MONUC hails return of Ugandan rebels as a "breakthrough"

UN officials have hailed the recent repatriation of former Ugandan rebels operating in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as a "breakthrough in the normalisation of relations between Uganda and Congo", adding that it would be useful in convincing other Ugandan rebels still at large in eastern DRC to return. Speaking to IRIN on Friday at the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC's (MONUC) headquarters in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, MONUC political affairs officer Philippe de Bard said "this brings the two countries closer to having a normal diplomatic relationship". On 14 December, MONUC began repatriating 250 ex-combatants from rebel movements opposed to the Ugandan government, along with 147 dependents. No weapons were collected, MONUC sources told IRIN, as the former fighters had already been disarmed by the DRC government. Some are thought to have been affiliated to Taban Amin - eldest son of former dictator Idi Amin - who came home at the end of October after the DRC's transitional government ordered him to vacate the derelict Ugandan embassy in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. De Bard said Amin had been involved as a negotiator in the repatriation process. He added that many of those repatriated belonged to the former West Nile Bank Front, and that some may have been involved with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) who terrorised Uganda in the late 1990s. De Bard said the repatriation was the result of MONUC's "close consultations with the Congolese and Ugandan governments" in a meeting on 6 December. He said that MONUC was "still working" on getting former ADF rebels to be repatriated. He told IRIN that the repatriation was viewed by both MONUC and the Ugandan government's Amnesty Commission as a landmark deal in their efforts to persuade other Ugandan rebels hiding in the DRC to come home. "By being forgiven for past acts, they become a part of the sensitisation programme needed to pursuade others to do the same," he said. "Our hope is that this will be good for providing momentum. What it shows the others is that everything is in place for them to come home - they have nothing to fear." He described the former rebels as "happy to be home". "They said it is a paradise to them after all this time," he added. Despite important progress, however, he said that DRC/Uganda relations still had some way to go. "They are not best friends, yet," he told IRIN.