Congo (DRC): Army urged to tackle impunity – many crimes go unpunished.

Posted by africanpress on August 30, 2009

Goma (The Democratic Republic of Congo) Human rights groups say more should be done to prosecute crimes committed by the upper echelons of the military, despite the recent conviction of a senior officer in the armed forces who was accused of sexual violence.

On July 27, a military court found Colonel Ndayambaje Nyangara Kipanga guilty of raping three young women in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay 5,000 US dollars to each of the victims. Kipanga, however, was not in court when the verdict was handed down as he had escaped from prison on May 9, two days after his arrest.

Nonetheless, the trial represents one of the few times that such a high-ranking officer in the DRC has been convicted.

Kipanga was also accused of offering women to two men serving beneath him. One of these military officers – Major Njoloko Lusungu – has now been sentenced to ten years in prison for rape. The other man was acquitted.

Prior to joining the Congolese armed forces, known by the French acronym FARDC, Kipanga was a member of the National Congress for the Defence of the People, CNDP, a rebel militia that had previously waged war against the government.
When the CNDP split at the beginning of 2009, many former rebel fighters were integrated into the military.

Rambo, a sergeant in the Congolese armed forces, says that a lack of money pushes many soldiers into criminal activities.

“I have not been paid for five months. How can I live with my wife and children?” he said. “Nobody can withstand the conditions in which we live. If we do not [loot] civilians, then we have no way to live. Our leaders know this and they tolerate us, knowing that they cannot punish us because they give us nothing.”

Juliane Kippenberg, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, HRW, who recently drafted a report on abuses in the Congolese military, says the issue of impunity is being addressed with but there is still a long way to go.

“A few years ago, there were practically no prosecutions of anyone at all,” she said. “Now prosecutions are taking place relatively regularly, although this is nowhere near the number of crimes committed and top-level officers are still not being prosecuted.”

Kippenberg is critical of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, for failing to do enough to protect civilians from sexual violence by the armed forces.

“MONUC has not put enough pressure on the military to end human rights abuses within its ranks,” she said. “If the army still has officers that are committing abuses, MONUC should stop cooperating.”

For its part, MONUC says that it has made the fight against impunity in the armed forces a priority.

“In the past, higher-ranking officers have never been brought to justice for sexual violence,” Leila Zerrougui, deputy special representative at MONUC, told IWPR. “We must make it clear that the will is there to start bringing these men to justice. There must be a zero-tolerance policy towards impunity.”

At the beginning of April, MONUC unveiled a comprehensive strategy for combating sexual violence in the DRC. Key aims include making military personnel more accountable for crimes and introducing a better vetting mechanism for accepting people into the armed forces.

The strategy has so far only been rolled out to North and South Kivu provinces and is already starting to show some signs of success. Kipanga’s prosecution was carried out under pressure from MONUC. A further 20 trials of military abuses are due to take place in September, throughout North and South Kivu.

Zerrougui says that 6,433 incidents of sexual violence have been reported across the DRC over the past six months, half of them in the Kivu provinces, with 2,075 coming from North Kivu alone.

Kippenberg, from HRW, welcomed the far-reaching nature of MONUC’s strategy, but remains concerned that, without adequate funding, it may not be able to meet all of its objectives. “If MONUC’S strategy is properly implemented, it will definitely help,” she said. “But this will require a lot of funding and a lot of political will, and I’m not sure that either is there.”

In May, a UN Security Council delegation visited Kinshasa to urge President Joseph Kabila’s government to take more of a stand against abuses in the military. The delegation presented Kabila with a list containing the names of five leaders of the FARDC, who they accuse of carrying out acts of sexual violence. They asked Kabila to take necessary action to bring these officers to justice, but HRW says that nothing has so far been done.

The Congolese government has responded to criticism from HRW by insisting that it maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards those who commit human rights abuses.

“In terms of robbery, rape and violations of human rights, military personnel, whatever their rank, will be arrested and brought to justice,” said Colonel Leon Richard Kasongo, spokesman for FARDC. The spokesman recognised that the integration of former CNDP rebels into the military could have caused some problems, but insisted that such abuses remain isolated events.

“Today we have an army consisting of elements that come from all sides,” said Kasongo. “Not everyone who joins the army knows the military regulations. But, once integrated, they are able to internalise the core values of the army. Perhaps one or two officers may commit a particular act, but these are not systematic abuses.”

