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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC: MONUC "deplores" resumption of fighting in east
NAIROBI, 30 April 2003 (IRIN) - Amos Namanga Ngongi, the head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, said on Wednesday that he "deplored" the resumption of fighting in eastern regions of the country, particularly "at a time when we are talking about war ending".
Addressing a news conference in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, Ngongi said "fights cannot be justified at this stage when everyone is seated at the same table to make peace", referring to a preliminary meeting held on Tuesday by the follow-up committee of the 2 April power-sharing agreement reached by all parties to the inter-Congolese dialogue.
Asked about specific concerns, the MONUC chief of public information, Patricia Tome, told IRIN that the UN Mission had received reports of widespread movements of armed forces of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), a Rwandan-backed rebel movement and signatory of the power-sharing agreement.
She said about 10,000 RCD-Goma troops had been concentrated in recent days between the South Kivu Province cities of Bukavu and Uvira, fighting Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias, including the Mudundu 40. She said the local Red Cross had reported 30 deaths, primarily of civilians.
MONUC's spokesman, Hamadoun Toure, added that a recent MONUC mission to the town of Burhale, located some 75 km southwest of Bukavu, had found only three residents remaining. People were said to be coming to the town during the day, and seeking refuge in nearby forests at night.
Meanwhile, in North Kivu Province, Tome said fighting between RCD-Goma and a rival rebel faction, RCD-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation, had been taking place around Bingi, Bunyatenge and Muhanga. MONUC had no casualty figures from those locations.
Toure said MONUC was in "permanent contact" with all belligerent parties, urging them to cease hostilities and "demanding that RCD-Goma return to its positions in line with all disengagement and redeployment plans". He added that MONUC leaders had travelled to meet RCD-Goma representatives in both Goma and Bukavu in recent days, "with a view towards putting an end to the military activities".
Concerning the situation in the Ituri District of northeastern DRC, Ngongi said he "applauded the current pacification process, yet condemn[ed] the continual hostilities in this part of the country". He urged all parties "to make peace so that unnecessary human losses come to an end". He also welcomed the ongoing withdrawal of the Ugandan troops.
However, Toure admitted that the situation remained "tense", and would remain so while MONUC was trying to build confidence among the various stakeholders.
"But people are regaining hope following the increased MONUC presence - 327 troops deployed between 23 and 27 April, and eight observer teams - 32 Milobs [military observers] in total. More troops are to come, and the civilian presence will be strengthened too," he stated.
"You cannot get full security overnight," Toure continued. "We are working with the communities in their information campaign to persuade the people there that they have a common destiny; they make it or break it together, they have to live together and disagree without using arms to settle differences. We still have a long way to go, but this is a school of patience."
Tome pointed to the Ituri Pacification Commission and a consultative committee of armed groups as further means of "maintaining the [peace] dynamic".
Regarding recent Ugandan military reports of between 60 to 120 ethnic Hemas having been massacred by ethnic Lendus, Tome said she could not comment, as MONUC had not yet gained access to the areas in question.
Meanwhile in Kinshasa on Tuesday, MONUC paid a final tribute to Maj Vyacheslav Budarin, a military observer from Russia who was killed on 26 April in Komanda, 60 km southeast of the principal Ituri District city of Bunia, when the vehicle he was travelling detonated an antitank mine. His colleague, Maj Felician Farcas of Romania, was seriously injured in the explosion and is currently being treated in a Kinshasa hospital.
Born on 4 February 1972, Budarin joined MONUC on 12 November 2002 as a military observer. He is survived by a widow and a four-year-old boy. MONUC said his body would be repatriated to Russia this week.
In May 2002, another military observer was killed and his colleague wounded in similar circumstances at Ikela, 285 km from the northeastern city of Kisangani.
In related news, the Roman Catholic news agency, Misna, reported that a Belgian missionary recently wounded in Bunia during an armed robbery attempt had been repatriated on Tuesday. Fifty-nine-year-old Father Gerard Malherbe of the Missionaries of Africa congregations (known as the White Fathers) was shot in his left leg, causing a serious loss of blood. After treatment in Bunia, Malherbe was transported to Brussels after further examination in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
"The attack against the missionary confirms the atmosphere of insecurity in Bunia... [which is] theatre to uninterrupted violence against civilians due to clashes among rival factions over control of the territory rich with natural resources," Misna stated.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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