U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 179
15 - 20 June 2003


CONTENTS:

DRC: As international force deploys, Ituri mayhem persists
DRC: North Kivu ceasefire undermined by new clashes in Lubero
DRC: Children suffer torture, rape and cruelty, NGOs report
DRC: Inquiry launched into killing of MONUC observers
DRC: Azarias Ruberwa named RCD-Goma leader
DRC-CAR: Defence accords revived
CAR: Mothers, children in north need urgent aid - UN team says
BURUNDI: Rebel group steps up attacks
RWANDA: EU finances US $28m road project
UGANDA: Sudan denies backing Ugandan rebels
UGANDA: Lord's Resistance Army ordered to attack Catholic missions

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DRC: As international force deploys, Ituri mayhem persists

Three NGOs active in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have
welcomed the deployment of a multinational force in Bunia, the main town
of Ituri District, and urged it to uphold its mandate to protect women and
children from warring militiamen.

In a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, World Vision
International, Save the Children and CARE International said the
deployment of the force would help humanitarian agencies to respond more
effectively to "rising civilian casualties, random violence, forced
displacement, food insecurity and violations of human rights" in the
region.

In their letter, the NGOs urged the UN to follow up on the deployment with
"long-term measures to address the roots of the conflict". They also
called for the expansion of the mandate of the UN Mission in the DRC,
known as MONUC, to augment humanitarian operations by UN agencies and
civil society organisations.


This call was reitered by a special UN Security Council mission that
returned to New York on Monday from a week-long six-country tour of
Africa'Òs Great Lakes region, UN News reported on Wednesday.

The French ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, who headed the
council mission, said that the council should study Secretary-General Kofi
Annan's recommendations in his special report on arming MONUC with a more
robust mandate. De La Sabliere said that in Bunia, in Ituri District, the
deployment of the emergency multinational force mandated by the council at
the end of May had occurred more rapidly than planned, and had already led
to increased security.


On Monday, soldiers of the multinational force deployed in Bunia shot dead
two militiamen after coming under fire, the French news agency AFP
reported. This was the first confirmed incident of fatalities resulting
from an exchange of fire between the French-led multinational troops and
militiamen, AFP said.

The force is mandated to secure the town and protect UN staff,
humanitarian workers and civilians. The agency quoted the force's
spokesman, Maj Xavier Pons, as warning that the peacekeepers "would
respond firmly to all people threatening the life of the population and
soldiers of the multinational force".

He said the incident took place in a part of town populated by the Hema
minority, the ethnic group that dominates the Union des patriotes
congolais (UPC) led by John Lubanga, the militia group which controls the
town.


Earlier, on Monday, MONUC confirmed that Lendu militiamen had killed 70
people in the village of Nkora, near Mahagi town, Ituri District, close to
the Ugandan border.

"I have reliable reports of the massacre from an independent source," Col
Pieter Harmse, MONUC's spokesman in Uganda, told IRIN in the Ugandan
capital, Kampala. "Basically, the Lendu fighters attacked the village
itself, chopping up and killing pretty much all civilians - I don't know
if they were all Hema or what ethnic group they were."

He said the information had come from a farmer in the village, not from
any member of armed belligerents in Ituri's war.


On Wednesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched an appeal for US
$38 million to provide food for approximately 500,000 war-affected people
in eastern DRC. In a statement, WFP said it required 46,000 mt of food for
six months to feed 483,000 people "who are the most vulnerable of those
caught up in the violence". Eastern DRC, specifically Bunia, has been
embroiled in violence since 7 May when Ugandan soldiers withdrew from the
town.

WFP said that up to 300,000 people were reported to have been displaced by
the latest clashes in Bunia, and that 60,000 had arrived in Beni, about
150 km south of Bunia. The WFP emergency operation will target the new
arrivals in Beni. The agency said it was already feeding 1.4 million
people across country.