On July 8, Sergeant Eric Ndagijimana, a low-ranking officer, was arrested on suspicion of raping a pregnant woman in South Kivu. Three days later, at a high-profile trial than took place in the town of Wanga, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Unusually, and despite Ndagijimana’s relatively low rank, the trial was held in public. It was widely advertised and many senior military commanders from the surrounding region were invited to attend.

“This trial, which happened in a very short time, is a worrying development,” said Kippenberg. “It was quickly organised by the army to show that things are being done.”

MONUC has raised similar concerns about the trial, and was on the ground to make sure that everything happened according to due process. “Our main concern was that the trial happened very fast, making it difficult for the accused to prepare an adequate defence,” said Zerrougui. “However, the accused did benefit from access to a lawyer and does not appear to have been ill-treated.”

Zerrougui also fears for the safety of the victim, since the trial was conducted in public and she was unable to conceal her identity while giving testimony.

Meanwhile, in the Kivu provinces, abuses by soldiers are continuing.

Andre Kasereka, a hotel owner in Kirumba, 180 kilometres from the North Kivu capital of Goma, complained, “Officers come here and take rooms. They pay for the first week and then they stay up to six months, before leaving without honouring their invoice.”

Germain Kambale, owner of a shop in Kanyabayonga, 155 km north of Goma, says that soldiers in the village repeatedly loot property. “They begin by taking what they need and say that you should simply register for a debt,” he said. “But such debts are never paid.”

* Taylor Toeka Kakala is an IWPR-trained journalist. Blake Evans-Pritchard is IWPR’s Africa editor.

source.IWPR

Ministers under fire for locking up immigrant children

• Policy questions after figures say 470 minors detained
• Post-traumatic stress common in those released
Karen McVeigh
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 August 2009 22.13 BST

Yarl's Wood: strongly criticised by the children's commissioner for England. Photograph: Dan Chung

Ministers were facing accusations today that hundreds of children are being held unnecessarily in immigration detention centres as official figures revealed, for the first time, that 470 minors were being detained with their families.

The figures, made public following pressure from children's rights groups and MPs, showed most were under five.

Many were from troubled countries such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UK has one of the worst records in Europe for detaining children, but accurate figures on how many are held, or for how long, have remained elusive.

While the Home Office has not divulged the length of detention, it provided a "snapshot" picture of those held on a single day: 30 June 2009.

This shows that almost a third of children were held for longer than 28 days, which means that in each case an immigration minister had to sign an authorisation for their continued detention.

The figures also show that out of 225 children released from detention in the second quarter this year, only 100 were removed from the UK.

Yesterday, MPs and children's rights groups called for an end to the "national scandal" that has allowed children to be locked up unnecessarily.

Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the children's commissioner for England, welcomed the publication of the figures, but said they raised important questions.

He said: "If they were allowed to stay at the end of their release, why did they have to go through the detention process in the first place?"

He described the fact that one in three had been held for longer than 28 days as "extremely worrying".

Earlier this year, Aynsley-Green published a critical report into Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire which found the average stay for children had increased, and the decision to detain for longer than 28 days failed to take into account any welfare concerns raised.

Damian Green, shadow immigration minister, described the government's attempts to find alternatives to detention for families as "feeble", adding: "It would be better and cheaper if we don't have to lock up young children for weeks and sometimes months. Other countries seem to do better than we do at finding alternatives."

The average cost of holding someone in an immigration detention centre is £130 per day.

The Guardian has spoken to three families held at Yarl's Wood for between 19 and 71 days. One of the children has been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, while another, Ibrahim Ssentongo, four, remains traumatised seven months after his detention.

Ibrahim's father, Stephen Ssentongo, 35, from Uganda, said: "When he sees people in uniforms of white shirts and black trousers, like bus drivers or security guards in shopping centres, he stops. He wants to hold your hand or to stand in front of you, so that you will hold him. He is scared."

Sheila Melzak, a consultant child psychotherapist who has worked with families in detention, said Ibrahim's trauma was far from unusual.

"All the young people I have been talking to have lingering effects, after months and even after years" she said.

"It is frightening for children to see their parents in tears. They see adults in a high state of stress, they hear a lot of shouting and crying. It is a highly institutionalised environment and that leads to problems with eating and sleeping and learning."

