By Robert Mugabe and agencies
Kigali: Police detectives are at the house of opposition politician Ingabire Victoire, as news comes through suggesting she has already been charged in a Gasabo Intermediate court on general sheet of three counts.
Ms. Ingabire was arrested at 9am, taken to Kicukiro Police station and immediately paraded in court to hear the charge sheet. An impromptu court session heard from a prosecutor that Ms. Ingabire was promoting divisionism, negating the Tutsi Genocide and supporting the FDLR rebels in eastern DR Congo.
The opposition politician, whose party is yet-to-be registered, also immediately filed an application for bail which her lawyer Protais Mutembe said is her constitutional right, according to sources. Court will convene Thursday to rule on whether she can be granted bail.
Meanwhile, at her home in Kinyinya - a suburb of Kigali, about five police officers are keeping an eye on any activity at the building. There are about five, a woman in the house told RNA, adding that she saw two officers with guns.
The three people in the house were refused from leaving the compound by the officers, but did not give any reasons. The police detectives are apparently outside the fence and have not entered the house since mid-day.
Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga confirmed to the media that Ms. Ingabire was in police custody and was facing charges of Genocide ideology, divisionism and cooperating with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. The group’s members are blamed in Kigali for slaughtering Tutsis and fleeing to Congo.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Rwanda arrests top military Generals
By Robert Mugabe and agancies
Two of Rwanda’s senior-ranking army officials have been arrested, a week after President Paul Kagame announced major changes in the military. Lt. Gen. Charles Muhire and Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Karenzi Karake were suspended and arrested on Monday, the country’s military spokesperson said.
“Lt. Gen Muhire was suspended due to charges of corruption and misuse of office while Maj. Gen. Karenzi was suspended on serious charges of immoral conduct,” Maj. Jill Rutaremara said yesterday.
Lt. Gen Muhire was just a week ago sworn in as the new Commander of the Reserve Force. He formerly served as commander of the Rwanda Air Force from 1997 until he was replaced in the recent military reshuffle. Maj. Gen. Karenzi was one of Rwanda’s highest-ranking soldiers and a member of the military elite.
The arrests come weeks after a series of grenade attacks struck Rwanda, one coming a day after President Kagame warned that a coup d’etat could never be pulled off in the country.
Local media had reported that Maj. Gen. Karenzi had been questioned over the attacks and linked to other renegade generals. “This action was taken in order to enforce discipline, moral conduct and accountability in the Rwanda Defence Force,” Maj. Rutaremara said.
Earlier in the month, Lt. Gen Muhire had been deposed from his job in a massive shakeup of the country’s security and intelligence services during commemoriation week for the 16th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. Many of Rwanda’s current government officials fought alongside President Kagame.
Maj. Gen. Karake, who held one of the highest positions in the military, like most of the government officials in Rwanda, grew up in Uganda as a refugee from the former Rwandan government, and attended Makerere University.
For nearly two decades they fought together in the Rwandan Patriotic Front and rebuilt the country together. The arrests of Lt. Gen. Muhire and Maj. Gen. Karake, and the previous fleeing of other high-ranking generals as recently as a couple months ago, including Maj. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa are a rare sign of disagreement in what has long been a tight knit government.
Earlier this month President Kagame shook up the military by replacing long-standing defence minister Marcel Gatsinzi and promoting close aide Gen. James Kabarebe.
It is not immediately clear what Lt. Gen. Muhire and Maj. Gen. Karake will be formally tried for. Mr Kagame is running to re-election in August’s polls in Rwanda and is widely expected to win
Two of Rwanda’s senior-ranking army officials have been arrested, a week after President Paul Kagame announced major changes in the military. Lt. Gen. Charles Muhire and Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Karenzi Karake were suspended and arrested on Monday, the country’s military spokesperson said.
“Lt. Gen Muhire was suspended due to charges of corruption and misuse of office while Maj. Gen. Karenzi was suspended on serious charges of immoral conduct,” Maj. Jill Rutaremara said yesterday.
Lt. Gen Muhire was just a week ago sworn in as the new Commander of the Reserve Force. He formerly served as commander of the Rwanda Air Force from 1997 until he was replaced in the recent military reshuffle. Maj. Gen. Karenzi was one of Rwanda’s highest-ranking soldiers and a member of the military elite.
The arrests come weeks after a series of grenade attacks struck Rwanda, one coming a day after President Kagame warned that a coup d’etat could never be pulled off in the country.
