UPDF Completes Gbadolite Pullout
Sep 29, 2002
A STAMPEDE broke out at Gbadolite Airport on Friday as soldiers of The Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) fought hard to bar wives of departing UPDF soldiers from boarding the plane withdrawing the soldiers.
By Kyomuhendo Muhanga
in Gbadolite, DRC.
A STAMPEDE broke out at Gbadolite Airport on Friday as soldiers of The Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) fought hard to bar wives of departing UPDF soldiers from boarding the plane withdrawing the soldiers.
“A final contigent of about 120 soldiers was flown from Gbadolite to Uganda’s northern Gulu region on Friday evening,†the overall commander of Ugandan forces in the DRC, Colonel Potel Kivuna, told AFP by telephone.
About 1,000 Ugandan troops were stationed in Gbadolite, the home town of the late Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and now the headquarters of the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) which is backed by Uganda.
Another 1,000-strong Ugandan force remains in Bunia which has seen weeks of fighting among various ethnic groups.
As the UPDF pulled out, the women, some of them carrying babies on their backs and some few belongings, stormed the airport demanding permission to go with their husbands.
UPDF commanders and their MLC counterparts had agreed that no UPDF soldier should carry any woman.
On several occasions, the women put up a spirited fight to break through the defence line mounted by the MLC soldiers but were overpowered by the troops around the airport.
The MLC commander, Maj. Gen. Amulia Bahigwa, was also at the airport.
“Bana tokotia bango wapi? (where do we put these children?),†a woman carrying two children yelled as she tried to break through the line in vain.
“Yolele, soki Nzambe asungi tokokutana na lola (Bye, bye. If God wishes, we shall meet in heaven),†another said in Lingala.
UPDF withdrew all its troops from Gbadolite, leaving the city in the hands of the MLC leader, Pierre Bemba.
Col. Poteli Kivuna, the overall commander of the UPDF troops in Congo, said the pullout falls under a peace deal struck with the DRC President, Joseph Kabila.
He said the UPDF had withdrawn its troops from Congo but maintains a battalion in Bunia following a UN request.
“We shall withdraw all the troops from the Congolese land as soon as the MONUC (the UN observer mission to the DRC) people inform us. The troops in Bunia are simply there to help MONUC,†Poteli said.
UPDF went to Congo in 1998 to fight pockets of ADF rebels and to help Congolese rebels fighting the government of the late Laurent Kabila.
Poteli also held discussions with the MLC rebel leader, Pierre Bemba, at his office in Gbadolite.
Ends
in Gbadolite, DRC.
A STAMPEDE broke out at Gbadolite Airport on Friday as soldiers of The Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) fought hard to bar wives of departing UPDF soldiers from boarding the plane withdrawing the soldiers.
“A final contigent of about 120 soldiers was flown from Gbadolite to Uganda’s northern Gulu region on Friday evening,†the overall commander of Ugandan forces in the DRC, Colonel Potel Kivuna, told AFP by telephone.
About 1,000 Ugandan troops were stationed in Gbadolite, the home town of the late Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and now the headquarters of the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) which is backed by Uganda.
Another 1,000-strong Ugandan force remains in Bunia which has seen weeks of fighting among various ethnic groups.
As the UPDF pulled out, the women, some of them carrying babies on their backs and some few belongings, stormed the airport demanding permission to go with their husbands.
UPDF commanders and their MLC counterparts had agreed that no UPDF soldier should carry any woman.
On several occasions, the women put up a spirited fight to break through the defence line mounted by the MLC soldiers but were overpowered by the troops around the airport.
The MLC commander, Maj. Gen. Amulia Bahigwa, was also at the airport.
“Bana tokotia bango wapi? (where do we put these children?),†a woman carrying two children yelled as she tried to break through the line in vain.
“Yolele, soki Nzambe asungi tokokutana na lola (Bye, bye. If God wishes, we shall meet in heaven),†another said in Lingala.
UPDF withdrew all its troops from Gbadolite, leaving the city in the hands of the MLC leader, Pierre Bemba.
Col. Poteli Kivuna, the overall commander of the UPDF troops in Congo, said the pullout falls under a peace deal struck with the DRC President, Joseph Kabila.
He said the UPDF had withdrawn its troops from Congo but maintains a battalion in Bunia following a UN request.
“We shall withdraw all the troops from the Congolese land as soon as the MONUC (the UN observer mission to the DRC) people inform us. The troops in Bunia are simply there to help MONUC,†Poteli said.
UPDF went to Congo in 1998 to fight pockets of ADF rebels and to help Congolese rebels fighting the government of the late Laurent Kabila.
Poteli also held discussions with the MLC rebel leader, Pierre Bemba, at his office in Gbadolite.
Ends