Bethlehem Abate, 12, from Ethiopia, described the day she and her mother were seized in an early morning raid as "one of the worst days I ever had to experience".

The schoolgirl, who has been living in Leeds for four years after fleeing her home country to seek asylum, said she was disillusioned by the British government, because she felt sure "they would understand our situation and help us", but instead they have "turned everything around."

Family and children's support groups said the statistics showed the UK Borders Agency was failing in its duty to detain children only "as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time".

Amanda Shah, of Bail for Immigration Detainees, said: "Fifty-six per cent of detained children were released back to their communities in the UK, their detention having served no purpose other than wasting taxpayers' money and traumatising the children involved. Children we have supported have suffered depression, weight loss, bedwetting and even self-harm as a result of their detention – that is the human reality behind the statistics."

Lisa Nandy, policy adviser at the Children's Society, said children were being detained unnecessarily because the asylum system was "chaotic" and because the UK Border Agency and private contractors who work for them often targeted families to increase their removal rates.

The Home Office said today : "UK Border Agency fully recognises its responsibilities towards children but these responsibilities have to be exercised alongside our duty to enforce the laws on immigration and asylum. If a family decide to appeal against the courts decision while being detained the removal process is halted. If a judge agrees that there are fresh grounds for an appeal the family are usually returned back to the community until the case has been reviewed."

Immigration centres hold 470 children: report

(AFP) –

LONDON — More than 400 children were being held in immigration detention centres with their families, a report said Monday, citing official figures.

The Guardian newspaper said 470 children, many from countries suffering poverty and conflict such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Democratic Republic of Congo, were locked up after arriving in Britain.

The figures from the Home Office were provided for a single day, on June 30 this year.

Most of the children were aged under five, and almost one third were held for longer than 28 days, the newspaper said.

Out of 225 children released from detention in the second quarter of this year, only 100 were then removed from Britain.

Critics quoted by the left-of-centre daily said the statistics showed the UK Border Agency was failing in its duty to detain children only "as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time."

The Home Office said: "The UK Border Agency fully recognises its responsibilities towards children but these responsibilities have to be exercised alongside our duty to enforce the laws on immigration and asylum."

Copyright © 2009 AFP

Rwanda: The Grand Inga Project in DR Congo Will Be Like the Colonial Train and Road System

George Uwagiwabo

30 August 2009

---

Kigali — The setting is perfect for a good development story for Africa; its script is worth any prestigious award. Africa has enormous capacity to increase the production of hydro electricity, and to supply it to more than 500 million people on the continent, or so documents state.

This reminder comes in the wake of two electricity deals whose negotiations were announced last week between major insurance and investment companies in Europe as well as several African countries, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

According to the two deals, the increased power will be generated on the Grand Inga Dam project in Kinshasa, which is on the powerful falls of River Congo and is set to begin next year.

The other plan is in the Sahara desert where another project is to tap the solar extracted from the scorching heart of the sun to produce electricity.

The Grand Inga project was announced in 2008, but only then the information given at its launch indicated that it will significantly increase access to electricity by more Africans than ever before.

The Europeans were not mentioned as potential backers and customers of the new solution to Africa's energy shortfall.

Figures representing the power distribution were dropped, and sufficient interest and alarm was raised.

In DR Congo for example where the new Grand Inga electricity project is to be established, only 8 percent of the population is and will remain connected to the power grid according to the World Energy Council even with the end of the project.

And while the country is currently grappling with several wars, the idea of electricity wars is likely to feature also.

The second deal is also equally important but not controversial; it is undertaken by Desertec a solar energy specialist in Morocco and Algeria.

The electricity generated from here as well as from the Grand Inga will mostly be exported to Europe.

The Grand Inga is most crucial as it can and will be connecting largely settled parts of the continent to the electricity grid and therefore lighting up Africa and increasing investment opportunities in Africa. While the later is ideal because it will be established in the very sparsely populated Sahara region.

That at least is the rule book of the African Development Bank and the World Bank.

Sadly, it is these two organizations that are the ones working on plans to generate the hydro electricity from DR Congo and export it to Europe.

The two institutions have in fact worked out a deal with Europe such that investors, can start on the Grand Inga as early as 2010, and then sell it to a market that can afford.

And these people are in Europe, they have proven credibility to be trusted to pay for the power and they have a negotiable currency with which to negotiate and pay.

