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Special report on tensions in the northeast

Country Map - DRC (Bunia) IRIN
This most recent round of armed hostilities followed the weekend theft and destruction of some 300,000 doses of various vaccines
An attack by Lendu militiamen last Friday morning on the Hema village of Kparnganza, north of Bunia town in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which, according to news organisations, left 200 people dead, constitutes yet another urgent warning that the security situation is deteriorating in the area and could get worse if something is not done to abate it. "It's the same business that has been going on for the past three years. "There are too many economic interests, too much interest in raw materials - it's a region that has gold, timber and coltan," Reuters quoted a spokesman of the Hema community, Jean-Baptiste Dhetchuvi, as saying at the weekend. "For the past two days [14 and 15 February], the Lendu have been killing people - we do not know the exact number, but they are [in] dozens," Reuters quoted Uganda's army spokesman, Major Shaban Bantariza, as saying. By Sunday, the Ugandan army had redeployed in the area to quell the clashes, news reports said. Simmering tension among ethnic groups and among political factions in northeastern DRC is posing a great threat to regional security, and to the Lusaka peace agreement signed in 1999 in particular. Humanitarian agencies in Bunia, northeastern DRC, have estimated that more than 15,000 people had been displaced in the surrounding area in the past few weeks by ethnic conflict involving the Lendu, Hema and Alur tribes, and among the political factions of several rebel groups. Fingers are pointing at Uganda, which has maintained a military presence in northeastern DRC ever since 1998, when it sent forces into the DRC to support rebel movements. Uganda is now being blamed for failing to resolve the deteriorating state of affairs in the region. Various sources are even suggesting that Uganda prefers to uphold the status quo to enable it to continue "plundering" the DRC's natural resources. Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week said Uganda should be held responsible for grave human rights violations and massive human suffering taking place in the territories it was occupying in the DRC. In a press release, HRW urged the United Nations Security Council, which is this week discussing the UN Secretary-General's latest report on the uncertain security environment in the DRC, to identify the government of Uganda as an important agent of unrest in the eastern part in the country. It called on the UN mission in the DRC (known by its French acronym, MONUC), to exert maximum pressure on local contenders to cease fighting, and also to send additional military, humanitarian, and human rights monitors to the area. "Uganda wants to keep enough control to continue getting rich from the Congo, but doesn't want to take responsibility for protecting civilians," said Alison Des Forges, senior adviser for the Great Lakes region at HRW. Ituri Province (in northeastern DRC) is rich in timber, gold and diamonds, among other resources, HRW noted. It dismissed the assertion made on 1 February by Uganda's defence minister, Amama Mbabazi, to the effect that the situation in Bunia was explosive and required UN military intervention. "Uganda can't foist responsibility on the UN for restoring order from the chaos it has fostered," Des Forges said. "As the occupying power, under international law, it must protect civilians and stop these killings." Uganda's presidential adviser on the DRC, Lt-Gen David Tinyefuza, described the HRW press release as "confused". He told IRIN last week that the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) were not responsible for the killings in the northeast, because they had no presence in areas where the ethnic clashes were taking place. "We pulled out our troops from there in line with the Lusaka accord. How can we take the blame for what is happening in our absence?" Tinyefuza asked. He said the decision to keep the UPDF in Bunia and Beni (also in northeastern DRC), had been to "allow Congolese to manage their affairs, and it was also done in the spirit of Lusaka". "Unless the UN as a supreme body tells us to go back - but we are almost out of Congo. The decision to redeploy in Aru, Mahagi and Ariwara [all northeastern DRC] was with the permission of the UN, and now killings there have stopped," he said. According Tinyefuza, whoever is blaming the UPDF does not know what is happening on the ground and is confused. However, the International Crisis Group's (ICG) Francois Grignon said HRW's assessment of Uganda's role in the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in northeastern DRC "is true". "It bears a large share of responsibility - in fact, direct responsibility, since for it to further exploit resources in that area, Uganda has used manipulation of political leaders to maintain the status quo," he told IRIN last week. "The problem is that there is no real factual authority in this area, and because of this, anybody can do anything," he warned. He said all the rebel groups operating in the area - Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML) led by Mbusa Nyamwisi, Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) and Roger Lumbala's Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Nationale (RCD-N), all backed by Uganda - had violated the cease-fire at one time or the other since late last year. Although the situation seemed quite grim, Grignon suggested that access to ammunition and weaponry by the fighters ought to be controlled. He said he believed that the UN and MONUC should strengthen their local positions in Bunia and Beni, not only to be able to