"It says that Uganda is still supporting and arming a rebel group called the People's Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC) led by Commander Jerome Kakawave Bakonde."
Uganda 'Arming' Congolese Militia
The Monitor (Kampala)
July 8, 2003
Posted to the web July 8, 2003
Frank Nyakairu
Kampala
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Uganda of arming militia groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Human Rights Watch names Rwanda and the DR Congo as the other countries still arming rival groups in the war-torn Ituri region of eastern DR Congo.
The report, Covered in Blood, was released yesterday but embargoed until midnight.
It says that Uganda is still supporting and arming a rebel group called the People's Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC) led by Commander Jerome Kakawave Bakonde.
"Agreements between governments don't do much good when the government armies are just passing their guns on to local militias," Ms Alison Des Forges, a senior official at Human Rights Watch, said.
However, the Uganda army spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, dismissed the report as "wild and untrue".
"That is another wild report by the Human Rights Watch people. Ask them where and when we supported those groups militarily," Bantariza said.
The report also accuses the Kinshasa government of training and arming the Lendu, Ngiti and Mai Mai militia against the Hema minorities.
The report accuses Rwanda of supporting the RCD-Goma rebel faction that in turn backs the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), a Hema militia in Bunia.
The report covers the past 12 months.
It cites civilian massacres at Nyakunde in September 2002, where Lendu fighters slaughtered 1,200 Hema.
For more than 10 days, the killers dragged victims from their homes and murdered patients found in beds at a missionary hospital in Ituri.
Uganda occupied the mineral-rich Ituri region from 1998 to May 2003 when it withdrew its troops under international pressure.
The international human rights watchdog called on the UN Security Council to ensure security for civilians after the French-led Operation Artemis that was sanctioned by the European Union expires on September 1.