The mistrust of Africans and the absence of any effective mechanism financial or administrative, with which to negotiate such a deal ensured that the only people worthy of 'credit substance' to satisfy investors are in Europe. And so African electricity will supply and light Europe.

At current numbers electricity supply in most African countries including giants like South Africa, is limited to only urban areas while the average 80 percent of Africans that live in rural areas have never had electricity.

This is what created the notion of the 'dark continent,' and the announcement in 2008 of the Grand dam, was seen by many as a good attempt at solving energy problems.

Sold as a possible success story for the public private partnerships, the new deal will most probably start from where the road construction and railway network system stopped at the helm of colonialism in Africa.

Where the railway and road system passed by human settlements and interconnected only minefields, government agencies and international exits.

People that discussed the business of the transportation networks were mainly visitors. Africans saw vans cruise by with visitors that never stopped, they never even spoke their language, and these visitors were in most cases government, colonial and investment officials.

But while the African leaders during the time of the colonial deals were easily hustled by humble men driven by greed and racial superiority, the Africans that discuss the new deals as the two power projects in the week are a smooth talking bunch of advisers, consultants, negotiators and experts.

The earlier generation of African hustlers came at their will and did as they willed; today's hustlers are encouraged to come and asses Africa and then invite appropriate hustlers, kind of trouble-shooters.

It is difficult identifying between the fleecier and the fleeced. In Rwanda, the cost of sustaining their services in 2007 was Frw 73 billion, 4 percent of the entire GDP.

And the figure is not much different in other African countries. And they will not solve our problems. The bottom-line is that however well marketed the Grand Inga will be, it is not worth being given to the service and management of Europeans.

The rightly stated reason for transferring this otherwise crucial project to Europe-irrespective of the moral arguments Africans and our sympathizers will-is that Africans do not have a have viable creditability or mechanism to uphold commitment to pay for the investment.

To develop this credit history, there needs to be a private sector that is competitive, diverse and sizable.

It will help with the creation of a stable financial market and an efficient, peaceful and stable central government system.

So Africans now alongside microfinance need to start the process of learning about equity, shares, management of trading and investment institutions as well as moving from mere consumption to participation in the management of the economy.

This will involve at the start, a debate to move away from fighting for land to what we can use the land for. That is the challenge presented by the two deals in my simple opinion, not the arrogance of the Europeans to fleece away resources from Africa again.

The recent offer of Kenya's Safaricom shares for East Africans to purchase was a right step.

Copyright © 2009 The New Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Girl soldiers

Girls face inhuman treatment when pressed into service in the Congo's incessant warfare. Uma Thurman will soon star in "Girl Soldier" - Hollywood's film attempt to recount the horror.

Monday, August 31, 2009

by Martyn Drakard

St. Mary’s, Aboke, in northern Uganda, is a typical boarding-school for girls established by religious sisters in Central Africa; it might never have been heard of were it not for Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that has been terrorizing northern Uganda, and now Congo and South Sudan, for the past twenty-odd years. One night in 1996 the rebel army crept up on the school dormitories and abducted about 150 girls, herding them into the forest. A brave Italian sister, assisted by one of the male staff, went in pursuit, offered her life for the girls to be set at liberty, and managed to have over one hundred released. A few others had managed to escape in the confusion, while some thirty were captured.

The last one to get away was Catherine Ajok, who fled into the Congo forest in December 2008 when Ugandan army soldiers tried to destroy Kony’s base, where she was held. For several weeks, clinging to her child, she endured tropical rain, hunger and wild animals, and was eventually rescued by Congolese soldiers and handed over to the Ugandan army and flown back to Entebbe and her parents.

The story of the Aboke girls is heart-rending, one of the many of this insurgency, and it is now to be filmed by Hollywood director, Will Raee, starring Uma Thurmann as the intrepid Sister Rachele. The account follows the book written by another former abductee, Grace Akello, and published as “Girl Soldier”; Grace was fifteen at the time. The Aboke story ended more or less well. Many other stories did not.

If the team making this film, or any other film or publication on the LRA war, want to do justice to what really happened, they cannot fail to ask why the insurgency wasn’t crushed earlier, and why the rebel leaders have been allowed to roam around at will for so long. Fingers should not be pointed only at the Ugandan authorities –although they have tough questions to answer- but the international community too.

