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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: President names top officers for unified national military

KINSHASA, 20 August 2003 (IRIN) - President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) named on Tuesday the officers who will lead the nation's unified national military, incorporating elements from all former armed rebel groups signatory to a national power-sharing accord.

According to a series of presidential decrees issued in the capital, Kinshasa, some 31 officers from the former Kinshasa government army, former rebel groups and the Mayi-Mayi militia were appointed to military leadership posts.

Lt-Gen Liwanga Mata Nyamunyobo, of the armed forces of the former Kinshasa government, was named chief of staff. He will be assisted by four deputies, two of whom are from the two largest former rebel movements: Brig-Gen Bahuma Ambamba of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), who will be head of operations, and Brig-Gen Malik Kijege of the Movement de liberation du Congo (MLC), who will be head of logistics.

As for service chiefs, Maj-Gen Sylvain Buki of RCD-Goma was named head of ground forces, MLC's Maj-Gen Dieudonne Amuli Bahigwa head of the navy, and Maj-Gen John Numbi of the former Kinshasa government head of the air force.

Leaders of the Congo's 10 military regions were also named. Under an agreement among armed former belligerents reached on 6 August, the military regions are to be allocated as follows: three to the former Kinshasa government; two to RCD-Goma and the MLC, another major former rebel movement; and one region each to RCD-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K/ML) and RCD-National (RCD-N), two smaller former rebel movements, and to the Mayi-Mayi militias.

"The principle adopted by all parties through the national Follow-up Committee to the inter-Congolese dialogue is such that the division of responsibilities among elements of all former belligerents will result in no one party having total control of any territory," Vital Kamerhe, the communications minister and government spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday.

The announcements came a day after RCD-Goma submitted a revised list of candidates for top military posts, thereby resolving a controversy that had delayed formation of a unified national army. Its previous list provoked an outcry from Kabila and other members of the former Kinshasa government, as well as from the International Committee to Accompany the Transition, because of its inclusion of individuals suspected of involvement in the assassination of late President Laurent-Desire Kabila, father of the current head of state, who was killed by one of his bodyguards on 16 January 2001.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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