CONGO-DEM.REPUBLICÂÂ27/2/2004Â15:51
BUNIA: TENSION IN THE CITY FOLLOWING SHOOT-OUT BETWEEN REBELS AND âBLUE HELMETSâ
The tension is growing in Bunia (the main town in the province of Ituri, northeast Democratic Republic of Congo); the protest by the civilian population against the âblue helmetsâ of MONUC (UN Mission in DR Congo) is accompanied by renewed skirmishes between the international troops and the armed groups present in the area.
The news comes from MISNA sources, who report that this morning several students took to the streets in protest against MONUC, demanding the release of a shopkeeper who was arrested on Thursday in circumstances that are still unclear. At the same time, militias of UPC (Congolese Patriotic Union), the main armed group in the area, staged violent protests in the streets of the city, firing shots into the air, erecting roadblocks and setting fire to tyres. MISNA sources in Bunia report that tension between the âblue helmetsâ and the militias in Ituri heightened on Monday, even though it probably reached its peak on Thursday, when the sides engaged in a shoot-out just outside Bunia, in which a UN soldier was wounded.
According to Radio Okapi, the MONUC radio station, yesterday evening at around 20.30 a group of âblue helmetsâ saw armed militias enter a house near Kapa (roughly two kilometres from the centre of Bunia). The soldiers intervened to try to arrest the intruders, prompting the militias to open fire. However, MONUC reportedly managed to arrest three of the armed men.[LC]
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
