Bloomberg September 30, 2010
Uganda's Government Rejects United Nations Report on War Crimes in Congo
By Fred Ojambo
Uganda’s government rejected as false a draft United Nations report implicating the nation’s army in human rights violations in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo from 1993 to 2003.
The report by the UN High Commission for Human Rights implicating the Ugandan army in war crimes and crimes against humanity was premised on “a compendium of rumors deeply flawed in methodology, sourcing and standard of proof,” Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said in a letter to the commission. A copy of the brief was distributed to the media yesterday by the state-run Uganda Media Center in Kampala, the capital.
“Uganda rejects that draft report in its entirety and demands that it not be published,” Kutesa said.
Ugandan and Rwandan forces helped former Congolese President Laurent Kabila in a 1996-1997 war that toppled former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, according to GlobalSecurity.org, the Washington-based research group. Ugandan forces were also involved in subsequent wars in eastern Congo from 1998 to 2004 in which 3.8 million people died, it said.
The UN human rights agency said yesterday it will publish on Oct. 1 a report on the “most serious” human-rights violations in the Congo from 1993 to 2003. It didn’t provide any details on the contents of the report.
Last month, neighboring Rwanda also rejected the draft UN report, which the government said accused the Rwandan army of atrocities in Congo during the 1990s, including the possible genocide of ethnic Hutus.
Kutesa said authors of the UN document exhibited bias by failing to consult Uganda over the alleged rights abuses by the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces during the two years in which it was drafted. The report undermines Uganda’s participation in various peacekeeping missions, including in Somalia, he said.
The UN report is also “curiously” silent about the Allied Democratic Forces and National Army for Liberation of Ugandan, two rebel groups fighting Uganda, as well as the renegade Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda that are based in eastern Congo, the statement said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
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