Local media had reported that Maj. Gen. Karenzi had been questioned over the attacks and linked to other renegade generals. “This action was taken in order to enforce discipline, moral conduct and accountability in the Rwanda Defence Force,” Maj. Rutaremara said.
Earlier in the month, Lt. Gen Muhire had been deposed from his job in a massive shakeup of the country’s security and intelligence services during commemoriation week for the 16th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. Many of Rwanda’s current government officials fought alongside President Kagame.
Maj. Gen. Karake, who held one of the highest positions in the military, like most of the government officials in Rwanda, grew up in Uganda as a refugee from the former Rwandan government, and attended Makerere University.
For nearly two decades they fought together in the Rwandan Patriotic Front and rebuilt the country together. The arrests of Lt. Gen. Muhire and Maj. Gen. Karake, and the previous fleeing of other high-ranking generals as recently as a couple months ago, including Maj. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa are a rare sign of disagreement in what has long been a tight knit government.
Earlier this month President Kagame shook up the military by replacing long-standing defence minister Marcel Gatsinzi and promoting close aide Gen. James Kabarebe.
It is not immediately clear what Lt. Gen. Muhire and Maj. Gen. Karake will be formally tried for. Mr Kagame is running to re-election in August’s polls in Rwanda and is widely expected to win
Saturday, April 17, 2010
DRC gold business in Kampala is an open secret
Kampala-The Congo-gold business in Uganda is an open secret. It is lucrative, war keeps running extends from Kivu to Dubai and is sponsored by the highest authority reports Germany freelance correspondent in Kampala.
"Aurums Roses" is on the plastic plate on the silver gate. A Congolese opens the gate. But only a crack. Behind him, a video camera filming every visitor. "The boss is not there, he is in Nairobi," he hisses. Then he slams the door and pushes against the inside of the bolt. A few minutes later, an Indian rises from a motorcycle taxi. He pulls out his cell phone: "Boss, are you there?" He asks - and opens the gate.
The single-storey house in the Kajokya Street, high on a hill, the Ugandan capital Kampala, is notorious. For here the blood from the Congo gold is washed. This says the recent expert report of the UN sanctions committee that monitors compliance with the arms embargo against armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The majority will be shipped via Kampala to Dubai," says the author of the UN report, Dinesh Mahtani. Gold is the most important revenue source of the irregular militias in eastern Congo, especially the Rwandan Hutu militia FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda). But Congo's army earns a lot on smuggling.
When the UN investigators last year, followed in the footsteps of the gold from the Congo, they landed in Kampala in the Kajokya Street. For here once the seat of the trading company UCI (Uganda Commercial Impex was). Thehe company was set to 2007, the UN sanctions list for the Congo. "Have UCI maintains regular business relations with traders in the Congo which have close links with the militias," the justification of the sanctions committee.
Since then it keeps a low profile in the Kajokya Street. The name plate was unscrewed. But the phone numbers of UCI and Aurum Roses are identical. And if you call there, a man with an Indian accent announces: "Yes, what can I do for you?"
The Indians have been established in Uganda's economy. are trade relations between East Africa and South Asia, for centuries, during the British colonial Indian workers laid railway lines in East Africa and Indian businessmen settled there. 1972, under the rule of Idi Amin, they had to leave Uganda, their businesses were expropriated.
Only the current President Yoweri Museveni invited middle of one of the 90's, back to invest in Uganda. Today they import goods from around the world that they offer in their supermarkets. Even in the construction mix the ethnic Indian families strong. They are regarded as loyal to the government business elite sign was hanging there, where today "Aurum Roses" is - "Golden Rose".
When asked about UCI, the response of Indian business owners of Aurum Roses, Jamnadas Lodhia, harsh. "UCI has been closed since 2007, I will say to the allegations in the UN report, nothing more," he growled over the phone. In particular, he does not want to explain what he just two months, from May through June 2009, bought $ 50,000 worth of plane tickets to fly between Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and India and forth. Annoyed, he hangs up.
But for the neighbours in the Kajokya Street remains of the Indians, who under the nickname "Chuni is known, the" dealer "," Of course there is still handled in gold, "said one neighbour. The man shows down the road. In the side street there was another gold dealer. There, in front of the rusty Iron Gate in Bukoto Street, a man typically heard in the gaudy shirt on Congolese Kiswahili, an east African language which is spoken in eastern Congo, with the gatekeeper. It is a delivery which has not yet been paid.
