MONUC mourns loss of two observers in Uganda crash

The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will host a memorial service on Monday for two of its observers who died in a bus crash in Uganda on Thursday. The two were identified as Lt-Col Raja Simhadri and Maj Sandeep Sharma, both from India, according to Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the UN mission in the DRC (known by its French acronym, MONUC). Their bodies were brought to the DRC capital, Kinshasa, on Saturday, and would be repatriated on Tuesday, Toure added. "MONUC Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Lena Sundh, was in Uganda on Saturday at the site of the crash, where she attended a mass burial ceremony," Toure told IRIN. "She sent her condolences to all the bereaved families, thanked the Ugandan authorities for their assistance, and paid a special tribute to our Indian colleagues." The two were among a total of 62 people killed on Thursday when the passenger bus they were travelling in collided with a fuel truck in the village of Rutoto, in Bushenyi District, some 300 km west of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The toll also included 42 Ugandan and 18 DRC nationals, all of whose remains where wrapped in body bags and buried in a mass grave at Kasese Catholic Diocesan cemetery, the Ugandan government-owned daily, The New Vision, reported on Monday. It quoted officials as saying they had been unable to identify any of the victims except the UN officers, whose identity tags were found. According to the Panpress, local police said the fuel truck, which was descending a hill, lost control following a brake failure and collided with the passenger bus. The New Vision reported that a teenage mechanic aboard the fuel truck survived, as did the driver, who was said to have fled the scene. The UN mission, which numbers about 3,050 military personnel, had previously suffered seven fatal casualties - six military and one civilian - from sickness and accidents.