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Monday 26 December 2005


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IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 299 for 1-7 October 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

DRC: Army says Ugandan rebels flee into Sudan
DRC: Soldiers face rape charges
DRC: Thousands return to Ituri gold town after army ousts rebels
DRC-UGANDA: Kampala dismisses Congo's call for sanctions
DRC-RWANDA: Kigali says it not responsible for mass killings
RWANDA: Refugees return from Uganda
TANZANIA: Referral hospital gets modern HIV/AIDS centre
CAR: Access to water for the flood-affected improves, UN says
KENYA: Gov't announces plan to resettle forest evictees

DRC: Army says Ugandan rebels flee into Sudan

The 400 Ugandan rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who in September sought refuge in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been forced back across the border, a Congolese army spokesman said on Friday in Kinshasa.

"Faced with huge deployment of soldiers from the Congolese army the LRA rebels panicked and on Thursday fled the DRC from where they came," Jean-Willy Mutombo, spokesman for the armed forces chief of staff, said.

The rebels were on the run in southern Sudan about 160 km from the Ugandan border. When they crossed from Sudan into the DRC's remote Garamba National park, in Orientale's Haut Uele District, in September Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni threatened to invade DRC to capture them.

Full report

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DRC: Soldiers face rape charges

In what the UN says sets an important legal precedent for the DRC, a court-martial hearing began on Tuesday in the northwestern province of Equateur for 12 soldiers accused of raping 119 women.

"Rape is for the first time being charged as a crime against humanity," said Kemal Saiki, the head of public information for the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC.

The trial, in the provincial capital of Mbandaka, follows an investigation led by MONUC's human rights section in April 2004 for crimes alleged to have taken place in December 2003, 300 km northwest of Mbandaka, near the town of Bongandanga.

Many of those raped were girls aged less than 18 years, he added. The accused soldiers are said to be former combatants in the rebel faction Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo.

The next hearing is set for 18 October.

Full report

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DRC: Thousands return to Ituri gold town after army ousts rebels

Some 5,000 civilians who fled fighting last week between the army and local armed groups in a gold mining area of northeastern DRCs Ituri District began returning to their homes on Monday, Roman Catholic Abbot Innocent Ngabu said on Monday in Kilo, a locality 25 km north of the Bambu Gold Mines.

"They have been in perpetual movement. They need help to resettle," he said.

Armed groups had first attacked government troops on 27 September who were guarding the Bambu Gold Mines, which serves as the headquarters of the state-owned Office des Mines d’Or des Kilo Moto - OKIMO, an army officer who asked not to be identified told IRIN.

Thousands of civilians had fled in various directions: some to the army post at Bambu Mines; others 12 km south to the town of Petsi. Many others just hide in the surrounding bush.

Full report

[DRC-UGANDA: Army deploys 2,000 troops to disarm LRA rebels]

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DRC-UGANDA: Kampala dismisses Congo's call for sanctions

Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa dismissed on Wednesday a demand for UN sanctions against his country made a day earlier by the DRC.

"We think the request for an arms embargo is ridiculous," he said in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. "It does not solve the problem."

The DRC's envoy to the UN, Ileka Atoki, had called for the sanctions after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said his troops would invade northeastern Congo by the end of October if the Congolese government or the UN failed to disarm 400 newly arrived Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The LRA rebels and their families, led by deputy commander Vincent Otti, fled to Congo in September following Ugandan military operations, which flushed them out of southern Sudan.

The Congolese army started on Sunday sending 2,000 troops with support from the UN Mission in the DRC to disarm the Ugandans, according to UN and Congolese army officials.

Full report

[DRC-UGANDA: Army deploys 2,000 troops to disarm LRA rebels]
[UGANDA: Concerns over renewed LRA attacks on civilians]

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DRC-RWANDA: Kigali says it not responsible for mass killings

A senior Rwandan government official rejected on Thursday allegations that the army was responsible for a massacre nearly 10 years ago of hundreds of people in eastern DRC, whose bodies were discovered two weeks ago in mass graves.

Rwanda's special envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Richard Sezibera, told IRIN it was "very unfair" to jump to conclusions. "The area has a bad history of killings which should be investigated," he said.

Sezibera pointed to a 1993 massacre of Congolese ethnic Tutsis by the army of the late Congolese president, Mobutu Sese Seko, as well as numerous ethnic clashes in that country. Sezibera said there were many mass graves in the area. He said thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees in camps in Goma, capital of Congo's North Kivu Province, and Rutshuru, 50 to 70 km north of Goma, died from a cholera epidemic in 1994 and were buried in mass graves.

Full report

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RWANDA: Refugees return from Uganda

Some 171 Rwandan refugees, most of whom fled their country during the 1994 genocide, have returned from neighbouring Uganda, an official of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told IRIN on Wednesday.

The refugees' arrival on Monday follows a mobilisation campaign by Rwanda's Ministry of Local Government and UNHCR officials in the country. These officials made field visits to all refugee sites in southwestern Uganda to assure them of their safety upon return to Rwanda.

The returnees were part of the 15,000 Rwandan refugees who have been living in Ugandan camps for the past 11 years. About 48,000 Rwandan refugees remain in 14 African countries.

Full report

[CONGO: Rwandan refugees reluctant to return home]

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TANZANIA: Referral hospital gets modern HIV/AIDS centre

A US $35-million HIV/AIDS treatment centre opened on Thursday at Tanzania's main referral hospital, the Muhimbili National Hospital, with a capacity to process up to 1,000 tests an hour.

The centre, equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories, was built under a partnership between the government of Tanzania and Abbot Fund, a global health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products.

Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, who officiated at the centre's inauguration, described it a huge step forward in the campaign against the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is ravaging mostly sub-Sahara Africa.

A recent household survey by the Tanzania Commission for AIDS showed that about 7 percent of the country's adult population, or about two million people, were HIV-positive, and that efforts were underway to put 44,000 people on ARVs by the end of 2005.

Full report

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CAR: Access to water for the flood-affected improves, UN says

A UN project to provide clean water for thousands of residents of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, is scheduled to change its distribution system to enhance the project's efficiency, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

In a statement issued from Bangui, OCHA said since the project's inception in September, the public had been obtaining water from nine containers strategically placed in the most flood-affected areas of the city.

"These will now be withdrawn. By the end of the week, water will instead be freely available at the existing water kiosks, owned by SODECA [the national water company] and privately run," OCHA said.

OCHA humanitarian affairs officer, Souleymane Beye, was quoted as saying: "This will mean additional costs in paying the kiosks' managers, but huge transport expenses will be cut."

Full report

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KENYA: Gov't announces plan to resettle forest evictees

Kenyan authorities have unveiled a plan to resettle thousands of families evicted in June from farms allegedly carved out of a forest in the Mau area of the country's southeastern Narok District.

Some 3,000 families lost their homes and livelihoods when the evictions were carried out. Security forces burnt down or demolished homes and other social amenities, including schools, churches and health clinics, rendering many people destitute.

The Office of The President announced on Monday that the government had identified 282 plots of land in Nakuru District, in the Rift Valley Province, where some of those evicted from Mau Forest would be resettled.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 310 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 309 10-16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 308 3-9 December 2005, 9/Dec/05

UN appeal seeks $154.5 million for recovery efforts , 7/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 307 26 November to 2 December 2005, 2/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

RWANDA: Body found in Brussels canal confirmed that of ex-minister's, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

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