DRC allegations denied

Rwanda and Uganda have reacted angrily to comments made recently by the DRC’s UN permanent mission to the UN to the Security Council. In a letter to the Council last week, Rwanda’s UN ambassador Anastase Gasana took issue with a previous letter from the Congolese charge d’affaires Atoki Ileka on the recent murders of six Red Cross workers in the northeastern Ituri district. The Congolese letter claimed that the killings were “most probably committed by members of the Ugandan regular army (UPDF) who ‘discovered’ the bodies”, but it also called on Rwanda to “secure the dismantling of all the criminal and mafia movements, structures and networks that country [Rwanda] has unfortunately organised in the DRC”. Expressing shock over the Red Cross murders, Rwanda however slammed the Congolese charge d’affaires for “deliberately creating a horrendous confusion...linking Rwandan authorities to the so-called criminal and mafia movements”. “This is a clear indication of the ill-intents campaign of the leadership of the DRC to mix things up and divert the attention of the international community from real issues and concerns following the positive response of the Rwandese government to implement without any further delay the Lusaka peace agreement,” the Rwandan letter stated. Uganda for its part described the Congolese allegations as “unfounded”. In his letter to the Security Council, the charge d’affaires Fred Beyendeza said the accusations were “serious and should be backed by credible evidence”. “Such baseless statements relying on hearsay and lies are not only insensitive to the families involved but also show lack of responsibility and seriousness from whoever issues them,” he added. He said the Ugandan army was helping to investigate and track down those responsible for the Red Cross murders.