DRC: North Kivu ceasefire undermined by new clashes in Lubero

On Thursday, the town of Lubero in North Kivu Province was captured from
the pro-Kinshasa government Rassemblement congolais pour la
democratie-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K/ML) by the
Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma, after heavy fighting.

The fall of the town coincided with ceasefire talks in progress between
representatives of the Kinshasa government, RCD-Goma and RCD-K/ML in the
Burundi capital, Bujumbura, where the head of the DRC government
delegation, Vital Kamerhe, accused Rwandan troops of assaulting Lubero, an
allegation immediately rejected by RCD-Goma. Nevertheless, all parties
agreed that the ceasefire would take effect on Thursday at 6 p.m.(16:00
GMT).

"My feeling after the signing of the ceasefire is one of disappointment.
At the moment we are discussing with our friends from RCD-Goma, we do not
understand why tanks of the Rwandan army assaulted Lubero city,
accompanied by several battalions of the Rwandan Patriotic Army," Kamerhe,
the DRC commissioner-general in charge of the peace process in the Great
Lakes region, told reporters.

Reacting to Kamerhe's allegations, Joseph Mudumbi, the head of the
RCD-Goma delegation to the talks, said Lubero was not captured by Rwandan
troops but rather by RCD-Goma, after government troops together with
Rwandan ethnic Hutu Interahamwe militias had attacked RCD-Goma positions.

MONUC head Amos Namanga Ngongi, who presided over the ceasefire talks, had
prepared a plan for the withdrawal of all parties from the newly occupied
territories. The plan was due to be forwarded to belligerents 24 hours
after the signing of the ceasefire.


DRC: Children suffer torture, rape and cruelty, NGOs report

Children in the DRC have suffered systematic torture and cruelty during
the country's five-year war, according to a new report by a consortium of
NGOs.

Foreign and domestic governments, as well as armed groups, have committed
gross violations against children, including assault, rape, abduction,
sexual torture, forced displacement, underage recruitment into armed
forces and forced participation in the illegal exploitation of natural
resources.

"The Impact of Conflict on Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo",
a 36-page report released on Monday by the Watchlist on Children and Armed
Conflict to coincide with the end of a UN Security Council mission to the
country and the Day of the African Child, documents the grim reality of
the DRC.

Among the most striking statistics: over 12 percent of children do not
reach their first birthday; three million children are without access to
education; malnutrition rates exceed 40 percent in some areas; 400,000
children have been displaced from their homes; tens of thousands of
children have been recruited as child soldiers; and gender-based violence,
including rape of girls, is widespread.

The ongoing conflict in the country has claimed an estimated 3.3 million
lives since 1998, mostly women, children and elderly, according to a
report by the International Rescue Committee, entitled "Mortality in the
Democratic Republic of Congo: Results from a Nationwide Survey, Conducted
September to November 2002, reported April 2003".


DRC: Inquiry launched into killing of MONUC observers

MONUC has launched an inquiry into the killing in May of two military
observers in Mongbwalu, 17 km north of embattled Bunia, UN News reported
on Monday. It said MONUC had opened its investigation into the allegations
and circumstances of the deaths of the Jordanian and Malawian
peacekeepers, whose mutilated bodies were recovered from Mongbwalu on 18
May.

While confirming the deaths in May, the MONUC spokesman, Hamadoun Toure,
told IRIN that the two had been "savagely killed". Toure had said the area
in which the bodies were found was in the control of Front des
nationalistes et integrationnistes militias led by Floribat Ndjambu. He
said that it was the first time UN military observers had been killed in
an area controlled by militias. Several other MONUC military personnel had
died following mine accidents or illness, Toure said.

Meanwhile, two UN military observers were abducted on Thursday in the town
of Beni, in North Kivu Province, MONUC reported.

"One of our team sites was attacked on Thursday night and the two milobs
[military observers] who were there were taken to an unknown destination,"
Toure told IRIN. "The team site was ransacked, according to a military
official from RCD-K/ML [Rassemblement congolais pour la
democratie-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation, the rebel group that
controls the region]."


