Monday, July 26, 2004
UN: Uganda, Rwanda 'Meddling' in Congo
A JOINT REPORT
THE EASTAFRICAN
THE RECENTLY leaked draft UN report on the Democratic Republic of Congo has accused Rwanda and Uganda of continuing to meddle in the internal affairs of the vast central African nation by supplying arms and ammunition to different rebel groups despite a UN imposed arms embargo.
Though the report talks little on the presence of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) inside Congo, the UN accuses Rwandan government officials of directly helping renegade Congolese troops who temporarily seized a key city in eastern Congo last month.
The report also says that Ugandan military officers and businessmen have continued to plunder Congo minerals.
However, Uganda and Rwandan government officials last week dismissed the contents of the report, saying that if the UN had failed to control the war-troubled area it should come out openly "instead of making wild allegations."
Tom Butime, Ugandan Foreign Affairs Minister, said that stories emanating from Congo on Uganda�s current role in the country were false and baseless.
While Ugandan army spokesman, Shaban Bantariza said the contents of the new report about insecurity in eastern Congo, were contemptible and that the United Nations force in Ituri was in control of all the northeastern Congo region. He wondered why the experts just analysed routes.
"They should arrest arms traffickers and those violating DRC agreements. We have been sharing intelligence information with them; to what use has it been?" asked Mr Bantariza.
The draft report criticises Uganda�s military and businessmen for continuing to plunder minerals from mainly the troubled Ituri region of eastern Congo.
"The group of experts has analysed numerous reports of trucks allegedly ferrying weapons and logistical material to the DRC through the Ugandan border posts of Arua, Paidha and Mpondwe and the Rwandan border posts of Gisenyi and Cyagungu," says the report.
But Mr Bantariza asked, "How could you differentiate between routes taking arms and those taking other things like agricultural produce?
"These experts have either not been to any school or they are indirectly indicting the UN force in the area for failing to do its work."
In a draft report on non-compliance and violation of an arms embargo, the report accuses Rwanda of recruiting, training and sheltering renegade Congolese soldiers responsible for the latest wave of fighting in North Kivu.
But what drew anger from the Kigali government is downplaying of the security threat posed by Rwandan Hutu rebels who are still roaming in Congo. "Interviews with the local population and medical personnel, as well as the limited increase in the number of local funerals in the region (northwestern Rwanda), reveal that the size of the invading FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) forces and their impact in this instance were modest," says the draft report.
The report concluded that FDLR presence in parts of Congo and its limited cross-border incursions did not justify the level of Rwandan troop deployment inside Congo.
Rwandan authorities last week scoffed at the draft UN report, accusing it of downplaying the security threat posed by Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Congo.
"This report is aimed at diverting the world from the horrendous activities of interahamwe still roaming in eastern DRC," said Protais Mitali, Rwanda�s Minister for Regional Co-operation.
"Downplaying the security threat posed by these forces is entirely unfair and biased," said the minister.
The draft report says that Rwandan officials mobilised and recruited fighters for Col Jules Mutebutsi, promising them mobile phones or $100 to fight in the neighbouring Congolese province of South Kivu. Col. Mutebutsi briefly seized control of the strategic town of Bukavu last month along with another regenade officer, Brig Gen Laurent Nkunda.
Congolese government troops recaptured the city after the renegade soldiers withdrew. UN experts concluded that Rwanda's violations involved direct and indirect support, both in Congo and in Rwanda, to the mutinous troops of Jules Mutebutsi and Laurent Nkunda.
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