Which Way ‘Operation Artemis’?

Shortly after 4.00pm, on June 2 something symbolic happened on the western borders of Uganda. Captain Kimbowa of the 53rd Battalion of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) stepped on the Ugandan soil. It was said that he was the last Ugandan soldier to quit Congo.
Kimbowa’s arrival was followed with merry-making at Rwebisengo by the army and military attaches from the World’s biggest countries.
“I am happy that I was able to bring home these boys (soldiers) safely,” said Brig. Kale Kaihura, the overseer of UPDF operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This was the second party in a fortnight organised by the army to receive the returning soldiers. The first was at Mahagi where the soldiers arrived in the company of over 20,000 Congolese civilians. They had walked for three weeks from Bunia and other towns. With heavy loads on their heads and shoulders, the soldiers and the Congolese civilians were a disheartening sight.
A week later, the 53rd Battalion reached Kasenyi and Tchomia, on the shores of Lake Albert. This was after two weeks of walking through the snaking roads down the rift valley. Over 10,000 Congolese civilians trailed them. The success of the on-going French-led International Force in Ituri will largely depend on a number of factors, among which are five significant points that shroud the UPDF withdrawal.
In the first place, there was this assumption created by Western European powers and the western press that the UPDF were under pressure to pull out of the DRC. It was said this was to pave way for the deployment of not only the United Nations Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC) but also the launching of Operation Artemis, the code-name of the French-led peace-keeping mission in Bunia. Indeed, there were even bigger diplomatic pressures piled on Uganda when the 53rd Battalion rested for a week in Kasenyi. Brig. Kaihura said he was under pressure from MONUC’s West African commander Gen. Diallo Montaga whom he said developed a negative attitude towards Uganda. Yet it was clear that Koffi Annan, the UN secretary general, had requested Uganda to station troops in Ituri. Diallo disowned UPDF.
Secondly, the refugee influx stemming from the UPDF pull-out did not cause the stir often akin to the diplomatic community. Many of the refugees were from the minority ethnic Hema who were fleeing from the majority ethnic Lendu whose militias attacked the trekking UPDF soldiers and civilians along the way.
To-date there are over 150,000 Congolese refugees in the country and more others are coming. No attempt has been made by the international community to stop the trend of refugees dying in canoes and boats that capsize, almost daily on Lake Albert. The significance of this is that no civilian would have trailed a bad army. The UPDF withdrew with their necks high because they suffered securing the villages in DRC and won the hearts of many Congolese civilian.
Thirdly, as UPDF soldiers walked home, a total of 4,000 soldiers of Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) of Congolese government arrived in the southern Ituri towns of Irumu and Komanda. They were flown from Kinshasa to Beni and then walked to Ituri. They came to reinforce the growing relationship with the Lendu militias, but they encountered stiffer resistance from the Hema militias. The deployment of FAC forces in Ituri was perpetually illegal as per the peace agreements in Lusaka, Luanda, Dar es Salaam and Pretoria which recognised Joseph Kabila’s government as just one of the factions in the DRC conflict. Ituri is designated as rebel-held territory.
Fourthly, the UPDF withdrawal heralded massacres in Tchomia, Kasenyi, Mahagi and around Bunia town.
Eight hours after the UPDF left Tchomia on May 31, 253 civilians were killed including patients in Tchomia Hospital who were slaughtered on their hospital beds. The attackers were the Lendu militia backed by elements of FAC and Mbusa Nyamwisi’s RCD-ML forces. On June 6, they attacked again and 366 civilians and combatants died. Chief Kawa’s PUSIC forces effectively repelled the various Lendu raids. On June 8, a total of 150 combatants and civilians were killed in Kasenyi, 12km from Tchomia. The dead were mostly the Hema people. On June 10, the Lendu killed a total of 80 Alur people in Nyoka near Mahagi. Finally, UPDF withdrawal sparked an arm’s acquisition thirst by various communities who were unsure of their security and therefore sought to acquire arms to protect themselves. Overnight the rag tag Lendu were transformed into Kinshasa government soldiers since they were given guns and uniforms. The UPDF had defeated and scattered the Rwanda-backed Union for Patriotic Congolese (UPC) of Thomas Lubanga. After the UPDF pulled out, UPC regrouped.