DRC: Azarias Ruberwa named RCD-Goma leader

Azarias Ruberwa was on Monday appointed leader of RCD-Goma, replacing
Adolphe Onusumba Yemba, who had held the post since October 2000, RTNC
radio reported from Goma on Tuesday. Ruberwa, one of four vice
president-designates of a national transitional government, had previously
served as RCD-Goma secretary-general, also since October 2000.

Ruberwa becomes the fourth head of the RCD-Goma movement after Ernest
Wamba dia Wamba, Emile Ilunga Kalambo and Onusumba, who would be appointed
to other functions within the movement, AFP cited Crispin Kabasele
Tshimanga, head of RCD-Goma's International Relations Department, as
saying. Kabasele said the appointment was made by the movement's college
of founding members "in the context of [RCD-Goma's] transformation into a
political party", AFP reported.

Ruberwa, a 38 year-old lawyer, is a Congolese Tutsi, or Munyamulenge,
hailing from the Hauts Plateaux region of South Kivu Province in eastern
DRC.


DRC-CAR: Defence accords revived

The leader of the Central African Republic (CAR), Francois Bozize, and DRC
President Joseph Kabila agreed on 13 June to revive defence accords
between the two neighbouring countries, state-owned Radio Centrafrique
reported.

Quoting a joint statement read by CAR Foreign Minister Karim Meckassoua
after a day-long visit on 13 June by Bozize to the DRC, the radio reported
that the two leaders had agreed to revive all defence accords existing
between their two countries, and to relaunch a CAR-DRC commission on
security along the Congo and Oubangui rivers.

Bozize's visit to Kinshasa, the DRC capital, followed his visits to Chad,
Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea, all members of the
Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC).


CAR: Mothers, children in north need urgent aid - UN team says

Mothers and children in war-affected northern CAR urgently need
humanitarian aid, the head of an inter-agency UN Mission that toured the
region from 11 to 14 June told IRIN.

The official, Adam Ahmat, who is a population and development specialist
at the UN Population Fund, said on Monday that there were "many cases" of
acute malnutrition along the 305 km road from Bangui, the capital, to the
town of Bossangoa.

"Bossangoa regional hospital has one qualified nurse and one midwife," he
said.

In addition, he said, health and educational facilities had been looted
and the population had no access to safe drinking water. But the mission
distributed some drugs to health facilities all along the road to
Bossangoa.

The UN mission, which was escorted by government soldiers, visited
Bossembele, Bouca and Batangafo, respectively 157 km northwest, 286 km and
386 km north of Bangui, the capital. During the six-month rebellion in
which Francois Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March,
public and private buildings were looted and thousands of people were
displaced.


BURUNDI: Rebel group steps up attacks

Attacks by the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force
pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) rebel faction led by Pierre
Nkurunziza have increased in several areas, the latest being the abduction
on Monday of a local official in Kayanza Province in the north of the
country.

Kayanza Governor Edouard Nkurunziza told IRIN that the rebels had abducted
the administrator of Gatara Commune, Hermenegilde Manirambona.

The rebels also recently abducted the administrator of Rusaka Commune in
Mwaro Province, Etienne Bigirimana, and later freed him after he paid an
unidentified amount of ransom money. Another administrator, Louis
Niyonzima of Mutimbuzi Commune in the province of Bujumbura Rural, was
reported to have escaped on Sunday from an CNDD-FDD assassination attempt.
The rebels killed Niyonzima's bodyguard.

Over the 14-15 June weekend, Member of Parliament Gerard Buryo was killed
in a rebel attack at a pub in southern province of Makamba. Local
authorities said CNDD-FDD rebels were responsible for the killing. Beside
the abductions and assassination of political authorities, the rebels have
intensified ambushes of passenger vehicles along roads. During such
attacks the rebels rob passengers of their money and other valuables and
at times kidnap them.


