UPDF Denies Redeploying in East DRC
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New Vision (Kampala)
December 16, 2002
Posted to the web December 16, 2002
Emmy Allio
Kampala
A Congolese rebel group controlling parts of north-eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) yesterday said fresh UPDF soldiers are arriving in
Ituri province. The army has denied the allegations.
Prof. John Baptist Dhetchuvi, the foreign affairs minister of Thomas
Lubanga's Union for Patriotic Congolese (UPC), said the UPDF troops have been
doubled in Bunia and along the Nebbi - Arua border. He said the UPDF may be
poised to attack the UPC forces. But the army spokesman, Major Shaban
Bantariza, said there is no fresh troop deployment in Bunia.
"The troops, which were moved from Bunia to the Semliki River valley to fight
ADF, are being brought back. Under the terms we agreed with the United
Nations, about 1,000 troops are to be deployed in Bunia," he said.
Bantariza said the presence of UPDF on the Arua - Nebbi border with Congo was
normal.
"We have the right to deploy anywhere in the country," he said.
Dhetchuvi said he had written to President Yoweri Museveni and the UN
Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC) to protest the sudden increase of UPDF
troops in Bunia.
He said 10 planeloads of troops arrived in Bunia earlier last week, doubling
their numbers. Dhetchuvi was scheduled to meet Museveni in Kampala yesterday
afternoon.
The Director General of External Security Organisation (ESO), David Pulkol,
said rumours and truth in the north-eastern Congo "mingle in such a way that
representation of events on the ground becomes suspect."
"A covert infiltration of some neighbours and their proxy forces bent on
destabilising Uganda are taking advantage of the few UPDF troops on the
ground and have established numerous airstrips in the Ituri province," Pulkol
said.
He said security agencies have been monitoring meetings of senior LRA rebels
commander Accellam and UNRF II rebels who he said were planning to attack
Uganda through the West Nile axis.
He said the Patriotic Redemption Army (PRA), the Lord's Resistance Army and
UNRF II rebels want to take advantage of the terrain in Arua and Nebbi to
attack Uganda early next year.
Dhetchuvi said, "I am sure the UPDF deployment is based on rumours supplied
to the Uganda Government by Mbusa Nyamwisi (another DRC rebel chief) who has
been saying we are hosting Colonel Mande and Kyakabale rebels. Other rumours
in Kampala said the Rwandan army is backing us. This is a lie told by Mbusa,"
said Dhetchuvi.
Dhetchuvi has asked Museveni to send a team to Ituri province to probe what
he called lies being peddled by Mbusa and his friends in Kampala.
Mbusa Nyamwisi, who heads RCD-ML rebel group, controls Beni and Butembo towns.
He is believed to enjoy the backing of the Kinshasa authorities and some
elements in Kampala. Lubanga was Mbusa's defence minister.
Meanwhile, the DRC asked the UN Security Council on Friday to take urgent
action to force Libya to withdraw its troops which have allegedly deployed in
the country to boost Jean Pierre Bemba's rebels.
Kinshasa yesterday staged military maneuvers in response to the allegations.
Both Libya and Bemba denied the accusations on Saturday
Libya firmly denied its troops had entered the Democratic Republic of Congo
in support of rebel groups.
"What was alleged by the Congolese ambassador to the UN is without foundation
and is not based on any truth," said African Unity Minister Ali Abdel Salam
Triki, cited by JANA, the state news agency.
He said his country "has no military presence in this region."
The DRC issued an urgent letter to the Security Council on Friday, asking it
to condemn Libya's action and to demand the immediate withdrawal of its
troops from the vast country.
It did not specify how many Libyans were in the DRC, but said "for more than
a month, the territory occupied by the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC)
has been the scene of continuous movement by Antonov heavy aircraft."
The MLC is supported by Uganda, which recently pulled its forces out of the
DRC, scene of the most complex conflict in Africa.
In Pretoria on Thursday, the DRC's ambassador to South Africa, Bene M'Poko,
said the Libyans had sent 14 tanks through Uganda into the DRC bordering the
Central African Republic.
