INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - MEDIA RELEASE
ITURI: UN MULTINATIONAL FORCE MUST INTERVENE TO STOP ACTS OF GENOCIDE AND DISARM MILITIAS
Brussels, 30 May 2003: It is critical that the UN Security Council vote today to deploy a Multinational Force in Ituri in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – and even more critical that this force is fully empowered, has sufficient numbers (more than the 1000 currently being talked about), and gets on the ground immediately.
Anything else will be too little too late. Genocidal killing has already occurred in Ituri, and the present MONUC peacekeeping force is incapable of keeping the situation under control.
ICG Central Africa Project Director Francois Grignon has just returned from Bunia and reports as follows:
“Whoever lands at Bunia airport can immediately grasp the gravity of the situation. Hundreds of huts are burning in all directions across the horizon. The town is virtually empty of its inhabitants, who have fled from ethnic cleansing, scattering in all directions.
“Bunia has been ransacked twice following the withdrawal of the Ugandan troops on 6 May. Once the rampage was perpetrated by the Lendu militias, who prayed on the Hema community and massacred systematically every man, woman and child they could find, and then from 12 May by the Hemas who took the town and repeated the same crimes against Lendu and other non-Hema civilians accused of being collaborators.
“About 20,000 displaced persons are still assembled around town, notably at the UN controlled Bunia airport and the UN town compound. Tragically, the UN mission for the Congo (MONUC), a detachment of some 700 troops, is totally incapable of protecting these civilians or even guaranteeing the security of international humanitarian NGOs who fear being attacked and looted by militias when distributing relief food. Not only does MONUC lack the mandate to disarm militias, it can’t even currently fulfill its limited mandate and effectively protect UN staff. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, for instance, was looted and ransacked on 9 May by Lendu militias."
“Today within Bunia town, 12 to 16-year-olds high on drugs roam the streets in search for food and palm wine while their leaders attempt to curtail the authority of the elected Ituri Pacification Commission interim administration. On 26 May the Hema dominated Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), supported by Rwanda and led by Thomas Lubanga, pushed the Lendu militias out of town, breaking a ceasefire agreement negotiated by MONUC a week before. The UPC is now trying to impose its own order on Bunia and to claim leadership of the entire Ituri district. It has rejected the deployment of the UN Multinational Force and has ordered displaced civilians to regain their ransacked homes if they do not want to be treated as enemies. It is highly likely that the UPC will try to take or shell and destroy Bunia airstrip in order to prevent the Multinational Force deployment."
“The UPC has also informed MONUC that it intended to reopen all major roads leading to Bunia. It wants to create the impression of stability and normalcy to back up its claim for ruling Ituri. Yet, the reality is that the interim Ituri administration executives are under direct physical threat from the UPC and risk being killed before the deployment of the multinational force in a clear attempt to wipe out any alternative to UPC’s rule. This must not be allowed and only robust action by the UN can prevent it."
“UPC’s rule of Ituri between August 2002 and March 2003 was marked by a reign of terror. Pre-emptive massacres and reprisals campaigns between Lendu and Hema militias reached an unprecedented peak, and a resumption of the same fighting – leading to renewed acts of genocide is looming. The only way to break the cycle of violence in Ituri is to backup the interim administration elected during the Ituri Pacification Commission with a robust multinational force mandated to restore order and proceed with the disarmament of the militias.”
Since 6 January 2003, the UPC has struck an official alliance with Rwanda and its Congolese proxy, the RCD-Goma. It has organized a constant supply of arms and ammunitions to UPC positions and provided training and military advice to its commanders. Simultaneously, Kinshasa has increased its support to Lendu militias through Beni airport, together with Mbusa Nyamwisi’s RCD-ML. Uganda, despite its now complete withdrawal from Ituri, still has a determining influence on some of the Hema and Lendu militias and can stop all private flows of arms passing through its borders.
ICG further argues that all Lendu and Hema militia leaders suspected of war crimes should be excluded from any political negotiations on the pacification of Ituri pending the result of an international judicial commission of inquiry on the crimes committed there since June 1999 , leading to indictments by the International Criminal Court. The UPC leaders in particular should be warned that if anything were to happen between now and the time of the multinational force deployment, they would be held directly responsible for these crimes and have to face the judicial consequences.
But the most immediate need is simply to get a tough, fully empowered peace enforcement mission on the ground now. Only stern and very speedy action can stop an imminent disaster.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Katy Cronin (London) +44 (0)20 86 82 93 51 [email protected] -
email: [email protected]
Chris King (Brussels) +32 2 541 1639
John Harker (Brussels) +32 2 536 0075
Francois Grignon (Nairobi) +245 2 34 34 71
*Read the full ICG report on our website:
www.crisisweb.org
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is an independent,
non-profit, multinational organisation, with over 90 staff members on five continents,
working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent
and resolve deadly conflict.