RWANDA: EU finances US $28m road project

The EU has given the government of Rwanda US $28 million to build the main
road that connects the country to the sea ports of Dar es Salaam in
Tanzania and Mombasa in Kenya, the head of the EU delegation in the
country, Lester Jeremy, told IRIN on Wednesday.

He said construction of the 60-km stretch of the Kayonza-Kigali road was
due to begin in July. The Rwandan government has contracted a
Cologne-based company, Strabag International, to build the road.

Finance Minister Donat Kaberuka said the road's repair was crucial as it
was part of the highway that connected landlocked Rwanda to feeder sea
routes. The road supplies the Rwandan capital, Kigali, with all imports
transported by road from Dar es Salam and Mombasa ports. Food produced in
the eastern part of the country is also transported to Kigali through the
Kayonza-Kigali road.

Jeremy told IRIN that the EU was examining ways of funding the
construction of feeder roads within Kigali, said to cover at least 26.5
km. He said the EU had also promised to fund the renovation of Kigali
International Airport.


UGANDA: Sudan denies backing Ugandan rebels

Sudan has strongly denied accusations, made on Monday by the Acholi
Religious Leaders'Ò Peace Initiative (ARLPI) in northern Uganda, that the
Sudanese army is continuing to arm the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel
group.

The Sudanese consul in Uganda, Hasan Yusuf Ngor, told IRIN that the
accusations were "baseless".

"It is mere propaganda by those with an interest in derailing the peace
process between the two governments,"Ô he sai. "When we took action to
fight the LRA alongside Uganda, it was a clear and strong commitment."

A statement issued by the ARLPI leaders said that since the second half of
2002, "members of the Sudanese Armed Forces have been delivering
truckloads of military assistance to the LRA in Nsitu", including "arms,
ammunition and other items". The accusation was based on testimonies from
"six different returnees from the LRA" who had come out of the bush under
amnesty between February and June, the statement said. All of them had
been with the rebel group for between seven to 10 years, were aged between
18 and 30, and had held ranks ranging between sergeant and major.

The Ugandan army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN that similar
reports to the one compiled by the religious leaders were also available
from other sources. "We have many credible, independent sources telling us
the same thing, including people we ourselves have recovered from the
LRA."


UGANDA: Lord's Resistance Army ordered to attack Catholic missions

Roman Catholic missions in northern Uganda are on high alert after the
rebel LRA declared that they would be the next targets for its attacks on
the civilian population of the north.

Speaking on a Catholic radio network used by missions in northern areas
lacking cellphone coverage, Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, ordered the
attacks to be directed against Catholic priests, nuns and missions
throughout the areas in which the rebels are operating.

The Rev Carlos Rodriguez, a Catholic priest of the ARLPI, who has made
several efforts to facilitate dialogue with the LRA, told IRIN that he and
some colleagues had heard the broadcast. "We heard it ourselves in a radio
communication. There is no doubt that the order was given to attack us,
the Catholic Church and its missions," Rodriguez said.

Previously, the LRA, which says it is fighting to replace Uganda'Òs
current government with a theocracy based on the Biblical Ten
Commandments, had indicated that it was willing to place its trust in
Acholi religious leaders for peaceful negotiations. Most ARLPI
representatives are also representatives of the Catholic Church.


Meanwhile, the chairman of a northern Uganda peace committee has launched
an impassioned plea to the international community to intervene to stop
the country's 17-year civil war. The appeal was made by the chairman of
the Oduru Kuc committee, a new body comprising local, national, and
international organisations working to try to rekindle peace talks between
the LRA and the Ugandan government.

Speaking late on Thursday - a day after the latest spate of LRA attacks
terrorised Lira and Gulu districts - Archbishop Jean Baptist Odama told
IRIN that he had resolved to try every possible means to prompt global
institutions into action.

"We'Òve been crying we've been shouting, we've tried everything to people
to listen, and we hear nothing in return. Do they really mind about
what'Òs happening in the north at all?", he said.