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DRC: Kisangani demilitarisation begins
Uganda and Rwanda have reportedly removed heavy weaponry from frontline offensive positions in Kisangani as part of a demilitarisation plan agreed upon after recent clashes between the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) in the northeastern Congolese city. The arms removed included tanks, artillery and ballistic missiles but the withdrawal of troops had yet to commence, the semi-official Ugandan newspaper 'New Vision' reported on Monday. A second phase of demilitarisation, due to start on Monday and last four days, would involve moving troops from the city centre and the UPDF camp at La Forestiere, it said. The UN Observer Mission in the DRC (MONUC) was due to chair a meeting of commanders on Monday at which the final modalities of the withdrawal would the thrashed out, the report added. The demilitarisation of Kisangani should serve as a model for the future withdrawal of troops from other areas of the DRC, Uganda's Minister of State for Regional Cooperation Amama Mbabazi stated last week. "It is hoped that in carrying out this implementation plan, the exercise will also serve as a future model of forces on the wider Congo scene," Mbabazi said in a statement carried by the 'New Vision'.
Meanwhile, tension is reported to be still high in Kisangani, with Uganda having threatened to destroy the power station if the civil administration of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) did not restore electricity to its headquarters and those sections of the city controlled by the UPDF, according to military sources in the DRC. In addition, the leader of the rebel Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) is pushing its case that the local government of the town be democratically elected - as stipulated in the agreement between Uganda and Rwanda that followed serious clashes in the city last August - rather than nominated by the RCD, they said. Considering the potential wrangles, MONUC was considering the deployment of administrative, humanitarian and human rights workers to the city, informed sources told IRIN. The UN mission has also been emphatic in its insistence that it would not assume any responsibility for civil administration, the provision of essential services or the maintenance of law and order, since the city already had an operational civil administration, they added.
DRC: Museveni rules out unilateral Congo withdrawal
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told the Ugandan assembly on Sunday there would be no unilateral withdrawal of the UPDF from the DRC, and that Ugandan troops would leave the country only under the terms of the Lusaka peace deal. "If individual forces began withdrawing unilaterally, this could upset this carefully negotiated sequence of events and, in fact, possibly lead to the collapse of the ceasefire agreement as a whole," Museveni said, having been summoned to address parliament in the aftermath of the Kisangani clashes. Uganda's primary task in the DRC - stated to be safeguarding its borders against rebels backed by neighbouring Sudan- had been "largely achieved," Museveni added.
DRC: Kinshasa to participate in New York meeting
Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi has told France, which will hold the UN Security Council chair through the month of June, that the DRC will take part in a meeting between the Security Council and the political committee established to implement the Lusaka peace agreement, scheduled to take place in new York on 15-16 June. That meeting will follow a meeting of the Joint Military Commission (JMC) tasked with implementing the Lusaka agreement in the Ugandan capital Kampala from 2-3 June, and a follow-up meeting of the political committee, also in Kampala, from 5-6 June, according to diplomatic sources.
DRC: Returnees from Angola expected in June
The repatriation of thousands of Congolese refugees from an estimated 11,000 living in Angola is expected to start in mid-July, the UNHCR stated on Friday. 1,850 have so far applied to return to DRC, mostly from around Lubumbashi in Katanga Province or Kananga in Kasai Province, and now living in Viana camp near the Angolan capital Luanda, it said. Some of the refugees have said they are uncertain about their return, having lost most of their contacts after 23 years in exile, but that they would return if UNHCR helped them. The agency said it would assist the refugees with transport to their areas of origin, and was currently exploring the possibility of airlifting returnees to certain main centres in government-held and peaceful areas.
DRC: Tribal clashes reported in Uvira
Clashes between the Banyamulenge, Bafulero and Bambe peoples were continuing in the Mulenge mountains of Uviru, South Kivu, the BBC Kirundi/Kinyarwanda service has reported, citing Banyamulenge sources in eastern DRC. An attack in Katogota was followed by revenge attacks in Bijombo and Katanga, where over 30 people were killed and 350 houses burned out in Gihuha, Amazi, Gahuna, Magunda and Rubibi, according to Banyamulenge representative Janskoye Muhamiriza, interviewed by the BBC on Friday. He claimed that the RCD had done nothing to defend the Banyamulenge people, despite its youth fighting on the front in Katanga and Equateur province, and called on the rebel leadership to protect them before they were massacred. "Before, the war pitted the RCD against Kabila. Now there is a tribal war, a coalition of other tribes fighting Banyamulenge," Muhamiriza said.
UGANDA/DRC: Army officers banned from commenting on Rwandan army
Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) officers have been banned from commenting on Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), the 'New Vision' reported on Friday, quoting Ugandan army spokesman Phineas Katirima. "Officers who made comments before last Thursday are pardoned, but any officer who contravenes this order will be arrested and prosecuted," the paper quoted Katirima as saying. "For any of you to continue to comment on the Kisangani situation in particular, and the RPA/Rwanda in general, might seriously undermine efforts in bringing things back to normal," he added.
