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DRC: Joseph Kabila vows to fight on
President-elect Joseph Kabila, the son of slain Congolese President Laurent-Desire Kabila, has vowed to restore the country's territorial integrity and retake rebel-held areas. Congolese state television said Kabila junior, who also takes on the mantle of supreme commander of the armed forces, told the military high command on 19 January that the army was "one and indivisible". He urged the commanders to forge ahead towards his father's goal, "namely to reconquer all the occupied territories of the country and guarantee the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo". "The objective will be attained by the discipline, cohesion and unity of the Forces armees congolaises (FAC), who have been called upon to transcend regional, tribal and ethnic divisions," Kabila said. [For further details, see separate IRIN report of 22 January headlined "Government line appears unchanged"]
On Tuesday, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who was in Kinshasa for Laurent-Desire Kabila's funeral, met Joseph Kabila, diplomatic sources told IRIN. After the meeting, Michel described the younger Kabila as "very calm and composed". He had told Kabila of the need for a "process of legitimisation" and implementation of the Lusaka peace accord "without preconditions". "I also told him he should give out precise signals showing more openness," Michel was quoted as saying. The sources added that he was the only western minister to attend the funeral.
DRC: Inauguration postponed
The inauguration of DRC's president-elect, Major-General Joseph Kabila, was on Thursday postponed for a second time, one day after parliament approved his appointment, news organisations reported. The Associated Press (AP) quoted Communications Minister Dominique Sakombi Inongo as saying that the ceremony, which had been expected to take place on Thursday, would now be held on Friday at the People's Palace. After taking a new oath ofoffice, Kabila would address the nation for the first time since he was "quickly" named head of state, Inongo said. Joseph Kabila was appointed interim head of government after last week's assassination of his father, the late Laurent-Desire Kabila. Inongo did not explain the delay in the ceremony, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday. However, AP quoted officials in Kinshasa as saying they were still working through the legal details of the succession.
DRC: Kabila buried but Kinshasa turbulent
Violence erupted in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, after the funeral on Tuesday of Laurent-Desire Kabila, who was buried with full military honours. Foreign dignitaries, including Kabila's allies, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Namibian President Sam Nujoma, paid their last respects to the president who was shot dead by one of his bodyguards on 16 January. His adversaries, Rwanda and Uganda, were not invited.
News agencies reported growing anti-western sentiment in Kinshasa, with many grief-stricken residents accusing the west of masterminding the assassination. Diplomatic sources in Kinshasa told IRIN they had been subjected to incidents of stone-throwing, and sticks had been hurled at diplomatic vehicles travelling to and from the funeral. Diplomats were accused of being "assassins" and "diamond thieves".
Speakers at the funeral included Interior Minister Gaetan Kakudji, who said the UN and the OAU should "activate themselves" and "really implement" Security Council resolutions so that the "aggressors leave our territory". A representative of the transitional parliament echoed his words, calling on the "aggressors" to leave and expressing gratitude to Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia for their support.
Kinshasa was reported as remaining tense on Wednesday. Belgian diplomats, whose vehicles were attacked by angry mobs on Tuesday, said they believed they were targeted because Belgium had been the first to announce Kabila's death. Furthermore, the diplomats told IRIN, there was considerable shock and anger among Congolese that the international community "took advantage" of the mourning period to try and press the new DRC authorities to implement the Lusaka peace accord.
DRC: Kabila's death removes main obstacle - RCD
The leader of the Goma-based Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), Adolphe Onusumba, said at the weekend that his movement was waiting to see what happened in Kinshasa before it decided on a course of action. "We have decided strictly to abide by the Lusaka accords while we wait to see what will happen in Kinshasa," AFP quoted him as saying. Onusumba was speaking in Kigali after talks with Rwandan officials. "Our future course of action will depend on what the new authorities [in Kinshasa] decide... We believe in the Lusaka accords. Kabila's death, while regrettable, has nevertheless removed the main obstacle to peace in Congo," Onusumba added. "We shall not challenge the status of Joseph Kabila... We are observing the situation, but I don't think he has the stature or capabilities required to lead the Congo", the RCD leader said.
