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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: Fighting in east hinders disarmament says MONUC

KINSHASA, 10 April 2003 (IRIN) - Continued fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is preventing the programme of disarmament, demobilisation, and repatriation of foreign armed groups, Gen Mountaga Diallo, commander of MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, said on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, Diallo said he had raised the matter with the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) during a mission to eastern DRC, aimed at obtaining explanations from the rebels for the recent capture of Bunyatenge and Muhanga in North Kivu province. The RCD-Goma authorities said they had launched an offensive against Rwandan Interahamwe and ex-Forces armees rwandaises (FAR) fighters active in the area, but assured MONUC their operations would not extend further north towards the towns of Beni and Butembo.

"We pointed out [to the rebels] that every time, just as we are about to assemble fighters from foreign armed groups in one of our reception centres, military operations are unleashed." The fighting, Diallo said, had stalled the predicted arrival at MONUC's Lubero reception centre of thousands of Interahamwe and ex-FAR fighters who were ready to go back to Rwanda.

MONUC has estimated that 13,000 combatants from the Interahamwe militia and the ex-FAR, who were responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, are fighting in DRC. Around 1,300 have been repatriated during the past six months.

Meanwhile, Diallo said MONUC would soon be sending a larger team to undertake more thorough investigations into the 3 April massacre at Drodro in northeastern Ituri district. There has been confusion over the number of people killed when Lendus attacked members of the Hema community. Diallo clarified that local chiefs had given lists of 966 people killed in Drodro and 14 surrounding areas, and that MONUC officials had been shown 20 mass graves reportedly containing between 150 and 300 bodies.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

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