They must also attempt to reflect the collective tragedy of a whole people, the people of northern Uganda: the Acholi, Kony’s own people whom he is trying to punish for not supporting him sufficiently; and their neighbors, the Langi who Kony drew into the fray. Aboke is in fact in Langi territory. One of the last massacres of the war was not far from Aboke, at Barlonyo where the rebels attacked a displacement camp just after sunset one evening and killed three hundred people, according to the locals. The official numbers of dead is about half that, as inscribed on the crumbling, neglected monument built to honor the victims. The camp is still there, desolate, wretched, home to a few men who find consolation in drink, mothers trying hard to cope, and naked children with ring-worm and distended bellies.

The LRA war is one more among the forgotten wars of central Africa. And with it came an equally overlooked humanitarian catastrophe. At the peak of the fighting nearly two million were confined to internal displacement camps: partly for their own security, and partly to prevent some of them “collaborating with the rebels”. Over the past two years the camps have been gradually emptying, but several thousands still languish there. Either they are afraid or too unmotivated to move out; or they have nowhere to go and nothing to go back to, their land having been taken or now the object of dispute after twenty years of civil disruption.

The camps are squalid. The World Food Program has done a good job, in tough circumstances, by managing to keep people from starving to death. They are turning off the taps now, however. Mothers of households sit in the dust and smoke and ashes of the never-dying fires, trying to keep their families from falling apart. Young men, many of them born in the camps, are drunk by mid-morning. Many of those who moved out don’t want to go back to the village; they operate boda-bodas (motor-cycle taxis) in Gulu and the trading centers that are now coming back to life. A whole family sleeps in the same dirty, lice-filled hut: parents, teenagers, children, boys and girls, thereby over-turning strongly-held traditions whereby the sexes and generations are separated carefully for certain ceremonies and functions. In some camps the children have been lucky and have benefited from basic schooling, and Church pastors and catechists have tried to keep the people’s faith alive.

Virtually every family has been affected. The eldest son of a family I know near Gulu was abducted three times and escaped every time. He was among the few incredibly lucky ones. The family could afford to send the remaining sons to boarding schools near Kampala for safety. One of the sons of their neighbor was kidnapped and has never been heard of since.

I have spoken with a cross-section of people from the Acholi and Langi areas: former child soldiers, counselors, catechists and teachers who worked in the camps and pastors.

One young man I interviewed was abducted twice and escaped both times; he was unlucky enough to be related to one of the wives of Kony. He was ready to talk about it and as he mentioned the horrendous things he witnessed, was forced to do or be killed if he didn’t, my mind opened to the utter depravity of human malice. He was with the rebels for a total of four years.

Another young man, in his late teens, was abducted for only a few days, but experienced enough to turn his mind. Some weeks later I heard he had been burnt to death: suicide was suspected. A catechist who was abducted with his parish priest from a remote mission managed to run away after eighteen months; the priest was released straightaway. His escape, he told me, meant gambling with his life, literally. If the LRA soldiers caught him he would be killed slowly and cruelly, or shot in the back. If, when he returned to safety, the people who he met first didn’t recognize him or believe his story, but suspected he was a rebel in disguise, testing the waters for an attack, they would kill him too. He was, luckily, recognized by the local pastor and welcomed back to safety.

Women had it harder than men. In a school for child-mothers run by an American non-governmental organization near Gulu, I interviewed a young mother who had been carefully selected and accompanied by the matron who translated for me. Her baby in her lap, the girl told us her story serenely and factually, but she was extraordinary. Most of the girls there undergo terrible ordeals during rehabilitation: nightmares, hysteria, and unpredictable behavior.

The nuns and lay-people who provide counseling for the many victims do heroic work, and from their stories one gets some faint idea of the suffering and the trauma the abducted have gone through to be turned into zombies and brutes: “kill or be killed”, they are ordered. “Here’s the machete!” Or, “bite her to death!” they are told. Many in the villages were mutilated –ears, nose or lips cut off-, on suspicion of “informing”.

Now the reconstruction of the region has started and life is returning to a certain normality, but it will take twenty or thirty years –no-one knows how long for sure- for the people to emotionally and psychologically recover. It is a pity the international media and most aid organizations came in after much of the damage had been done. The dead have been buried or left in the forests. It is many of the living who have to come to terms with the terrible memories that will haunt them forever. Fortunately the Acholi and Langi are resilient, practical and tough, and realize that the best is to get on with life, and patch up the past as best they can. If Uma Thurmann and Will Raee manage to capture this sense of tragedy and humiliation, as well as the hope, they will have done Ugandans a worthwhile service.

