Withdrawal of Ugandan troops hits snag

The withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo suffered a setback on Thursday when one of three airplanes due to fly back the troops made an emergency landing at Bunia's tiny airport. The Ugandan state-owned daily, The New Vision, reported that the 19-seater United Airlines plane carrying military personnel and equipment had taken off with a punctured tyre from an airstrip at Mongbwalu, some 50 km northwest of Bunia. None of the passengers were injured. Two other Ugandan aircraft, realising that something was wrong, flew overhead for a few minutes and returned to Entebbe. The newspaper reported that the incident delayed the departure of the troops but that Ugandan army commander, Maj-Gen James Kazini, ordered the commander of Ugandan forces in Ituri District, Brig Kale Kayihura, to make good the withdrawal. The New Vision reported that some 1,500 troops were to have left the DRC by Thursday. It reported that some soldiers started walking back to Uganda on Tuesday from the Congolese towns of Irumu and Kpandroma. The head of the UN mission in eastern DRC, Vadim Periliev, said he was certain Uganda had been sincere in wanting to begin its pullout on Thursday. "The latest schedule was that withdrawal starts on the 24th April and this process is being pursued," he said. More planes arrived early Friday as the Ugandan army concluded a ceremony marking their departure. Hundreds of troops marched through the streets of Bunia alongside cheering Congolese crowds. In a parallel development, only 130 UN troops have landed in Bunia so far, instead of the 200 planned, following technical problems with the plane, Periliev said. "We wanted to have more deployed by yesterday but unfortunately the plane could not land," he said. Meanwhile, the commander of the UN forces in the DRC, Gen Mountaga Diallo, told IRIN in Kinshasa that he planned the initial deployment of 2,500 troops to Ituri after the Ugandan withdrawal. "Once these are deployed they will be followed by Bangladeshi battalions," he said. He said the met Kayihura on Tuesday in Bunia to discuss the timetable for Uganda's withdrawal. "We need to know their plan," Diallo said, "We need this, above all, so that we can monitor the withdrawal."