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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC: Militiamen stop voters from going to polls
BUNIA, 30 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - Militiamen in the northeastern Congolese district of Ituri barricaded a highway on Sunday to stop hundreds of displaced persons from voting in the country's first multiparty polls since 1960, a local electoral official said.
"There was even an exchange of fire yesterday between government troops and the militiamen, who melted away," Kalombo Bukpa, the head of the Katoni polling station, said.
The incident occurred in Loribi, 10 km south of Katoni, an area that has been controlled by the Front des Résistances Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI), led by warlord Cobra Matata. The displaced were on their way from the town of Katoni to vote at polling stations some 30 km to the south when they encountered the fighters of the FRPI on the highway, who demanded money before allowing the voters to continue on their journey.
Bukpa said some of the displaced were able to bypass the fighters and continue to the voting stations. Others returned to Katoni.
Matata failed to take part in negotiations on Wednesday between other active militia leaders, the government, and the FRPI/Mouvement revolutionaire congolaise alliance on the safe passage for voters. The different parties agreed to allow voters unhindered passage to polling stations. Matata only sent a delegation to the meeting.
Hundreds of Katoni's sick and aged population were too weak to walk the distance to polling stations.
"I do not have enough strength to go to Tchekele, a day's walk away from Katoni," Albertine Erumwi, a widow in an IDP camp, said.
Several hundreds of others from Delé, three kilometres south of Bunia, also did not vote, either because the distances were too far to polling stations or because they had lost their voter registration cards.
"My entire family lost their cards in April when government troops robbed them,” said one.
The assistant district commissioner for administration in Ituri, Ngedza Mbitso, said he tried to warn electoral officials about the lack of public transport for the voters.
"I brought up this problem of the displaced during a meeting of the Election Steering Committee for Ituri," he said. "For example, I asked how the displaced in Joo, some 90 km east of Bunia, could vote in their constituencies when they lived in Tchomia, 60 km from Bunia."
He said nothing had been done to find a way to get the vulnerable closer to the polling stations.
The steering committee comprised officials from the UN Mission in the DRC; the national independent electoral commission; the police, army and the national security service known as the Agence nationale de Sécurité.
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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
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