UN peacekeepers 'arming rebels'

2008-04-30 09:19

Kampala - Uganda on Tuesday accused UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo of supplying arms to a dormant rebel group that is re-grouping in the troubled central African state.

Ugandan Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga said Kampala will protest to the UN Security Council over intelligence which he said links the Monuc peacekeeping mission to the arming of Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels.

"The government is very upset with the conduct of some of these UN officers," Kiyonga told AFP.

"We have intelligence information that they are giving guns to these people of ADF."

He added: "We are writing a protest note to the UN Security Council and the Foreign Affairs Ministry has already been instructed to forward our protest."

Kampala accuses the ADF - a dormant rebel movement hiding in eastern DR Congo - of recruiting and re-arming to fight President Yoweri Museveni's government.

Monuc is the French acronym for the UN Mission in DR Congo, the largest and most expensive of all UN peacekeeping missions. It has more than 16 000 troops from 18 nations, with India and Pakistan the leading troop contributors, its website says.

- AFP