[Ugnet] DRC And Uganda Army to Destroy Rebel Camps

The Congolese Minister for Regional Co-operation Mbusa Nyamwisi says that three camps holding about 700 Ugandan rebel fighters have been located in Congo

Congolese and Ugandan military and intelligence officials have identified three camps of Ugandan dissidents in eastern Congo and may launch a joint attack on them unless the rebels surrender.

Following Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi's talks with President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa last December, troops from the two countries conducted joint surveillance in eastern Congo to establish the location of Ugandan dissidents based there.

Senior Ugandan defence officials told The EastAfrican that the United Nations Military Observer Mission in Congo (Monuc) had provided the team with a plane to enable them survey the area. They added that the team had identified the locations of some Ugandan dissidents believed to be members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Peoples Redemption Army (PRA). The Uganda government says the two groups have bases in Congo where they have been training fighters to attack Uganda.

The Congolese Minister for Regional Co-operation Mbusa Nyamwisi told The EastAfrican in Kigali last Thursday that three camps have been located at Mughalika, Tshutshubo and Bundiguya, east and west of the River Semliki in the Ruwenzori area. He said the camps held about 700 troops belonging to the ADF and remnants of the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). NALU negotiated a ceasefire with the government in the early 1980s but some of its fighters remained in Congo and have been fighting alongside the ADF.

Mr Nyamwisi did not name the PRA as one of the groups to which the rebels belong.

Uganda alleges that PRA is a dissident group formed and commanded by deserters from the national army, the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF). PRA has however, not launched a single attack inside Uganda and none of its alleged leaders has confessed to belonging to the group.

Critics have accused President Museveni's government of alleging the existence of the group to harass the opposition, many of whose members have been arrested for allegedly belonging to it. None of the alleged PRA members arrested and charged in court has ever been convicted.

Mr Nyamwisi said he was personally involved in the exercise of identifying the rebel camps between December 2004 and last month. Before he became minister in President Kabila's government, Nyamwisi led one of the rebel groups that were backed by the Ugandan government.

He said he wrote a report to the Congolese government last month about the existence of the fighters and recommended that the Ugandan Amnesty Commission opens an office in the eastern Congo town of Beni to give the fighters a chance to surrender. The Amnesty Act pardons fighters who willingly surrender.

The UPDF and Congolese army are planning to meet later this month to decide on the action to take against the rebels. Sources said the rebels had not been attacked partly because the Amnesty Commission had requested that they should be given a chance to surrender. Officials of the commission visited Kinshasa and Beni last month , during which they were granted authority to establish an office in the area.

"The office should be open by now because we gave them the permission. If it has not opened, it is the problem of the commission," Nyamwisi said.

Over the past two years, the commission, with United Nations support, has repatriated from Congo over 600 fighters led by Taban Amin, son of the late former president Idi Amin.

Most of these fighters belonged to the West Nile Bank Front. The group fought Museveni's regime in the mid 1990s but ventured into Congo to fight on the side of the Congolese government when it was attacked by rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda.

During talks in Kinshasa between President Kabila and Ugandan army commander Major General Aronda Nyakairima in August last year, Kabila had insisted that Congo would establish the locations of the Ugandan rebel camps and dismantle them. But when the Congo government failed to take any action, Museveni sent Mbabazi to Kinshasa in December last year.

Mr Mbabazi delivered a message from President Museveni in which he requested that the two countries' forces start joint operations in eastern Congo and around the common border to flush out the Ugandan insurgents. Mr Mbabazi confirmed to The EastAfrican last month that he had held talks with President Kabila but declined to divulge any details.

Congo has meanwhile welcomed the proposed African Union Force to monitor its border with Rwanda and disarm Rwandese interahamwe militia and former soldiers. Mr Nyamwisi said the AU force, as well as the US-sponsored tripartite talks involving Congo, Rwanda and Uganda had helped ease tensions between the three neighbours.

Early this year, Rwanda threatened to send its troops to Congo to flush out the insurgents after the UN failed to disarm them.

Last week President Paul Kagame told regional foreign ministers discussing the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Peace, Stability, Democracy and Development in Kigali that failure by the international community to disarm Rwandan militia in Congo had aggravated conflicts in the Great Lakes region.

[Ugnet] DRC And Uganda Army to Destroy Rebel Camps

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