Sources said UPC, which is allied to Ugandan rebels, the People’s Redemption Army (PRA), have continued to receive airdrops from Goma and Kigali. This has given them military superiority over their rivals.
Addressing journalists last week at Entebbe International airport, Gen. Jean Paul Thonier, the French commander of Operation Artemis said their mandate is to secure Bunia airport, Bunia town and protect the refugees. The operation is to last only two months. What he failed to mention is that their other mandate is the aerial patrol by French planes over Ituri’s air space. What is in Bunia town is a long dusty street of aging buildings and a shanty suburb of tin-roofed and grass-thatched huts. It was a town of about 10,000 people but now has about 50,000 displaced people. The town measures about 2km in radius with the airport 4km away. It is in Bunia town where Operation Artemis will be based and executed. Currently, Rwanda-backed UPC forces control the town centre and Chief Kawa’s PUSIC forces control its northern periphery, including the areas around the airport.
The Lendu militia who are closely allied to the Kinshasa government control the southern environs of the town.
Approximately there are 400 MOUNC forces and about 800 security personnel from Kinshasa in the same town.
MONUC forces drive in white-painted armed personnel carriers. They say they have no mandate to intervene in the fighting.
A month ago, 30 people were killed in the Catholic Church mission in the town as they watched. A review of the period after UPDF withdrawal and deployment of French-led forces gives a glimpse of the future of the peace process in Congo. There is no doubt that failure to bring sanity to Ituri is the ultimate failure to the return to the rule of law in Congo. What is happening now?
In the first place, the circle of killing has continued unabated in the countryside. The cocktail of international forces, the French-led International force and MONUC as well as Kinshasa security personnel are oblivious to what is happening in the country-side. They are all crammed in the town.
“MONUC has not visited the scenes of the massacres along the shore of Lake Albert. The situation is like in Rwanda in 1994 when the UN forces were observers of the genocide. They carried video cameras to record their observance,” said Kisembo Bitamara, Hema chief for South Bahema. “What we are witnessing is that these Europeans have come to secure themselves as they earn fat allowances. They carry video and still camera. They spend time studying us. Our suffering seems to be their excitement,” said Atanasi Buleni, a Bunia businessman. He said the French gave the Congolese false hopes. “What is Ituri and what is Ituri people is not Bunia town. Do they want the entire population to squeeze inside Bunia town in order to be protected? What we expected of the French and MONUC was to start their work where the Ugandan soldiers left. They should go to the countryside to disarm the militias,” he said. On the massacres, Brig. Kaihura said, “I am disappointed with MONUC. We had agreed to withdraw in phases so that the MONUC forces fill the gaps we have left. Instead the MONUC wanted us to pull out, and so we left. These massacres would have been prevented.”
Secondly, the presence of Kinshasa soldiers in Ituri has resulted into a unity between UPC and PUSIC. Both groups draw their support from the minority but wealthy and organised Hema ethnic group. It is sad that the Kinshasa government has sided with the ruthless Lendu militia groups who have attained notoriety to the tune of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. This may kill the credibility of Joseph Kabila as an able leader who can lead DRC during the transitional government.
A source said 5,000 Lendu militiamen have been armed by Kinshasa government in the past month.
In contrast, the Hema are now crying to acquire more arms.
Thirdly the presence of Kinshasa soldiers in Ituri and North Kivu has attracted the Rwandan and RCD-Goma soldiers to capture the North Kivu province towns of Kanyabayonga, Mbingi, Miriki, Alimbongo, Muhanga and Bunyantenga.
Ends