Even a few streets away, in Bukoto Street, no one wants to give information about the company's purpose. The Indian workers, who will not name his name, switches quickly from the computer screen. The plaque on the wall, he can not disappear so fast: one price for investors, the company Machanga Limited, handed over by President Museveni.
The trading company is also Machanga since 2007 on the UN sanctions list, also for trade in Congo gold. "This is all nonsense," moves later on the telephone company director Rajandra Vaya. He had set the gold business in 2007 and now with plastic handle, he explains. And a few months ago he opened Vaya Forex, one of the largest money exchange offices in Kampala.
Money exchange offices are ideal to have to deal with large amounts of cash in various currencies. A relative Vayas, Jiggar Kumar is working, according to the UN investigation into a money exchange in Dubai, the Asian Exchange Centre. Kumar, 2008 was listed on the vendor list from Emirates Gold, one of the largest gold refineries in Dubai.
And the Indians, who rise to about one hour stay at Aurum Roses back on his motorcycle taxi, operates a currency exchange: HP Forex, staugeplagten near the main road. "The Indians there make strange business," whispered the driver of the taxi. "The Secret Service pays me if I make reports about it."
As expected, no one wants in the secret service to come out quite so why the Indians are spying. But asked about the gold shops, a senior officer responded with shrugs: "We can not monitor all business people," he says and adds: It is impossible to verify where the gold originated - whether from the Congo or Uganda itself
The bulk of the gold that is smuggled from Congo via Kampala is, according to UN experts report from the mines deep in the jungle west of the East Congolese province of North Kivu in Kasugho and from the Ituri region - not far from the Ugandan border.
The gold mines in Ostkongos Kivu provinces are controlled according to the UN remains of the Rwandan FDLR militias. They exchange the gold from the miners against soap, plastic sandals, washing dishes and beer - goods which are imported from Uganda to eastern Congo.
The FDLR rebels in turn sell the gold over to a middleman company registered in the Congo, Glory Minerals, based in Butembo, the major trade hub of east DRC Glory in Butembo Minerals has three offices and maintains a local monopoly in the gold trade.
A document dated January 2009, signed by the local boss of the mine authority Kakule Kabila calls on all gold dealers in the region, "all products is to sell more of these three offices, from where they are then exported. Glory Minerals is the only trading company in the region with a gold export license.
Not only do the militias with the gold profit. François, who would not give his last name, makes herself comfortable on his porch in Kampala. It is afternoon, his daughter romps around the SUV in the driveway. The man from Cameroon who lives in Uganda for 15 years and married to a Congolese is opened, a bottle of whiskey. The ice cubes clinking in a glass.
"I have done a great deal." François has been trading for over ten years with gold. Currently, he says, runs the business very well. He buys in the Congo for 15 to 20 U.S. dollars per gram in Kampala, the Gramm already was worth $ 25. In Dubai, even 30 to $ 40
"Aurums Roses" is on the plastic plate on the silver gate. A Congolese opens the gate. But only a crack. Behind him, a video camera filming every visitor. "The boss is not there, he is in Nairobi," he hisses. Then he slams the door and pushes against the inside of the bolt. A few minutes later, an Indian rises from a motorcycle taxi. He pulls out his cell phone: "Boss, are you there?" He asks - and opens the gate.
The single-storey house in the Kajokya Street, high on a hill, the Ugandan capital Kampala, is notorious. For here the blood from the Congo gold is washed. This says the recent expert report of the UN sanctions committee that monitors compliance with the arms embargo against armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The majority will be shipped via Kampala to Dubai," says the author of the UN report, Dinesh Mahtani. Gold is the most important revenue source of the irregular militias in eastern Congo, especially the Rwandan Hutu militia FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda). But Congo's army earns a lot on smuggling.
When the UN investigators last year, followed in the footsteps of the gold from the Congo, they landed in Kampala in the Kajokya Street. For here once the seat of the trading company UCI (Uganda Commercial Impex was). Thehe company was set to 2007, the UN sanctions list for the Congo. "Have UCI maintains regular business relations with traders in the Congo which have close links with the militias," the justification of the sanctions committee.
Since then it keeps a low profile in the Kajokya Street. The name plate was unscrewed. But the phone numbers of UCI and Aurum Roses are identical. And if you call there, a man with an Indian accent announces: "Yes, what can I do for you?"
