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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 26 July 2006

DRC: Voluntary militia disarmament ends

BUNIA, 26 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - The voluntary disarmament of militia in Ituri District, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has ended, with 4,000 former fighters surrendering in the past two months, officials in charge of the programme have said.

The army's spokesman in Ituri, Capt Olivier Mputu, said on Tuesday the militiamen had surrendered 2,200 guns and 243,620 rounds of ammunition. "The militiamen who have not surrendered will be disarmed [by force]," he said.

He added that the government had undertaken the disarmament and reintegration programme to allow the people in Ituri to participate peacefully in the general elections on Sunday.

Jennifer Bakody, a spokeswoman in Ituri for the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUC), said MONUC would continue to receive weapons from militiamen who surrender them voluntarily even though the 15 July deadline, set by the army and MONUC, had passed.

The deadline expired without fighters from the Front des nationalistes et intégrationnistes (FNI) militia group, led by Peter Karim, laying down their weapons. The FNI had been responsible for the abduction of seven UN peacekeepers, who have since been released.

MONUC reported that all disarmament sites in Ituri had been closed, with the exception of one at Kpandroma, 120 km northeast of Bunia - the main town in Ituri - that would remain open to await FNI fighters. The FNI is estimated to number between 2,000 and 3,000 men and is active in Nioka, 100 km northeast of Bunia.

The Deputy Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General in charge of political affairs, Heile Menkerios, has been in Bunia to facilitate negotiations between the army and the militia on disarmament, Kemal Saiki, the MONUC spokesman, said on Wednesday from Kinshasa, the capital. Negotiations are ongoing between the FNI and the government for the militias' integration into the army.

As negotiations continue, MONUC and the army said they have taken all possible measures to ensure public safety during Sunday's elections.

"During the elections for example, there will be helicopter surveillance in sensitive areas in the south," Carmine Camerini, a MONUC spokesman in Bunia, said. "Additional helicopters will be deployed in the north."

In addition, Mputu said polling stations would be secured by police officers while the army would secure the "risky zones".

These zones are in the district of Walendu Bindi, which remains occupied by the Front de Résistance patriotique en Ituri and Mouvement révolutionnaires congolais militiamen, despite an army offensive two weeks ago that dislodged militiamen in the localities of Medu, Songolo and Bavi, up to 40 km south of Bunia.

"We will increase patrols and arrest the instigators of trouble," said Mputu.



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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006