UN troops withdraw from Aba

By Emmy Allio and Els De Temmerman in Aru (DR Congo)
MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, has withdrawn its intervention force from Aba, the town closest to Garamba National Park.
The park in north-eastern Congo has become a sanctuary for the leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti, against whom there are international warrants of arrest for crimes against humanity.
The withdrawal of the troops dashes all hopes for a UN intervention in apprehending the LRA top leadership. The total number of UN presence in the Garamba region is now six military observers, of which two are on holidays at any one time.
“One company of 150 Nepalese soldiers was deployed in Aba in October 2005,” says Carmine Camerini, public information officer of MONUC in Aru.
“They were replaced by Senegalese soldiers in December 2005, who were withdrawn in April. We redeployed one platoon of 35 Nepalese soldiers following the alleged infiltration by UPDF on April 26. The Nepalese were withdrawn on May 19, leaving one team of six military observers on the ground, of which four are present at any one time.”
MONUC says the force was no longer necessary as they have no information about LRA presence in Congo. “We don’t have any information about LRA in Congo,” the MONUC spokesperson in Aru reiterates.
“We carried out three verification missions. One immediately after October 7, when Otti’s group was escorted back to Sudan. Another verification exercise took place between 14 and 16 February 2006 and a third one in late April. We found no confirmation of LRA presence in Aba and surroundings.”
MONUC now even tries to cast doubts over their meeting with LRA representatives in Aba on September 25. “We don’t know if they were LRA,” says Camerini, who himself was present at the meeting, according to a picture in the possession of The New Vision (see above photograph).
“We don’t know if they were what they claimed to be. I can also pretend to be a Swedish government official,” he said.
Asked about the eight Guatemalans killed by suspected LRA on January 23, the information officer says inquiries are still going on.
“There is no proof that they were LRA. There are several armed groups in Garamba, including international poachers. Let us wait for the official results.”
The position of MONUC is surprising, considering the fact that MONUC handed over Bosco Atube, an LRA soldier captured in Garamba, to the Ugandan authorities last March and LRA leader, Joseph Kony, himself admitted they are in Congo during a meeting with the Vice-President of Southern Sudan, Riek Machar, on May 2.
When confronted with this, an irritated Camerini says, “‘It is not in MONUC’s interest to fight LRA! We are not a business enterprise! We have elections in Congo, which are more important to us.”
MONUC is under an international obligation to execute the warrants of arrest of the International Criminal Court. Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, under which they operate, gives them the mandate to intervene militarily.
MONUC also has the duty to disarm and expel foreign armed groups on Congolese territory.
The MONUC position jeopardises the current move by Uganda to seek a regional solution to the LRA problem.
Uganda’s strategy aims to bring on board all forces in the region, including the Congolese and Sudanese government armies, the SPLA and the UN missions in Congo and Sudan, to jointly eliminate the LRA threat.
Ends