by the occupying Uganda army have combined to stoke the violence."

Diallo added, "It appears that there is political manipulation behind these ethnic rivalries."

Both groups, he said, were organised into militias, trained in camps, and armed with weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles. He said that the Uganda People's Defence Forces - which have at least 1,000 soldiers in Ituri - had made multiple efforts to stop the fighting, without success.

In another development, Rwanda has renewed its calls on MONUC to disarm the 40,000 Interahamwe (Hutu militiamen) Kigali believes are based in the DRC. President Paul Kagame's special envoy for the Great Lakes region, Patrick Mazimhaka, had asked the Security Council on Thursday to deploy peacekeeping soldiers to disarm the Interahamwe, believing that this could encourage an additional 15,000 ex-FAR (former Rwandan armed forces) to renounce fighting, the BBC reported. That would, he told Reuters, clear the way for Rwanda to withdraw all its troops from DRC territory.

Responding to MONUC reports of 12,000 to 15,000 Interahamwe in eastern DRC, Mazimhaka told Radio France Internationale (RFI) on Friday that those figures "concerned the situation in Kivu and North Katanga areas, where MONUC has access ... MONUC does not have access to Kinshasa government military camps where those 40,000 are."

Meanwhile, RCD-Goma leader Adolphe Onusumba has been travelling throughout the eastern region of DRC to update local populations on his movement's efforts to resume the inter-Congolese dialogue. The Sun City, South Africa, talks ended in April with an alliance formed among Kabila, the Ugandan-backed Mouvement de liberation du Congo armed opposition organisation of Jean-Pierre Bemba, and a majority of representatives from the political opposition and civil society.

Under the deal Kabila would remain president in a new government and Bemba would become prime minister. RCD-Goma rejected the offer of presidency of the National Assembly. Then the movement formed an association - the Alliance pour la sauvegarde du dialogue intercongolais - with five unarmed opposition parties, one of them being the Etienne Tshisekedi-led Union pour la democratie et le progres social.

Whereas all parties have expressed their willingness to continue talks, the Kabila-Bemba camp insists that any further negotiations take place under the terms of its Sun City accord. However, the RCD-Goma-led alliance is refusing to recognise that accord, demanding that all matters be open for discussion in a renewed dialogue.