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A meeting is still underway between the President of the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri
Museveni. The head to head between the two Heads of State began yesterday
evening in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and this morning resumed with the
mediation of Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa. Amos Ngongi,
representative of UN secretary general in DR-Congo, in the past days
denounced that a real peace process in Ituri (north-east DR-Congo) is not
possible without a direct effort by the Kinshasa and Kampala leaderships.
Despite the accord undersigned between the two governments in September
2002 in Luanda (Angola), which foresees the normalisation of bilateral
relations and the withdrawal of Ugandan soldiers from DR-Congo, tension
did not relent much, particularly after the outbreak of violence over the
past months in Ituri. The Tanzanian mini-summit is centred around the
delicate issue of the north-eastern zone of the nation which is now
threatened by an ulterior outbreak of violence. In the past days the MONUC
(UN Mission in DR-Congo) launched another alert, denouncing new winds of
war and reporting the presence in the east of numerous Rwandan and Ugandan
troops, as well as manoeuvres by Congolese rebel groups active in the
area. The governments of the neighbouring nations successively denied the
MONUC reports, but in regard at least to the Ugandan military battalions
there are contrasting indications. Based on the accords between Kampala
and the UN, the Ugandan military still counts around a thousand men in
Bunia (north-east DR-Congo) with the duty of maintaining order and
avoiding a repeat of the violent clashes between the Hema and Lendu rival
ethnic groups. But in the past days indications arrived, confirmed by
MISNA sources, that the same Kampala soldiers stationed in Bunia are
preparing trenches around the airport and gathering men and weapons in the
area. It appears that behind this behaviour is the deterioration of
relations between the Ugandan government and Thomas Lubanga, leader of the
UPC (Union of Congolese Patriots), one of the warlords of the east
DR-Congo. Lubanga, until now allied with Kampala, is apparently
negotiating the alliance of his movement with the other African nation
involved in the Congolese conflict: Rwanda. The UPC leader in the past
weeks in fact reportedly engaged in a series of fruitful discussions with
the pro-Rwandan rebels of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma),
that govern nearly all of south-east DR-Congo. The presence of Ugandan
battalions in Ituri reported by the MONUC therefore comes as a consequence
of this new change of front and apparently serves to guarantee military
support in case of a possible confrontation with Lubanga�s
troops.[BO] |