DRC: Hundreds killed in Bunia fighting
The New York-based organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has said the Ugandan government must be held responsible for security in areas under its control. In a statement, HRW recalled the ethnic violence between the Hema and Lendu communities in DRC's northeastern Ituri District. The latest bout of fighting, which broke out on 19 January, has killed at least 200 people, according to some reports. "Foreign troops should not be taking sides in Congo's civil war," HRW said. "But if they are there, they should certainly not be complicit in attacks against civilians." The report noted that humanitarian workers were reluctant to assist victims, because "extremists" had accused them of taking sides in the dispute, or even of supplying arms. The area is nominally governed by the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) with Ugandan backing. Rebel-controlled Bunia radio on Monday said large numbers of displaced people were descending on the town of Bunia.
DRC: Up to 10,000 people flee Hema-Lendu clashes
UNHCR has concurred that the clashes between the Lendus and Hemas are driving more people from their homes. In addition to those fleeing east into the Ugandan district of Bundibugyo, an estimated 10,000 Hemas had reportedly fled west, towards Kisangani, in northeastern DRC, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told journalists on Tuesday. Refugees arriving in Kyangwali, south of the border town of Bundibugyo, towards the end of the week were mainly Hemas, who claimed that the Lendus were targeting them, as well as some Lendu moderates accused of being Hema sympathisers, Janowski said. "They killed my father, my mother, my brother and my kid. They came in large numbers. I ran away during the attack and I later saw my home in flames," one Hema refugee in Kamuga transit camp told UNHCR. The refugees said the attackers were armed with guns, spears and bows and arrows, he added.
The Swiss based humanitarian aid agency, MEDAIR, later confirmed that the death toll in the ethnic fighting had reached about 250. In a statement, MEDAIR, which works in the Bunia area, said the situation was very tense as a result of the fighting. "All the Hemas and the Lendus have fled their homes, many of which have been burnt and pillaged," the MEDAIR team said. "Three thousand civilians of various ethnic groups have taken refuge in the [Bunia] cathedral and in the school next door." Furthermore, MEDAIR said, tens of thousands of displaced people were believed to be on the move towards Djugu, Nyankunde and the surrounding areas, which were inaccessible at the moment.
DRC: Rwanda claims government bombed Pweto
Colonel Charles Kayonga, adviser to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, on Saturday accused Kinshasa of bombing Pweto town in the southeastern province of Katanga, AFP reported. Long-range rocket-launchers were used by government troops to bomb Rwandan army positions in the town on 19 January, but no casualties were reported, Kayonga said. "We put it forward to the UN Security Council: We are not bothering to retaliate, but if they continue we will have the responsibility to respond," AFP quoted him as saying.
DRC: Chirac condemns foreign occupation
French President Jacques Chirac on 19 January condemned as "illegitimate and unacceptable" the occupation of part of DRC territory by foreign countries. Radio France Internationale quoted Chirac as calling for economic sanctions against countries, whom he did not name, "whose conduct is morally unsound". Chirac was speaking to journalists at the closing press conference of the Franco-African Summit in Yaounde, Cameroon.
UGANDA: Over 6,000 Hema refugees in Bundibugyo - UNHCR
Over the past two weeks, the ethnic clashes between the Hema and Lendu communities in the DRC district of Ituri have sent over 6,000 Hema refugees into Bundibugyo District in western Uganda, according to UNHCR. The refugee agency had opened two transit camps in the district to receive more than 6,000 people scattered in villages along the DRC-Ugandan border area, along with some 25,000 head of cattle, spokeswoman Delphine Marie told journalists in Geneva on 19 January. Bundibugyo was already hosting some 8,000 Congolese and about 100,000 Ugandans displaced by the war being waged by the Ugandan rebel Allied Democratic Forces. The international NGO Action Against Hunger (AAH) on 19 January put the number of refugees who had crossed to Bundibugyo at 8,000, and cited reports of people in Ituri "going from house to house... killing Hema people systematically". Many of the new refugee arrivals were dispersed, and were staying with family and friends, AAH added.
UGANDA: Government "ready to work with Kinshasa"
The Ugandan government at the end of last week said that although it had had differences with the late President Kabila's regime, it was ready to work with "whoever takes charge in Kinshasa". The semi-official 'The New Vision' newspaper quoted Minister of State for Regional Cooperation Amama Mbabazi as saying that the differences were based on "policies rather than personalities". The Ugandan government did not approve of political assassination as a method of removing leaders from power, he said.
Mbabazi urged the new leadership to address the security interests of the DRC's neighbours, including Uganda, and to convene a national dialogue that would lead to a new political dispensation in the Congo. However, Ugandan radio also quoted Mbabazi as saying that Ugandan forces would stay in the DRC "as long as the country's security is at stake". He said Uganda's forces were not fighting in Congo, but preventing rebels from attacking Uganda. According to Mbabazi, Uganda's presence in the DRC was "purely to restore peace, but not to topple the government".
