Bunia not only an ethnic problem, UN envoy says

The United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has said that ongoing conflicts in the eastern city of Bunia are not simply ethnic in nature, but rather that they are motivated by underlying political and economic interests.

"Everyone is convinced that this is not only an ethnic problem, but also a political matter fuelled by economic interests," Ambassador Amos Namanga Ngongi, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative to the DRC, told a news conference in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, on Wednesday.

The latest round of fighting erupted on 6 August when ethnic Hema militias, supported by the Ugandan army and the Union des patriotes congolais - a dissident faction of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation - seized control of most of Bunia and took charge of local government. Humanitarian sources have reported that over 110 civilians were been killed in the most recent hostilities.

[A useful background document produced by Human Rights Watch on conflict in the northeastern DRC region
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/hemabckg.htm.]

Uganda has since announced that it would withdraw all its remaining troops from the DRC. An agreement to this effect is due to be signed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and DRC President Joseph Kabila, following negotiations brokered last week by Angola.

According to the accord, 2,500 Ugandan soldiers are currently in the DRC, namely in the northwestern city of Gbadolite, and the eastern cities of Bunia, Beni and Butembo.

Bunia, with a population of about 300,000 people, is located less than 50 km from the Ugandan border.

Ngongi said that during a meeting in Kampala last week, he had asked Museveni to be "a little more flexible with regard to the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from Bunia".

"In Gbadolite and Beni, the problem [of insecurity] is not present. [Withdrawal] could be done within a couple of days. However, in Bunia, discussion must be held with the DRC and Uganda to see how a competent administration could be established. As you know, the RCD-K-ML, the de facto administrative authority of the region, does not have the ability at present to ensure the safety of the civilian population," Ngongi said at the news conference.

Ngongi called on all parties implicated in the conflict to assume their responsibilities.

He said he had received assurances from Uganda that all militias had been expelled from Bunia and that Ugandan forces were in control of the city.

Deploring the absence of a competent police force to protect civilians, Ngongi reported that MONUC had taken steps to reinforce its presence in Bunia, and was currently studying the possibility of training a civilian police force to ensure the safety of the local population. One such programme is already under way in the city of Kisangani, where 54 people are being trained by MONUC to train others in civilian police work. According to Ngongi, the programme should ultimately yield "at least 2,000 trained police officers".