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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: Call made for deployment of rapid reaction force to Ituri

NAIROBI, 21 May 2003 (IRIN) - The NGOs Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International (AI) made a joint appeal on Wednesday to the UN to authorise the deployment of a rapid reaction force to protect civilians in Ituri District, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

In an open letter to the Security Council, they called the situation in Ituri "a critical test" of the council's commitments to prevent mass killings and protect civilians. The NGOs said the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC, had been unable to protect civilians adequately.

"In Ituri today, the elements of a devastating crisis are clearly present," Irene Khan, the AI secretary-general, said.

On Tuesday, news agencies reported that the EU was considering contributing troops to a French-led multinational force. The reports coincided with the arrival in Bunia, the principal town of Ituri and the focus of recent fighting between ethnic Hema and Lendu militias, of a French military reconnaissance team.

The chief of public information for MONUC, Patricia Tome, said on Wednesday that at least 280 bodies had been recovered in Bunia since 4 May, the majority of them civilians. She said that 17,000 people were now camped at the MONUC base in the town or at the airport, which is under UN control. Some of these had only just emerged from hiding.

The UN had persuaded 40 families - 309 people - to move from the MONUC base to the airport camp where there was more space, Tome said.

The UN also expressed concern about the situation of people who had fled Bunia. She said 8,000 people had moved towards Eringeti, to the south of Bunia, and a further 5,000 were being held up at a check point at Kamanda, outside Bunia, by the armed wing of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Movement de Liberation (RCD-K-ML).

The head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Congo, Michel Kassa, told IRIN on Tuesday that aid workers were having problems reaching thousands of people outside Bunia because of "uncontrolled militiamen", who were also preventing the people from returning home.

Speaking about the humanitarian situation in Bunia, Kassa said humanitarian workers had "performed miracles" by restoring water and electricity to parts of the city in a short time.

"Thanks to the availability of water and electricity, we have been able to contain the few cases of cholera and other diseases which had been reported," he said.

Kassa said that injured people who had been in hiding were being brought to health centres set up by aid workers. He said some were being brought in wheelbarrows, or fetched by vehicle if the UN were alerted.

MONUC said it was facilitating talks between the warring Hema and Lendu groups to try to get all militiamen back into their camps, as agreed under the terms of Friday's ceasefire accord reached in the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar-es-Salaam.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

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