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French officer hopes for end to killing 'This is the
cruellest war that I have ever been in'
BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo - Colonel Daniel Vollot has seen his share of warfare, but none like the ethnic conflict raging in the Ituri region of northeastern Congo. "This is the cruellest war I have ever been in," says Col. Vollot, a slim, balding French army officer and the local commander for MONUC, the UN observation force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations said yesterday it had found another 30 decomposing and mutilated bodies in Bunia, the chief city of the Ituri region, bringing the death toll to more than 300 after days of fighting between militias of the rival Hema and Lendu ethnic groups. With only a few lightly armed troops and no authority to intervene, Col. Vollot is desperate to see a more powerful force with a mandate to halt the bloodshed enter the country. "With many of the fighters, there is only one way you can stop them," he says. Although he does not say it, his meaning is clear: The only way to stop them is to shoot them. The colonel is still reeling from the images of war he has seen in the last few days -- such as babies, hacked in two by drugged, machete-wielding, child soldiers. "These are sick people," he says. "They are ready to do the worst imaginable." Most of Bunia, once a city of 350,000, is a ghost town. The plundered city centre is under the control of Hema fighters. They have agreed to a ceasefire with their enemies from the Lendu tribe, whom they have chased into the surrounding hills, but few believe the peace will hold. MONUC soldiers from Uruguay have secured two places in the city, the airport and their own headquarters near the centre. Behind rolls of barbed wire and a ring of armoured personnel carriers, the UN troops are sheltering some 10,000 traumatized Congolese civilians. Most have lost all of their belongings in the fighting. C�cile Balaluka is one. She is sitting near the tarmac at the airport, hoping a UN or relief organization plane will fly her out to a safe destination, such as Beni, 200 kilometres south. Tens of thousands of other people are trying to get there on foot. Many, especially the children, will probably not survive the march through the jungle. "Anywhere but here," Ms. Balaluka says. It has taken her more than a week to find a relatively safe passage to the airport. Now she is ready to leave Bunia once and for all. "They have pillaged all my stuff," she says. "Everything. Now my life is in MONUC's hands." The UN force has been criticized for not doing enough to protect the civilian population. Wrongly so, says Shannon Strother of UNICEF, the UN children's fund. "They have 700 people to do an impossible job. Without their help, we as humanitarians would be completely lost. They are doing everything they reasonably can." To date, MONUC's chief achievement has been to negotiate the ceasefire. Col. Vollot hopes it will soon be followed up by a UN-sanctioned rapid intervention force. A small group of French soldiers was due to leave Bunia yesterday for France to discuss the proposed intervention with the government. Britain, France and South Africa have said they will consider sending troops. Canada is expected to provide two military transport planes and a small number of troops. A battalion of the French Foreign Legion -- about 1,000 troops -- is in the West African country of Gabon waiting for the order to move. The ethnic conflict in Ituri, a region rich with gold, timber and the prospect of oil, has claimed 50,000 lives since 1998, when civil war broke out in the Congo. More than half a million people are internally displaced. The recent clashes for control of Bunia have added scores more casualties. Close to MONUC's headquarters in a former city council hall, a makeshift hospital has been set up. It has exactly one bed. On mattresses on the floor, about 50 people are waiting for treatment. Most of them have war-related injuries. "I saw Lendu fighters coming very close to my house," says Caliste Miyayo. "I told my children to get down on the floor. Then a grenade exploded nearby. Next thing I know, I was here in the hospital." Lendu fighters attacked him, probably assuming Miyayo is a Hema. "Nothing of the kind," he says. "I'm not even from this part of the country, I'm from the south of Congo. "It is such a catastrophe. The fighting used to be pretty small. Now the whole region is going up in flames." Bunia is almost without electricity, water and medicine. Most of the relief workers have fled during last week's fighting, though with the ceasefire they are slowly returning. The task they are heading is massive, if not nearly impossible. The situation in Ituri has been compared to that in Rwanda in 1994, when extremist Hutus killed at least 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in three months. Lendu and Hema tribe members, it has been said, are out to do the same. But Hamadoun Tour�, the official spokesman for MONUC, disagrees. "This hatred is not fuelled by ethnic but by political ambitions," he says. The control of Ituri and its resources, he says, is important not only to the Congolese, but to the neighbouring countries to the east, Uganda and Rwanda. Mr. Tour� refuses to directly implicate these countries in the recent fighting. But natural resources, he says, have a way of attracting attention. "The winner," he says, "takes it all." The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
