50 Killed In Congo Clashes

By Emmy Allio ABOUT 50 people have been killed in a new wave of inter-ethnic clashes in Congo’s northeastern Ituri province, prompting Ugandan authorities to call a meeting in Kampala of the wrangling Congolese rebel leaders, sources said yesterday. The sources said tension has gripped areas stretching from Bunia to Ariwara, some about 30kms near the Arua border. Mbusa Nyamwisi and John Tibasima Ateenyi recently moved to Bunia and proclaimed themselves president and vice-president of the RCD-Kisangani Liberation Movement. The UPDF acting army commander, Maj. Gen. James Kazini, said the UPDF will not intervene in the clashes. “We have withdrawn our troops from Congo except a small force keeping the airports of Gbadolite, Buta, Bunia and Beni. They are there with the consent of the United Nations,” he said. “The administration of those areas falls under RCD-Kisangani. But still there appears to be a power vacuum there,” Kazini said. The sources said thousands of Lendu, Ngiti and other ethnic groups have risen up against the Nande and Hema. Experts now fear a repeat of the 1999/2000 ethnic clashes, which left over 4,000 people, especially the Lendu, dead. Mbusa’s move to proclaim himself the ruler in Ituri province was in defiance of a directive by Uganda’ senior presidential adviser on defence and security, Lt. Gen. David Tinyefuza, and state minister for regional co-operation, Col. Kahinda Otafiire. The officers had worked out a frame-work for cooperation among the wrangling rebel chiefs. “We had envisaged problems in that region if Mbusa tried to extend (his influence) northwards from Beni. He went ahead to do things his own way in league with Tibasima. Now we have heard over 50 could have died in the past five days,” a security source said yesterday. Tinyefuza and Otafiire had designated Mbusa to control Beni-Butembo sector while Jean Pierre Bemba, Wamba, Tibasima and Roger Lumbala were to team up under the Congolese Liberation Front to control the territory from Bafwasende-Bunia to Isiro in Equatoria province. The sources said Tinyefuza has called an urgent meeting in Kampala of the principal players in Ituri province. Aid workers in northeastern Congo said, “There have been killings since last Thursday and major roads to Bunia including Mahagi-Djungu-Bunia are closed,” a source said. In the 1999/2000 clashes, UPDF were accused of siding with the minority Hema against the majority Lendu/Ngiti in clashes that were sparked by a dispute over land, some of which contains gold deposits. Bemba, leader of the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) and a bitter opponent of Mbusa, said he plans to withdraw his troops from Ituri province “because of a complex power struggle there.” “The MLC has decided to pull all its military forces from Ituri province following the confusion that reigns in Bunia over the leadership of the RCD-Kisangani,” he told AFP. Sources said President Yoweri Museveni met Bemba last Sunday and asked him not to withdraw his troops. AFP also reported that at least 15 people were killed in an ambush last Friday near Bunia when a vehicle travelling north to Aru, on the Uganda - Congo border, was hit by a rocket. On Monday, two customs outposts in Papiri and Fanspaint were set ablaze by a mob. Leaflets thrown around gave an ultimatum to the Nande and Hema ethnic groups living in Aru and Ariwara to quit in 48 hours or face death. The flare up of violence in Ariwara is said to have been caused by the shooting and killing on November 24, 2001 of an official in the office of Zaki division in Ariwara by suspected Mbusa militia. RCD Kisangani has urged residents to remain calm and said urgent measures had been taken to secure the highways. Ends