coordinate relief but also to re-establish local authorities among the communities so as to foster reconciliation between the different ethnic communities. Grignon, who is ICG's Central Africa project manager, said there was a need to decide - with the consensus of the population - how this area should be governed. "Uganda must create an enabling environment for all this to take place." Two weeks ago, the UN Special Representative to the DRC, Amos Ngongi, said rebel groups and occupying forces could remain wherever they were at present, but they must ensure the security of the local population. Ngongi, who was on a tour of the northeastern region, called on neighbouring Uganda to protect civilians in Ituri Province. "The security of the population in the territory is the job of the local authority... or of the occupying force, Uganda," he said. "The Ugandans have troops on the ground, and they have a responsibility to provide security for civilians," he added. However, RCD-K-ML would have preferred Ngongi or MONUC to have ordered MLC out of Isiro and Bafwasende, both of which it captured last month with the help of Rwandan troops. A senior MLC official contacted by IRIN denied RCD-K-ML's claim that it had captured the towns, saying it was RCD-N that had done so. The leader of RCD-K-ML, Mbusa Nyamwisi, told IRIN that he had expected Ngongi or MONUC at least to condemn "such acts". "What Ngongi is saying cannot be acceptable. When he says that everyone should stay in their positions, it is as if he is supporting the violation of the cease-fire," Nyamwisi said. In a letter dated 27 December, addressed to the UN under-secretary-general in charge of peacekeeping, the US Department of State, MONUC and Ketumile Masire, the facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, the group reported the MLC attacks, saying they had been backed by Rwandan forces. "We hereby inform you that MLC troops launched attacks on the RCD-K-ML localities of Dingila, Bambesa and Poko on 21 December 2001. The MLC troops were supported by Rwandese forces from Kisangani," the letter, signed by Nyamwisi, said. "What happened in Isiro and Bafwasende was a clear violation of the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement signed by the parties involved in the fighting and capture of the towns," Hamadoun Toure, the MONUC spokesman, told IRIN. "The call by the Special Representative [Ngongi] that forces remain where they are and ensure security for the population is not a call by the Representative himself or by MONUC, it is in line with the international convention that requires troops occupying an area to guarantee the security of the population and refrain from moving to another area to fight," Toure explained. "We are trying to save the peace process from derailing," he added. According the Europa World Year Book 2001, Ugandan and Rwandan involvement in the DRC became quite clear in early October 1996 when in response to the persecution of the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge resident in South Kivu, eastern DRC, by the Rwandan Hutu militias with the support of members of the Zairean armed forces (FAZ), Rwanda's Tutsi-dominated government and its close regional ally, Uganda, made rapid advances against the combined forces of the Hutus and the poorly trained and ill-disciplined FAZ. What had initially appeared to be a regional movement seeking to defend the Tutsi population and to disempower Rwandan extremist Hutus, soon gathered momentum and emerged as a national rebellion aiming to overthrow the Mobutu regime. Tutsi rebels were joined by dissidents of diverse ethnic origins to form the Alliance des forces democratiques pour la liberation du Congo-Zaire (AFDL), led by Laurent-Desire Kabila. AFDL entered the then Zairean capital, Kinshasa, on 17 May 1997. However, on 28 July 1998, Kabila, then DRC president, issued a decree expelling Rwandan members of the armed forces from the DRC. In early August, a rebellion, reportedly receiving aid from both France and Rwanda, was launched in the east of the DRC. The Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) swiftly captured the eastern border towns of Goma, Bukavu and Uvira. This was condemned by Kabila as a Rwandan invasion. Rwanda at first denied the accusation, but on 6 November conceded that its troops were fighting alongside the RCD. Meanwhile, on 19 August 1998, during a meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Zimbabwe and Namibia pledged to assist Kabila. Later that month, Angola also sent troops to support Kabila. Signs of tension within the RCD surfaced in January 1999 when the movement was restructured against the wishes of some of its prominent members, including Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, and some members began to question publicly the alleged dominance of the Banyamulenge within the RCD. In mid-May, in an action supported by Rwanda, but condemned by Uganda, the RCD deposed Wamba dia Wamba as its chairman, and replaced him with Emile Ilunga. Wamba moved to Kisangani, and subsequently to Bunia, and formed the RCD-Mouvement de liberation. Starting sometime in October 2000, Wamba's deputies, Mbusa Nyamwisi and John Tibasiima Atenyi, staged a coup in a bid to oust him. However, the wrangles continued, and in an effort to save the situation, Uganda tried to bring together all the rebel factions receiving its support, including the RCD-N, to form the Forces pour la liberation du Congo (FLC) under Jean-Pierre Bemba, but Wamba did not sign the agreement. The MLC was formed in November 1998 as a new rebel group in Equateur Province in northwestern DRC. In July 1999, the MLC captured Gbadolite, where it established its headquarters.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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