RWANDA: Over 150 repatriated from DRC
Some 156 people were on Friday repatriated from DRC to Rwanda, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Kinshasa, Paul Castelle, told IRIN on Monday. "These were families where at least one head of the household is of Rwandese origin. This is the reason why they were transferred to Rwanda even though some of the children were born in DRC," he said. Most of these people were displaced within Kinshasa and its environs, with some in hiding because they feared for their security, Castelle said. "We interviewed them and when they indicated their desire to be transferred, we did so," after consultations with the DRC and Rwandan governments, he said. "Our first wish would have been to see them allowed to live in the DRC with an improvement in their security conditions but, in this case, they have chosen to go back home, which is good," Castelle added.
RWANDA: Swiss court cuts former mayor's life sentence
The former mayor of Mushubati, Fulgence Niyonteze, who was last year sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1994 genocide, on Friday had his sentence reduced to 14 years on legal technicalities, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported. It said a Swiss military tribunal found Niyonteze guilty of violating the Geneva Conventions which protect civilians in times of war, but did not uphold the decision of a lower court which also found him guilty of murder and incitement to murder. Niyonteze's lawyers are seeking an acquittal and have already said they will take the case to Switzerland's top military appeals court, Hirondelle said. The defence base its demands on what it called the "incoherence" of witness testimonies. The tribunal, however, found that witness testimonies were largely credible, bearing in mind cultural differences and the fact that many of the Rwandan witnesses were illiterate.
RWANDA: Bagilishema seeks disclosure of security documents
The defence counsel for Ignace Bagilishema, former mayor of Mabanda, on Thursday asked the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to order the prosecution to disclose certain documents, saying their client had tried to get them from the Rwandan government but had failed. The independent Hirondelle news agency said Bagilishema's counsel demanded the minutes of security meetings held in Kibuye prefecture, western Rwanda, between March and July 1994, "which are specifically mentioned in Bagilishema's indictment". Bagilishema has pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The defence has also sought the disclosure of confession statements to the Rwandan authorities by three prosecution witnesses, saying it had reason to believe they did not correspond with the witnesses' statements to the ICTR.
BURUNDI: Regroupment camp dismantlement stalled
None of the nine civilian regroupment camps scheduled to be dismantled during the month of April - including Kabezi, Mageyo, Kigezi, Kavumu, Nyabibondo, Ruyaga, Muyaga, Kibuye and Kwigere - has yet been shut down, according to a recent evaluation of the sites. There had been some partial dismantlement of Kigezi and Mageyo, a UNOCHA situation report received by IRIN stated. The assessment also indicated that Ruziba, which was not in the phase two closure schedule, had been dismantled over the weekend of 6-7 May. The nine sites due for closure in phase two, account for a regrouped population of 138,637 in the communes of Isale, Mubimbi, Kanyosha and Kabezi, according to OCHA's data.
An inter-agency assessment mission reported in April that only five regroupment camps had been dismantled in phase one. Just nine of 23 sites which the government said were dismantled in phase one had, in fact, been regroupment camps; the other 14 were camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) and not regrouped people, it said. Of the nine which were regroupment camps, five were found to have been dismantled (at Maramvya [Mutimbuzi], Gatumba, Kinonko, Gitaza and Magara), two to have been partially dismantled (Muberure and Maramvya [Mutambu] ), and two not to have been dismantled at all due to security concerns, OCHA reported. As of 1 April, the last date for which verified figures were available, some 18,200 people had left regroupment camps in Bujumbura Rural, leaving about 317,000 still on site. There were significant needs in the areas of food security, shelter, health, nutrition and livestock replenishment, but considerable work remained in identifying the different vulnerable populations (IDPs, regrouped people, returnees and those civilians who had not been displaced or regrouped) and isolating their particular short-term and development needs, OCHA added.
BURUNDI: France backs poverty eradication efforts
France and Burundi have signed an agreement within the framework of the ongoing Arusha peace process under which the French will contribute financial support of some 10 million French francs (just over one billion Fbu) to Bujumbura for poverty eradication activities. The money would go specifically towards the purchase of medicines, and agricultural and veterinary products, a French press release stated. French aid to Burundi was restarted in 1998 in recognition of the political partnership inside the country and the start of the Arusha peace talks in Tanzania, and this year will total some four billion Burundian francs (Fbu). Meanwhile, Finance Minister Charles Nihangaza, who has just returned from a visit to Libya, announced agreement in principle on a credit from Libya to Uganda, and on a trade agreement under which Uganda is expected to import mainly fuel, and to export fish and agricultural products, particularly live animals, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
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