MLC to leave Ituri province, citing RCD-ML "confusion"

Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the Ugandan-backed Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC) armed opposition movement, said on Monday that his troops would leave the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) because of a complex power struggle there.

"The MLC has decided to pull all its military forces from Ituri province following the confusion that reigns in Bunia over the leadership of the [Ugandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation] RCD-ML," Bemba told AFP on Monday.

Ituri is under the control of the MLC and the RCD-ML, with Bemba's troops posted in Bunia, the province's main town. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, Mbusa Nyamwisi and John Tibasima are all vying for control of RCD-ML, also known as RCD-Kisangani.

On Tuesday, an official RCD-ML statement read on rebel-controlled Radio Candip in Bunia thanked Bemba and his colleagues "for the noble job they have been doing in the RCD-Kisangani-ML controlled territory since 16 January 2001," the date that Bemba's MLC and the RCD-ML agreed to form an alliance called the Front de liberation du Congo (FLC).

The statement, issued following a meeting chaired by Tibasima on Monday, also said the RCD-ML would be restructuring in an effort to achieve the objectives of "strengthening and guaranteeing security and peace throughout the territory controlled by the RCD-Kisangani-ML under the leadership of HE Mbusa Nyamwisi, RCD-Kisangani-ML president and Hon John Tibasima Atenyi, the vice-president of RCD-Kisangani-ML".

This reorganisation would allow them "to better prepare and follow up the inter-Congolese dialogue as an autonomous entity in accordance with the Lusaka agreement".

Also on Tuesday, AFP reported that at least 15 people were killed in an ambush on Friday near Bunia when a vehicle traveling north to Aru, on the Ugandan border, was hit by a rocket. In its statement, the RCD-ML asked people to remain calm and expressed "their most heartfelt condolences following the brutal murders". It said that "urgent measures have been taken to rid the highways of bandits and murderers", and reported that a delegation had been sent "with assistance to the bereaved families".