The Indians have been established in Uganda's economy. are trade relations between East Africa and South Asia, for centuries, during the British colonial Indian workers laid railway lines in East Africa and Indian businessmen settled there. 1972, under the rule of Idi Amin, they had to leave Uganda, their businesses were expropriated.
Only the current President Yoweri Museveni invited middle of one of the 90's, back to invest in Uganda. Today they import goods from around the world that they offer in their supermarkets. Even in the construction mix the ethnic Indian families strong. They are regarded as loyal to the government business elite sign was hanging there, where today "Aurum Roses" is - "Golden Rose".
When asked about UCI, the response of Indian business owners of Aurum Roses, Jamnadas Lodhia, harsh. "UCI has been closed since 2007, I will say to the allegations in the UN report, nothing more," he growled over the phone. In particular, he does not want to explain what he just two months, from May through June 2009, bought $ 50,000 worth of plane tickets to fly between Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and India and forth. Annoyed, he hangs up.
But for the neighbours in the Kajokya Street remains of the Indians, who under the nickname "Chuni is known, the" dealer "," Of course there is still handled in gold, "said one neighbour. The man shows down the road. In the side street there was another gold dealer. There, in front of the rusty Iron Gate in Bukoto Street, a man typically heard in the gaudy shirt on Congolese Kiswahili, an east African language which is spoken in eastern Congo, with the gatekeeper. It is a delivery which has not yet been paid.
Even a few streets away, in Bukoto Street, no one wants to give information about the company's purpose. The Indian workers, who will not name his name, switches quickly from the computer screen. The plaque on the wall, he can not disappear so fast: one price for investors, the company Machanga Limited, handed over by President Museveni.
The trading company is also Machanga since 2007 on the UN sanctions list, also for trade in Congo gold. "This is all nonsense," moves later on the telephone company director Rajandra Vaya. He had set the gold business in 2007 and now with plastic handle, he explains. And a few months ago he opened Vaya Forex, one of the largest money exchange offices in Kampala.
Money exchange offices are ideal to have to deal with large amounts of cash in various currencies. A relative Vayas, Jiggar Kumar is working, according to the UN investigation into a money exchange in Dubai, the Asian Exchange Centre. Kumar, 2008 was listed on the vendor list from Emirates Gold, one of the largest gold refineries in Dubai.
And the Indians, who rise to about one hour stay at Aurum Roses back on his motorcycle taxi, operates a currency exchange: HP Forex, staugeplagten near the main road. "The Indians there make strange business," whispered the driver of the taxi. "The Secret Service pays me if I make reports about it."
As expected, no one wants in the secret service to come out quite so why the Indians are spying. But asked about the gold shops, a senior officer responded with shrugs: "We can not monitor all business people," he says and adds: It is impossible to verify where the gold originated - whether from the Congo or Uganda itself
The bulk of the gold that is smuggled from Congo via Kampala is, according to UN experts report from the mines deep in the jungle west of the East Congolese province of North Kivu in Kasugho and from the Ituri region - not far from the Ugandan border.
The gold mines in Ostkongos Kivu provinces are controlled according to the UN remains of the Rwandan FDLR militias. They exchange the gold from the miners against soap, plastic sandals, washing dishes and beer - goods which are imported from Uganda to eastern Congo.
The FDLR rebels in turn sell the gold over to a middleman company registered in the Congo, Glory Minerals, based in Butembo, the major trade hub of east DRC Glory in Butembo Minerals has three offices and maintains a local monopoly in the gold trade.
A document dated January 2009, signed by the local boss of the mine authority Kakule Kabila calls on all gold dealers in the region, "all products is to sell more of these three offices, from where they are then exported. Glory Minerals is the only trading company in the region with a gold export license.
Not only do the militias with the gold profit. François, who would not give his last name, makes herself comfortable on his porch in Kampala. It is afternoon, his daughter romps around the SUV in the driveway. The man from Cameroon who lives in Uganda for 15 years and married to a Congolese is opened, a bottle of whiskey. The ice cubes clinking in a glass.
