French-led UN force for Bunia seeks to use Ugandan airport

A delegation of French officials was due to arrive in Uganda on Monday for discussions with President Yoweri Museveni over the possible use of Uganda's Entebbe airport as a rear base for a French-led international peacekeeping force to patrol Bunia, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to French diplomatic sources. "The first question we had to ask is will the Ugandan government accept to allow us to use Entebbe?" Jean-Bernard Thiant, the French Ambassador to Uganda, told IRIN on Sunday. "To this the answer is yes." The move follows the unanimous decision by the UN Security Council to authorise the deployment of an international emergency force to help stabilise the situation in the embattled Ituri District of northeastern DRC. The multinational force, expected to consist of 1,400 men, of whom 700 would be French, would ensure the protection of the Bunia airport, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the camps in Bunia and, if the situation requires it, to participate in the protection of the population, UN personnel and the humanitarian presence in the town, UN News reported. Thiant told IRIN that Entebbe was chosen because Bunia airport was too small to land the large aircraft needed to ferry supplies from France. "That leaves Kisangani as far as Congolese sites are concerned," he said, "but this has the problem that Kisangani's international and domestic airports are miles apart. Equipment would have to be transported between them on poor roads." "After studying various solutions we realised that Entebbe is the only solution," he said. "Since then we have been cooperating closely with the Ugandan government. But we still have to negotiate the conditions." The French-led multinational force has been constituted under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which authorises it to use military force in response to "any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression". The Council said that the force is to be deployed on a strictly temporary basis - until 1 September 2003 - to reinforce the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUC. In that regard, Resolution 1484 authorised UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to deploy a reinforced UN presence in Bunia by mid-August. Resolution 1484 also called on UN member states to contribute personnel, equipment, financial and logistical resources to the multinational force, and called specifically on countries in the Great Lakes region to provide all necessary support to facilitate its swift deployment in Bunia. Bunia has been the scene of periodic eruptions of economically motivated ethnic violence for several years, most recently with the withdrawal of the Ugandan army at the end of April. The number of corpses collected by Friday the local Red Cross and MONUC reached 415, according to UN News. On Monday, Bunia was reported to be calm but tense. Speaking on Friday after the international emergency force was approved, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said: "This is the Security Council at its best, and a demonstration that the Secretary-General and the Security Council can act swiftly, hand-in-hand, to protect the lives of the civilian population in conflict areas, a paramount human rights and humanitarian concern." However, certain humanitarian observers expressed reservations about Security Council Resolution 1484, as it does not make any reference to the disarmament of militia elements or a demilitarisation of the region. "It should be noted that an interim force which is not equipped with a clear mandate to prevent violence against the civilian population by means of force will most likely only be able to maintain the current status quo in Bunia and Ituri, thus implying an unimpeded UPC [Union des patriotes congolais, the ethnic Hema militia that controls central Bunia] reign of terror in Bunia and areas under their control," a humanitarian observer told IRIN. "The interim force as well as MONUC and the IPC [Ituri Pacification Commission] initiating and supporting entities will have no impact whatsoever on activities of all warring factions in areas other than Bunia," the observer said. "Thus insecurity will prevail and access to beneficiaries outside Bunia will most likely not be able to be extended beyond the present limitations." Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Friday that the refugee influx from DRC into western Uganda had subsided, with no new arrivals reported in the last week in Bundibugyo or Nebbi districts. UNHCR reported that the last significant group of refugees - about 1,500 - arrived in Uganda on 20 May in the border town of Nebbi, behind the last of Uganda's withdrawing armed forces. The majority of the Congolese refugees have opted to stay with friends and relatives in Uganda, and have not been willing to be moved to government-designated refugee settlements, UNHCR stated. However, Ugandan government officials have continued to register new arrivals for possible relocation to two designated camps: Kyaka II in Kabarole District and Imvepi in Arua District. A joint government/UNHCR assessment mission was planned for Monday to Bundibugyo District to assess the numbers of refugees willing to relocate to settlements and to make logistical arrangements for their transfer. Also on Monday, news agencies reported the killing on Saturday of between 100 and 250 Hema militia fighters and civilians in the Congolese town of Tchomia, allegedly by Lendu militias. "The Lendus attacked the Hemas in Kyomya, located about 30 km from the Ugandan border, once they determined that the Ugandan forces, who had been stuck due to heavy rains, had withdrawn from the zone," Brig Kale Kayihura, the commander of the Ugandan troops that left Bunia, was quoted as telling AFP. However, no confirmation was available from MONUC, as access to the area was not yet possible.