Please Stay, Congo Rebel Chiefs Plead With UPDF

Rebel chiefs Prof. Wamba dia Wamba and Roger Lumbala yesterday appealed to President Yoweri Museveni to reconsider his order for a total UPDF pull-out from the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports Emmy Allio.Wamba said the withdrawal of the remaining Ugandan soldiers from Bunia in eastern DR Congo would endanger the population, who would be left at the mercy of warlords.He said, “Uganda and Congo should quickly sit down to discuss and form a joint political and military commission to ensure continued co-operation between the two countries.”Lumbala, the leader of RCD- Nationale, said, “By ordering out UPDF from Congo, Museveni has proved to the whole world that he has no particular interest in our country. But I think he should leave the troops to stay a little more in Bunia and Beni.” He said the problems in Bunia and Beni were created by RCD-Kisangani rebel leader Mbusa Nyamwisi who has “preached politics of hatred and tribal divisions resulting in massacres.”Addressing a press conference yesterday at the Speke Hotel in Kampala, Lumbala said he had declared war on Nyamwisi and his forces and threatened to fight and defeat Mbusa in Bunia, Beni and Butembo.Lumbala said Nyamwisi and the Kinshasa governments had joined forces to fight him to capture Isiro airport. He said, “I received information that President Joseph Kabila and Nyamwisi want to use Isiro as a springboard to attack the territory under RCD-Goma and the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC).”He said Kabila had flown the Rwandan interahamwe militias, arms and other logistics to Beni to topple RCD-Nationale, RCD-Goma and seize MLC territory.Meanwhile, the secretary general of Nyamwisi’s rebel group, Sumayili Koloso, told the state television in Kinshasa that Uganda soldiers in Bunia were responsible for the killings there.But UPDF denied the claims. Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said, “Koloso is a liar. We are not involved in the fighting there but have taken control of Bunia town. We do not care what the factional political groups are doing do to each other outside the town.”Ends