"I have done a great deal." François has been trading for over ten years with gold. Currently, he says, runs the business very well. He buys in the Congo for 15 to 20 U.S. dollars per gram in Kampala, the Gramm already was worth $ 25. In Dubai, even 30 to $ 40
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Foreigners are imposing ‘hooligans’ like Ingabire on Rwanda-President Paul Kagame
Kigali: President Paul Kagame on Wednesday accused foreign critics of trying to impose values on Rwanda as well as preferring ‘hooligans’ to govern the country – categorically singling-out opposition politician Ms. Victoire Ingabire
In a firry 45-minute address to mark the 16th anniversary of the 1994 Tutsi Genocide at Amahoro stadium, Mr. Kagame accused the opposition – specifically naming Ms. Ingabire in person, of “political hooliganism”.
The President also accused the critics of “abusing me” in the name of freedom of expression, but said he is “not bothered at all”.
“Some people here want to encouraging political hooliganism,” he said in English, before going into a tirade of attacks on Ingabire, as the crowd behind him was in constant applause.
“Some people just come from nowhere…useless people…I see every time in pictures some lady who had her deputy – a Genocide criminal, talking about ‘there is Genocide but there is another’…that is politics…and the world is also saying ‘the opposition leader’…”
The President was referring to Mr. Joseph Ntawangundi, the aide to Ms. Ingabire who was recently sentenced to 17 years for Genocide.
In a culmination with loud applause and clapping from the audience, President added: “To that we say a big no. And if anybody wants a fight, then we will give them a fight”.
The President dismissed the notion of free expression as promoted by his foreign critics such as campaign groups, saying Rwandans know what freedom means more than anybody else can teach them. He also attacked those he described as “constantly meddling in our politics” by propagating and making up “lies” about his government.
The President warned his critics of hiding behind freedom of express to “abuse me” but also added that he does not “give a damn”.
“They break tool, they call me Hitler…am not bothered at all…I just hold them in contempt,” he said amid more applause. He wondered how his critics attack him and “at the same time complain about press freedom?”
“You are even free to abuse people, you have no respect for anything…and you turn around to complain that you have no freedom to express yourself? …What more do you want to express about yourself or about others?”
“Ni watu gani awo?”
Mr. Kagame said “bad national politics converged with bad international politics” to cause what was being commemorated at today April 07 for the next three months.
“Who are these giving anyone here lessons honestly? …Ni watu gani awo? …who are these? ...are these Rwandans complaining? …or have they sent you to complain on their behalf? ...” he wondered in a mixture of English, Kinyarwanda and Swahili, amid applause.
He added: “These Rwandans you see here and elsewhere are as free, as happy [and] as proud of themselves, like they have never been in their lives.”
The President accused the west of preferring to criticize his government but do not want to be held responsible for their role in the Genocide. He also said the west was undermining “our dignity”, “our values” and “our pride”, arguing that democracy took time to get to the current level in their countries.
“They wake up in the morning, distort [the] situation, tell lies about everything…plus they are responsible for many of the things that put here today to commemorate this Genocide…,” he said.
“…yet when they talk about freedom of expression, they don’t want you to express yourself about their responsibility in this Genocide…What freedoms are you teaching me if you cant take responsibility for the politics that killed one million people in Rwanda.”
The Generals
He added: “I know those who say it and support that, know it is wrong. But [it] is an expression of contempt these people have for Rwandans and for Africans…that they think Africans deserve to be led by these hooligans.”
Turning his guns on the government officials who are fleeing the country apparently complaining about “no political space”, the President accused them of “running away from accountability”.
“These Generals fleeing the country should not be taken seriously,” he said, in apparent reference to ex-army chief Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, who has political asylum in South Africa.
Earlier, Sports and Culture Minister Joseph Habineza also attacked the man behind the Hollywood movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’. Mr. Habineza did not name Mr. Paul Rusesabagina but was clearly referring to him.
Using poetic speech, the Minister also fired at the vocal opposition causing laughter in the otherwise somber occasion, saying they are blocking the reconciliation among Rwandans.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Controversies are arising on the Uganda government acquiring Su-30MK2s fighter jets
Controversies are arising on the Uganda government acquiring the most sophisticated air fighter’s jets numbering to six, the move which said to have cost the government billions of dollars
Su-30MK2s fighter jets at a cost of Shs108b each. Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms exporter would also sell 16 fighter jets to Algeria, Vedomosti a leading business daily in Russia reported.
