Ugandan rebels dislodged, but civilians not returning home

An operation launched in December 2005 by Democratic Republic of Congo troops against Ugandan rebels in the northeast of DRC's North Kivu Province displaced tens of thousands of people who now say that if they were to return home they would face greater persecution by their own army than by the rebels. "We lived side-by-side with the Ugandans with no problems," said Commissaire Kaniki, president of 1,431 families who were displaced from former Ugandan rebel-controlled villages in the northeast of North Kivu. They are now at May-Moya, a village 15km to 20km southwest of the villages they fled. "Those of us who have tried to return to our villages have been forced to work for the [government] soldiers and give them food," Kaniki said. "Sometimes, they have gotten violent. If it were not for the abuses by the soldiers, we would have returned home by now." Congolese army Gen Eugene Mbuy Musamu, who is in charge of the operation against the Ugandan rebels, denied any wrongdoing by his troops. "I have not heard any such reports," said on Thursday. However, a recent human rights report by the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the DRC, known as MONUC, mentioned the abuse specifically. "We are also getting reports that the soldiers there are going out of the conflict area at night along the main road north of Beni to attack the displaced population," a UN official, who requested anonymity, said. The army operation was launched against two Ugandan rebel groups that have formed an alliance. They are the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). The UN provided logistical support to the Congolese army, a MONUC official said. "But only for the first three days. The operation was over quickly and ADF/NALU fled," the official added. So, too, did some 45,000 civilians, said Ibrahima Diarra, head of the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the nearby town of Benu. "Most of them are now living in makeshift shelters along the road north of Beni, where there are also 30,000 displaced people who fled fighting in nearby Ituri District," he said. For more than 10 years, around 1,000 ADF/NALU rebels had been living in camps in the bush lands that run along the North Kivu side of the border with Uganda. "They use to move freely in Beni and Butembo [50km farther south]. You used to see them shopping with brand new US $100 bills," a UN official in Beni said. He said the rebels have been mining gold and coltan near the town of Erengeti, a few kilometres north of May-Moya, and selling it in Uganda. However, another UN official said he believed the rebels lived by logging and selling timber. Around 70 percent of the members of the Ugandan rebel groups are Congolese nationals. "The Ugandan government offered amnesty to ADF/NALU rebels, and on 18 November set up an office in Beni where they could turn themselves in," one of the UN officials said. "Only about 50 rebels disarmed, and most of those ended up being Congolese." The army attack began one month later on 24 December 2005. Kaniki described what happened in his village, called Mamgodu: "The government soldiers appeared without warning and told us we had to leave immediately. There was no transport. We just all started walking, leaving most of our belongings behind," he said. Among the displaced people now at May-Mayo are 15 indigenous forest families. "They used to live in the forest nearby our village," Kaniki said. "Normally we live separately from the pygmies - they have their own social structure. But now I am responsible for them, too." Humanitarian officials in the area said the operation to oust the ADF/NALU might not have helped bring peace to the country. "Of course, all the territory of the DRC should be under the control the government," a UN official said, "but the result has not been positive from a humanitarian point of view. The ADF/NALU rebels have now just moved deeper into the bush around the Rwenzori Mountains [on the Ugandan border], and now we are hearing that they have also started attacking the civilian population."