UPC controls most of Bunia
2003-05-12 15:04
Kigali - The rebel Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) on Monday regained control of most of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bunia after days of clashes, UN sources said amid continuing sporadic gunfire.
"We have just met with the UPC operational chief, Colonel Prince Mugabo, who explained he controlled the town, and we can confirm that he has taken most of the town," Mamadou Bah, a spokesperson for the UN force in DRC, MONUC, who is currently in Bunia, told AFP.
A little earlier on Monday, Bah told AFP that UPC fighters had been "parading" along Bunia's main road shortly before 09:00.
Ugandan forces had chased the UPC out of Bunia on March 6, but Kampala has since withdrawn its troops from the main city in DRC's troubled Ituri province after coming under international pressure to do so.
The UPC is dominated by the Ituri region's Hema minority, which for decades has been embroiled in a bitter feud with the Lendu majority.
Fighting broke out in Bunia, the largest city in Ituri, last Wednesday, the day after the last Ugandan soldiers left.
UPC leader Thomas Lubanga told AFP on Monday that his men controlled the whole of the town.
"We have retaken all of the town and we are chasing the drugged-up Lendu groups to the south," he said by telephone.
Heavy fighting broke out again at dawn on Monday after at least 30 people, including three babies and two priests, were massacred in Bunia over the weekend.
Most of the victims were reportedly Hemas.
"Five men, four women and three babies - and I really mean babies - were killed", MONUC's chief spokesperson, Patricia Tome, said on Sunday.
"The babies had their throats cut or their heads smashed in, and the adults were shot," she said.
Another 20 people, including two priests, were killed on Saturday in Bunia's Nyakasunza parish compound.
In Kampala on Sunday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called for the deployment of an African Union force to Ituri, saying, with its current mandate, MONUC was useless.
"The situation in Ituri requires an African force with a proper mandate which should include monitoring a ceasefire if there is any, defending itself, defending civilians, and being able to ultimately enforce peace by dealing with the trouble-causers militarily," Museveni told a press conference.
"This (MONUC's) is a useless mandate and I have been speaking to various leaders about the situation and they will know what to do," he said.
"They (MONUC) remain in their vehicles as people are killed. That is dangerous tourism," Museveni accused.
Also Sunday, South African President and African Union Chairperson Thabo Mbeki said he would urge UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to beef up MONUC's powers to intervene when civilians were in danger.
"The question is what are they going to do to protect civilians? It is a question asked by several African countries. Anybody in their right mind would ask that question," Mbeki's security adviser Billy Masethla said in Pretoria.
On Thursday, MONUC peacekeepers exchanged fire with militiamen who attacked their headquarters at the airport.
The feud between the Hema and Lendu has become all the more deadly since the onset of DRC's war in 1998 led to an infux of weapons to the region and to the emergence of numerous politico-military groups.
More than 50 000 people have been killed and at least half a million displaced by the clashes in Ituri in the past few years, according to several estimates.
Lubanga said he wanted "to restore order in Bunia so that all those who have sought refuge in Uganda or in the interior can come home."
As Ugandan troops began to pull out of Ituri late last month, tens of thousands of DRC civilians, mostly Hemas, also crossed the border into Uganda.
Lubanga said he would work with "humanitarian aid agencies so that they can help the population."
Almost all aid workers left Bunia over the weekend amid the deepening insecurity there.
- SAPA