Critics say the air fighter jets would raise arms race in the great lakes region
The information was first reported by Russian independent paper confirming that Uganda is to receive six fighter jets but early to day UPDF spokesman denied the allegation saying the deal is not true since it was expensive for his country
Although Col. Kulayigye admitted the government was earlier negotiating with Rosoboronexport, he said the army later pulled out because of the budgetary implications. “It’s true that there were negotiations on that subject.
But we pulled out because the costs were prohibitive and we instead decided to overhaul the ones we have. Those people got their facts wrong,” he said.
“Our aircrafts left last week for an overhaul by the same company,” the military spokesman said.
The two contracts to deliver 16 jet fighters to Algeria and another six fighters to Uganda are worth $1.2 billion, Vedomosti reported.
“Two African nations will receive different models of the Su-30 Flanker fighters. Algiers will receive 16 Su-30-MKI(A)s and Kampala will receive six Su-30MK2s,” the paper said.
The acquisition of these jets would strengthen the capacity of the Ugandan Air Force to be among the top in the region.
Capability of jet
According to Rosoboronexport website, ROSOBORONEXPORT. Catalogues of PRODUCTS, the Su-30MK2s is an all-weather, long-range strike fighter and is designed with a multi-role capacity to gain air superiority through killing hostile manned and unmanned aircraft with guided missiles.
It can shoot at medium-range engagements and dogfights, and surface (ground and sea) targets destroying with all types of weapon, with high precision weapon in individual and group operations in all weather conditions.
The aircraft can also be used for training flying personnel to hone their flying and fighting skills.
The back-seater reduces the pilot’s workload in long-range encounters, in night-time operations and on protracted missions with in-flight refuelling.
Rosoboronexport has closed some $7.5 billion worth of arms export deals since the beginning of the year.
According to the company’s head, Mr Anatoly Isaikin, Russia signed $15 billion worth of contracts during 2009, Vedomosti reported.
Su-30 Flankers in various models have also been sold to India. India has so far received 120 out of the 230 jets it has ordered. Malaysia has also received 18 fighters.
Founded in 1999, Vedomosti is the leading independent business daily in Russia.
It has publishing partnership with world business press leaders – Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal – and the largest Russian publishing house Independent Media Sanoma.
Uganda has had bad a history of procuring aircrafts after it bought junk choppers from Belarus in the early 1990s.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Human Rights watch left in cold on LRA massacre in DRC-reports
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government has also joined Uganda government and dismissed charges by Human Right watch that Resistance Army rebels had killed over 300 people in December, saying "no more than 25" had died.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) at the weekend accused the Ugandan group, whose leaders are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), of massacring 321 civilians and abducting 250 others in a previously unreported four-day "rampage" in northeastern DRC in December.
The UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) said Tuesday its own investigation, not yet officially released, found that at least 290 people were killed and about 150 abducted.
DR Congo's Justice Minister, Lessa Bambi Luzolo, said the HRW claim was "clearly exaggerated".
"When it comes to victims in the civilian population, the number of victims is no more than 25," he said in a statement in Kinshasa. "There were no massacres as stated in the report, but a few people attacked in passing by uncontrolled elements of the LRA,” Luzolo said.
"It's about events that happened in December 2009 and the Non-Governmental Organisation speaks about it as if it was yesterday," he said.
Massacre
The Human Rights Watch report details the four-day rampage last December, which has only now come to light. It says the attack took place in the Makombo area in DR Congo, a remote area with virtually no communication with the outside world, which is why it went unreported for months.
In February, HRW received the first signals of the attack, after which the UN sent a mission to the area to investigate. The Lord's Resistance Army was formed in Uganda in the 1980s and has been carrying out brutal attacks on civilians in Uganda and neighbouring countries since then, in which thousands of people have died.
Spent force
Anneke van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch in London said that the Makombo massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA, despite the Ugandan and Congolese governments branding the rebel group as a “spent force”. Uganda’s military said on Monday it was sceptical of the Human Rights Watch report, saying the LRA was too weak to have carried out such a large-scale attack.
“In 2005, the army was pushed out of Uganda and has been relatively inactive there”, Ms Van Woudenberg says, “but it has been operating in Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan since then. So it has now become a very active regional threat”.
Extreme brutality
In December’s massacre, LRA forces attacked ten villages, capturing, killing and abducting over 300 civilians, including women and children. Some of the victims were burned to death. Children and adults who managed to escape have provided accounts of the rebels’ extreme brutality, the report says.