Martyn Drakard is a freelance writer based in Kenya.

Red Cross helps man trace family

A man who lost touch with his wife and eight children after being being forced to flee his home in central Africa, retraced them with the Red Cross' help.

Jose Mputu, who now lives in Cardiff, left the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 and fell into depression after being unable to contact his family.

After tracking down his wife's new address, the Red Cross network helped Mr Mputu get a message to her.

Months later he received one back and the family spoke on the telephone.

Families like Mr Mputu's, which are separated by war or disaster, can be helped by the British Red Cross international tracing and messaging service (ITMS) which works through the global network of Red Cross and Red Crescent movements to put them back in touch.

The organisation is trying to trace the relatives of more than 2,000 families who have been separated as a result of the conflicts in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq among other countries.

Mr Mputu, who now works as a Red Cross volunteer, said he was in regular contact with his family when he first had to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“ My wife wrote a message for hope, and I gripped it, I held the letter in my hand, it was like I was kissing her! ”
Jose Mputu

"I was phoning them every day. I couldn't sleep without hearing from them. I would give time to every child, sharing ideas, it was like I was with them," he said.

"One day I phoned and I couldn't get through. I thought maybe it was some trouble with the network and it would be ok. I tried again, but nothing. After a few days it became very serious. I thought, my country is in a war situation, anything could happen."

Mr Mputu was so distressed by his inability to contact his family that he needed treatment for depression.

Eventually, through friends, he managed to get an address for his family and contacted the Red Cross to help him put them back in touch.

ITMS staff asked him to draw a map of the city, and write down all the details he had of his family's whereabouts, as well as a message to them.

The Red Cross said staff and volunteers around the world hand deliver these messages to remote locations, often enquiring door to door until they find the intended recipient.

After several months, Mr Mputu discovered he had received a reply from his wife.

"It was very wonderful," he said.

"My wife wrote a message for hope. And I gripped it, I held the letter in my hand, it was like I was kissing her!

"I wrote a reply the same day and at night I put it under my pillow. I can't describe how happy I was this day."

Caseload

Mr Mputu's reply included his contact details and soon afterwards he received a phone call from his wife.

"It was the first time I had heard her voice in many months. A very wonderful day again! I bought two phone cards and called her back. We spoke for two hours!" He said.

"The next day we did the same thing. I bought three phone cards and gave every child the time to talk, to express, to talk about everything.

"It's a bit like something new came into my life."

The British Red Cross ITMS said in 2008 it traced 476 people and exchanged 527 messages between families and their relatives.

More than 10% of its caseload still related to families trying to discover the fate of loved ones who they lost contact with as a result of World War II.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8227904.stm

Published: 2009/08/30 08:12:52 GMT

© BBC MMIX

DR CONGO: Minister intervenes in chaotic university 30 August 2009

Issue: 0036


The Minister for University Education, Leonard Mashako Mamba, has intervened to try to restore order at the medical faculty of the University of Kinshasa (Unikin), following operational malfunctions including overlapping academic years, abnormal length of courses, absent teachers and programmes that are not followed.

According to La Prospérité of Kinshasa, students needed up to 10 years to complete their six-year courses because of the chaotic state of affairs. The paper said that students from the medical and polytechnic faculties had also written to President Joseph Kabila and Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito to draw attention to the problems and call for rapid solutions.

Mamba held a series of meetings with students, lecturers, university authorities and police to discuss the dysfunctional situation at the faculty where, reported Le Potentiel of Kinshasa, some academic staff had even received death threats. Students and lecturers explained the difficulties which confronted them, which included non-payment for equipment necessary for carrying out practical work - although students had each been charged US$25 for it.

Le Potentiel reported that for medical students from the years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 who had not completed their courses or carried out internships, the minister agreed to the academic authorities' decision to ask them to continue their studies with the 2008-09 students.

Mamba asked the teaching staff to protect the medical profession by guaranteeing teaching quality and behaving responsibly with regard to the fragility of the profession. He also reminded them of the rules of ethics with regard to keeping the statutory distance between teachers and pupils, reported Le Potentiel.

(Prospérité)
(Potentiel)

Congo: Norwegians face death sentence

The two Norwegians on trial for alleged murder and espionage in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday heard the councel for the prosecution ask for a death sentence times five for the two.

