CONGO-DEM.REPUBLICÂÂ20/1/2004Â15:16
ITURI: CIRCUMSTANCES OF INCIDENT IN LARGU STILL UNCLEAR
New details are emerging on the incident hat took place yesterday morning in the zone between Largu and Drodro, north of Bunia, in the extreme north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Contacted by MISNA, a spokesperson of the United Nations Mission in DR-Congo (MONUC) stated that a peacekeeping unit was attacked while on recognisance mission in Drodro. âA group of militias opened fire against the forces of the MONUC that had just disembarked from an âMI-17â UN transport helicopterâ, explained to MISNA Isabelle Abric, contacted by phone in Bunia. Another aircraft, in this case a combat âMI-25â that was providing coverage from above, opened heavy machine-gun fire against the armed group. âWe do not know is there were any casualties â added the spokesperson â though it is probable that an armed intervention of this type of craft claimed some victimsâ. No peacekeepers were wounded. The zone, as far as it has been possible to establish, is controlled by the militias of the UPC (Congolese Patriotic Union) of Thomas Lubanga: âI presume that they are responsible, but I cannot confirm thisâ, explained the spokesperson to MISNA. Based on a first reconstruction provided by local officials, the incident took place in concomitance with an apparent demonstration of reconciliation between the two ethnic groups of Hema and Lendu (rival rebel groups that refer to the two groups that have battles over the past months in Ituri); though there are still no clear indications in this regard. Yesterday the special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Kinshasa, the American William Swing, referred that another UN helicopter was attacked on Friday wile flying over the zone of Kasenyi, around 50km south of Bunia.
[BO]
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
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