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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: Integration of former rebels into army begins

KINSHASA, 9 December 2003 (IRIN) - The integration of former rebels into a new unified army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began on Monday at a ceremony in the eastern town of Kisangani, attended by Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut along with Congolese authorities.

Some 150 soldiers paraded for the occasion in a common uniform. They included 40 men from the former government army, 40 from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and 40 from the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo - the two former principal rebel movements. The soldiers symbolically handed over the scarves which denoted their previous attachment.

According to the Congolese Defence MInister, Jean-Pierre Ondekane, 3,700 soldiers would be trained at Kisangani in the next three months and would form a joint brigade of the Congolese army. They would then be deployed in Ituri District, northeastern Congo, to work alongside soldiers of the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, to restore peace in the region, which has been torn by violence between different ethnic groups.

Some 1,400 soldiers drawn in equal numbers from former rebel groups were already at Kisangani and would take part in the first training course of the new army, Ondekane said.

Flahaut said Belgium would help with the integration of the new forces into one body. Details of the aid were not yet clear, but according to the economic adviser at the Belgium embassy in the Congo, Francois Delhaye, it would include the supply of military material and instructors, with support from France, the UK and the US.

A peace agreement signed on 17 December 2002 in South Africa ended five years of war in the DRC and provided for the setting up of transitional institutions leading to elections after two years. A transitional government of national unity was inaugurated on 30 June and the staff of a new integrated army established on 5 September.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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