UN tells DR Congo to sack ''red'' generals

THE United Nations has given the Democratic Republic of Congo two weeks to sack two generals accused of rights violations and who were named to lead a UN-backed military operation, a senior UN official said Wednesday.

UN officials have told Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda that the two "red" generals must be replaced by February 13 or else the United Nations will withdraw its support for the operation.

"If you keep these guys, we are not going to be in a position to support you," a senior peacekeeping official said he told Tshibanda at a meeting on Friday in Addis Ababa.

"It's a decision they have to make. Otherwise, it's going to be a major obstacle," the official told reporters at UN headquarters.

The UN's 20,000-strong MONUSCO force has been working with Kinshasa on a joint military plan to drive out the Hutu rebels from the east, but in a surprise move, the army announced last week the launch of operations, without the UN troops.

The army also announced that Generals Bruno Mandevu and Sikabwe Fall would be leading the offensive, two officers that are on the UN "red" list of known rights violators.

The senior UN peacekeeping official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there had been an agreement during the months of planning with Kinshasa to pick generals who did not have a record of rights abuses such as rape and summary executions.

"At the moment when the operation was announced, we discovered the appointment of two generals who are red generals -- people who are known to us as having been heavily involved in massive violations, so that is unacceptable," said the official.

The military campaign would be aimed at driving out the FDLR rebel group, some of whom took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda before crossing over into eastern DR Congo.

President Joseph Kabila has been under heavy international pressure to endorse the military offensive against the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda).

The UN official said that despite Kinshasa's statements about launching the operations, there appeared to be no action on the ground.

The United Nations is pushing for the disarming of dozens of rebel and splinter groups after two decades of conflict in the eastern DR Congo, much of it fueled by the lucrative trade in minerals.

AFP