'Terrorists' Would Love Eastern Congo
Email This Page
Print This Page
The Monitor (Kampala)
December 15, 2002
Posted to the web December 16, 2002
Ogen Kevin Aliro
Kampala
When Training Editor Ogen Kevin Aliro followed the Sudan-Uganda-DR Congo
border trail over five days, he found a long, "porous" frontier that is
literally no-man's land. In DR Congo and the Sudan sides of the borders there
is no central authority - rebel factions are in charge. Rival rebel factions
that control different parts of eastern DRC don't feel they are accountable
to any regional or international body.
In Part II of our special report on "Africa's most dangerous borders" Ogen
Aliro examines the potential dangers in the context of modern day terrorism.
A senior Ugandan army officer for example told The Monitor that it was
possible for a terrorist to carry "anything" all the way from the Chad/Libya
border to East Africa without being stopped by security agencies under a
central authority:
Following the latest attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, the American-led campaign
against international terrorism is watching the Red Sea and East Africa's
Indian Ocean coastline.
The United States and mostly western allies fear that the long "porous"
coastline is an "open gate" for terrorists targeting American interests in
the region.
But as we followed the DR Congo-Uganda-Sudan-border trail for five days,
there was that feeling that the unsettled military situation in central
Africa and the Great Lakes Region is also a potential haven for terrorists.
In this part of the world formal border controls hardly exist. Rival rebel
militias loosely control border points in DR Congo, but many are more
interested in extracting bribes from travellers than in security.
Even where border checkpoints are a little bit more orderly as at Aru,
corruption makes it theoretically possible to across these international
borders with such deadly merchandise as uranium.
"Corruption in Congo is worse that HIV/AIDS every Congolese has caught the
bug and there is no cure for the corruption here. You give money and no one
cares what you are carrying," said a UPDF officer we found at Aru airfield.
Passports and visas mean very little here. "What are visas? Visas have no
meaning here!" another UPDF officer had said earlier before helping us to
cross into Congo through Djegu.
UPDF Army Commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini agrees terrorists could exploit
the vacuum created by the lack of central authority in such a vast region.
"That is possible In theory you could carry anything all the way from Chad
through eastern Congo up to the shores of Lake Albert or Lake Tanganyika
because there is no central authority or control. And once something can
reach Lake Albert, it can be taken into Uganda or anywhere else in East
Africa," Kazini said during an interview in Gulu.
A few years ago Osama bin Laden exploited this same axis of lawless to
infiltrate western Uganda and set up al Qaeda cells in Buseruka and the
Rwenzori Mountains that straddle the Congo-Uganda border, in a loose alliance
with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The al Qaeda operatives had been trained in Sudan and Afghanistan by Osama
bin Laden.
The UPDF recovered some of al Qaeda's documents after it overrun ADF camps in
the Rwenzoris. Uganda then tried to draw the world's attention to al Qaeda's
presence and plans in the Great Lakes region. Everyone was sceptical - from
the media to foreign governments, including the United States.
And, that was long before September 11 (2001)!
Documents the UPDF recovered from ADF's mountain camps suggested there was a
well-planned, long-term al Qaeda design for this part of the world. With the
Americans sniffing them out from their more prominent cells, al Qaeda
planners may renew their interest particularly in eastern Congo - where
lawlessness abounds and the international community doesn't seem to be
looking at all.
Moreover Congolese rebel factions are increasingly desperate for weapons and
other supplies. Terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda could target such
factions, while at the same time exploiting Congo's minerals to fund their
operations in the region and internationally.
In Aru, for example, soldiers of the rebel Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC)
carry machine guns with less than six rounds of ammunition. Their commanders
loudly complain about the shortage of arms - a visitor quickly gets the
impression they would accept supplies even from terrorist groups.
Al Qaeda operatives could easily disguise themselves as "traders" - dealing
in gold or diamonds in eastern Congo. Congolese rebels may have no qualms
about exchanging gold or diamonds for arms, and would by extension turn a
blind eye to international terrorists that may set up in their areas of
control.
Even if the main rebel groups did not succumb, there is a growing problem of
deserters from both the Sudanese Liberation Army (SPLA) and the various
Congolese rebel groups.
At one point UPC and SPLA deserters had taken charge of the entire area where
the borders of Uganda, the DRC and Sudan meet.
"Deserters from both the SPLA and the UPC have become a big problem, and they
were causing insecurity in the region," SPLA's Commander Dok Micar told us
when we met him at Bazi (Sudan) hardly 100 metres from the borderline with
Congo.
The outlook is worrying because Congolese rebel factions have little regard
for human rights and international law in general.
Thomas Lubanga's UPC recently impounded two planes chartered to deliver
merchandise from Uganda to rebel-held Congo.
The rebels accused the pilots - one Ugandan (one Kiryowa) and an Israeli - of
doing business with UPC's enemies (flying to areas held by the rival factions
of Mbusa Nyamwisi's APC - the Congolese Peoples Army) and RCD-Goma.
The pilots were detained in sub-human conditions. The rebels may kill
civilians or impound planes, but they know they don't risk any international
sanctions.
The border trail had taken us to Makambo near Mahagi Port on the Congolese
side of Lake Albert. We crossed back into Uganda the following morning -
driving through Paidha and Zeu; and re-entered Congo via Vurra customs post
and Aru.
Aru is the seat of Commander Jerome, the sector commander of rebel leader
Thomas Lubanga's UPC (Union of Congolese Patriots).
Commander Jerome seems to be the law, and the law is Commander Jerome.
We arrived just days after he had ordered the killing, by firing squad, of
two of Lubanga's bodyguards.
Lubanga had been touring the sector and two of his bodyguards reportedly
wondered off - apparently to trace old girlfriends.
That sealed their fate.
When they returned Commander Jerome charged them with passing on to the enemy
information about their boss (Lubanga's) movements.
Jerome ordered their execution.
Thomas Lubanga's life remains in real danger, though.
There is a fresh split even within his own UPC ranks. His former allies like
Chief Kahwa, a fellow Hema, was planning to defect with some UPC fighters.
Lubanga's enemies are plotting to assassinate him because they claim he is
the "main stumbling block" to peace in the Ituri region. Critics claim that
Lubanga for example opposes all attempts at "peace talks" to end ethnic
killings between the Lendu and his Hema communities.
"There are advanced plans to kill him [Lubanga]. It is going to happen That
man must die before peace can be restored in eastern Congo," said one of
Lubanga's critics who claimed he was close to the "patriots" who have ordered
the assassination.
But can the death of one rebel faction leader be the real solution the
complex problems in eastern Congo?
Ordinary Congolese are wary of all the violence and killings, but remain
voiceless. Civilians we spoke to want the international community to
militarily intervene and bring the whole country back under one central
authority in Kinshasa.
"That young man [Congolese president Joseph Kabila] is after all not bad," is
what many say when you ask them about the way forward.
? The third and last part of this Special Report series shall run in The
Monitor on .. The author brings voices from the Sudanese People's Liberation
Army (SPLA); their quarrel with Ugandans in Koboko and what they think of the
UPDF.