UGANDA: Masindi District declared Ebola-free
Uganda's health ministry has declared the western district of Masindi to be Ebola-free, Ugandan radio announced on Wednesday. It quoted a press release from the health ministry as saying that 40 days had passed since the last case of Ebola was confirmed in the district. The ministry thanked the people of Masindi for the "job well done in controlling the disease". WHO also reported on Wednesday that as of 14 January there had been no new Ebola cases in Gulu District in the northwest. It said the cumulative total of cases remained at 396 cases, with 150 deaths. The total number of cases in Masindi remained at 27 cases, with 19 deaths, it added.
The WHO reiterated that the Ebola outbreak required no special restrictions on travel or trade to or from the country. Ugandan Muslims are currently in disagreement with the Saudi Arabian authorities, who have refused to allow them travel to Mecca on pilgrimage, citing fears that Ebola infection in one of the Ugandan delegates would be risky for the rest of the pilgrims, according to Ugandan media.
BURUNDI: Tutsi group condemns Buyoya-FDD meeting
The Burundian Tutsi self-defence organisation, PA-Amasekanya, on 19 January released a statement in which it denounced what it called the recently formed "alliance" between President Pierre Buyoya, the leader of the rebel Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), Jean-Bosco Ndayikengukiye, and the late DRC President Kabila. The Burundi news agency Net Press quoted the group as saying that the alliance had not only betrayed the Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese "comrades at arms" but had "literally thrown the people of Burundi into [the] genocidal hands of Kabila and Ndayikengurukiye". It said the "anti-genocide cordon established in eastern DRC by the Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian armies" risked being weakened by "the new alliance".
BURUNDI: UN urged to pressure rebels to join peace process
The Burundi government has told the UN Security Council that it hopes overtures being made to the rebel Parti pour la liberation du peuple hutu-Forces nationales pour la liberation (PALIPEHUTU-FNL) would lead without delay to negotiations similar to those it held earlier this month with the other main rebel group, Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD/FDD). Burundi Ambassador to the UN Mark Nteturuye said in a letter dated 17 January that the aim of the 9 January meeting between President Pierre Buyoya and FDD leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye in Libreville, Gabon, was "to bring the rebel leaders to the negotiating table to achieve a ceasefire under the auspices of the [Arusha talks] mediator, Nelson Mandela". Nteturuye asked the Security Council to urge the rebel groups to "join the Arusha peace process, stop holding peace hostage and resist being duped by external forces".
The Burundi government hoped the Libreville meeting would lead the CNDD/FDD to embark on an irreversible course away from violence, since a ceasefire was "the essential precondition for the true implementation of the Arusha agreement", according to an annexe to Nteturuye's letter. The date and place of the next meeting with the rebels must be established as soon as possible, it said. However, Nteturuye also called on the Security Council to condemn CNDD-FDD and PALIPEHUTU-FNL violence against the civilian population, and said these groups must be brought to justice for violations of humanitarian law. The government urged donors "to come forward with the aid promised at the pledging conference in Paris on 11 and 12 December 2000", he added.
RWANDA: Belgian minister upbeat after Kagame meeting
President Paul Kagame on Thursday met Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who is on a tour of central and southern African countries to discuss the DRC conflict, for 45 minutes in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Michel said the meeting was "very fruitful", and that he appreciated Kagame's openness and willingness to start negotiations on the DRC, Reuters news agency reported. "Rwanda is no more an obstacle to peace in the DRC than any of the other protagonists... All sides must understand there is more to be gained from peace than from continuing the war," the agency quoted Michel as saying. The Belgian minister also met a delegation from the Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) at the Belgian ambassador's residence in Kigali, the report added.
RWANDA: Priest, three others, get 20 years
A court in Cyangugu, southeastern Rwanda, on Wednesday sentenced to 20 years in prison a Catholic priest, Fr Laurent Ntimugura, and three other people convicted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Wednesday. They were found guilty of killing Fr Joseph Mboneza, a colleague of Ntimigura's, in Mibirizi, Kimbogo Commune. They were also found guilty of involvement in the killing of a Cyangugu businessman, Jean-Marie Vianney Habimana, whom they reportedly handed to a Lieutenant Manishiwe to be killed. The latter was now being tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the BBC reported.
Nairobi, 26 January 2001
[ENDS]
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