“The army is known for abducting children who are then turned into combatants for the group through violence and mind control”, says Ms Van Woudenberg. “This also happened in December. The rebels very quickly provided military training to the abducted children, often forcing them to participate in killings or in killing other children who had disobeyed the rules. These are methods which are very typical of the LRA”.
UN mission
With only 1,000 peacekeeping troops in the region, the United Nations mission in DR Congo has been unable to protect the civilians against the LRA attack. “We really need more troops there to deal with this”, Ms Van Woudenberg says. “We also need greater coordination between the various UN missions and the governments in the region”.
On Monday, the UN reacted to the report by calling for a new strategy in the region. The head of the UN mission in DR Congo, Alan Doss, told reporters that LRA’s practice of working in small, mobile groups meant improved intelligence gathering and air mobility were needed. “Even small groups can create havoc. Their best weapon is fear”, Mr Doss said.
Step forward
“And that’s a very effective weapon”, says Ms Van Woudenberg. “The LRA is only 400 combatants strong, but yet they have the capacity to cause extreme harm. In northeastern Congo alone, more than a quarter of a million people have fled their homes after December’s attacks. This is a humanitarian catastrophe caused by only a few people. We really feel the UN, but also the EU and the US, should step forward to provide greater assistance”.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) at the weekend accused the Ugandan group, whose leaders are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), of massacring 321 civilians and abducting 250 others in a previously unreported four-day "rampage" in northeastern DRC in December.
The UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) said Tuesday its own investigation, not yet officially released, found that at least 290 people were killed and about 150 abducted.
DR Congo's Justice Minister, Lessa Bambi Luzolo, said the HRW claim was "clearly exaggerated".
"When it comes to victims in the civilian population, the number of victims is no more than 25," he said in a statement in Kinshasa. "There were no massacres as stated in the report, but a few people attacked in passing by uncontrolled elements of the LRA,” Luzolo said.
"It's about events that happened in December 2009 and the Non-Governmental Organisation speaks about it as if it was yesterday," he said.
Massacre
The Human Rights Watch report details the four-day rampage last December, which has only now come to light. It says the attack took place in the Makombo area in DR Congo, a remote area with virtually no communication with the outside world, which is why it went unreported for months.
In February, HRW received the first signals of the attack, after which the UN sent a mission to the area to investigate. The Lord's Resistance Army was formed in Uganda in the 1980s and has been carrying out brutal attacks on civilians in Uganda and neighbouring countries since then, in which thousands of people have died.
Spent force
Anneke van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch in London said that the Makombo massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA, despite the Ugandan and Congolese governments branding the rebel group as a “spent force”. Uganda’s military said on Monday it was sceptical of the Human Rights Watch report, saying the LRA was too weak to have carried out such a large-scale attack.
“In 2005, the army was pushed out of Uganda and has been relatively inactive there”, Ms Van Woudenberg says, “but it has been operating in Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan since then. So it has now become a very active regional threat”.
Extreme brutality
In December’s massacre, LRA forces attacked ten villages, capturing, killing and abducting over 300 civilians, including women and children. Some of the victims were burned to death. Children and adults who managed to escape have provided accounts of the rebels’ extreme brutality, the report says.
“The army is known for abducting children who are then turned into combatants for the group through violence and mind control”, says Ms Van Woudenberg. “This also happened in December. The rebels very quickly provided military training to the abducted children, often forcing them to participate in killings or in killing other children who had disobeyed the rules. These are methods which are very typical of the LRA”.
UN mission
With only 1,000 peacekeeping troops in the region, the United Nations mission in DR Congo has been unable to protect the civilians against the LRA attack. “We really need more troops there to deal with this”, Ms Van Woudenberg says. “We also need greater coordination between the various UN missions and the governments in the region”.
On Monday, the UN reacted to the report by calling for a new strategy in the region. The head of the UN mission in DR Congo, Alan Doss, told reporters that LRA’s practice of working in small, mobile groups meant improved intelligence gathering and air mobility were needed. “Even small groups can create havoc. Their best weapon is fear”, Mr Doss said.
Step forward
“And that’s a very effective weapon”, says Ms Van Woudenberg. “The LRA is only 400 combatants strong, but yet they have the capacity to cause extreme harm. In northeastern Congo alone, more than a quarter of a million people have fled their homes after December’s attacks. This is a humanitarian catastrophe caused by only a few people. We really feel the UN, but also the EU and the US, should step forward to provide greater assistance”.
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