He had earlier demanded a total of US$ 500 billion in damages from the Norwegian state.

The two, Tjostolv Moland (28) and Joshua French (27), were detained and jailed in DR Congo earlier this summer, charged with killing their driver/translator on May 5th.

Later they were also charged with espionage for Norway, and for arms smuggling.

The two Norwegians both deny the accusations, saying the driver was shot in an ambush by a group of guerillas while driving through the jungle, while they themselves were able to escape.

According to reports, the two say they were in the process of setting up a private security company in the region.

A verdict is expected sometime next week.

(NRK)

Rolleiv Solholm

Diseases Threaten African Banana Crops

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
28 August 2009

A Senegalese banana vendor in Dakar, Senegal (file photo)

Two separate diseases that attack banana crops are spreading rapidly across central, eastern and southern Africa, threatening food supplies for as many as 30 million people. Scientists are rushing to develop disease management strategies that can help avert a major food crisis in the coming months.

Leading plant health scientists meeting in Arusha, Tanzania says nearly half of the banana-growing regions of sub-Saharan Africa have been infected with one of the world's most invasive diseases for which there is no cure.

The banana bunchy top disease causes all the leaves of the banana plant to sprout from the top and stunt the plant's growth. Several attacks of the viral disease were recorded in central and southern Africa last year. A recent survey suggests the disease has now taken root in 12 countries in central and southern Africa, including Congo Kinshasa and Brazzaville, Gabon, Angola and Malawi.

The scientist who led the survey, Lava Kumar of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, tells VOA that it is as if the plant world has developed its own version of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS in humans.

"It is a very silent killer. It can enter your farm and it stays quietly there," he said. "And suddenly, it exhibits its symptoms. By the time you realize [it], your whole farm is infected with the problem."

Kumar says a plant infected with bunchy top disease does not die, but it is unable to produce any fruit.

A survey conducted earlier this year showed another disease that has been devastating banana crops in Uganda and Congo Kinshasa for years has infected numerous farms across east Africa. The disease, banana bacterial wilt, kills off plants and makes the fruit inedible.

A crop specialist at Biodiversity International, Eldad Karumura, says like the banana bunchy top disease, bacterial wilt is spread by insects and can wipe out yields because few varieties of bananas have any resistance.

"By 2006, it was already in five other countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and I think it is about to enter Burundi," said Karumura.

Scientists say farmers need to take drastic measures now to stop the spread of the disease and to avert a disaster. They recommend excavating entire banana fields and treating them with pesticides or burning the plants.

In several countries, both diseases already appear to be at play. The crisis is threatening to worsen hunger and deepen poverty for some 30 million people in Africa, who rely on the banana for food and income.

Scientists say they are working to raise public awareness of the diseases and to develop national and regional strategies that can help affected countries respond to the threat.

Congo-Kinshasa: Mutinous Soldiers Add to Civilian Fear in East

28 August 2009

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Kinshasa — A mutiny over pay, by a section of the army in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Uvira territory, is restricting population movement and heightening fear, say officials.

Meanwhile, farther north, an escalation in attacks by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has prompted large-scale displacement.

The Congolese army (FARDC) is in Uvira, South Kivu Province, in an operation to oust Rwandan Hutu FDLR [Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda] militia there.

"It [the mutiny] was [caused by] some FARDC soldiers who were demanding their four-month salary arrears," Victor Chomachoma, the Uvira territory administrator, said.

"[They] were firing into the air the whole day [and] barricaded roads, preventing all [pedestrian and vehicle] movement on the Uvira-Kamanyola axis." The road goes to Bukavu, the main town in the province.

Chomachoma said the mutiny had forced the population to stay in their homes on 26 August.

Confirming the mutiny, the spokesman for the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Lt. Col Jean-Paul Dietrich, said about 50 FARDC soldiers were involved.

The two said military authorities had convinced the mutineers to remove the blockades even if they had not been paid.

The mutiny has led to an increase in fear among residents already affected by ongoing anti-FDLR military operations.

Residents had to endure artillery fire on the night of 26 August following an FDLR attack on the village of Sange, 15km north of Uvira, he said.

The village of Nyakabere was also under fire on 25 August in an attack lasting 30 minutes, said Dietrich, adding that "two FARDC soldiers were injured and three FDLR militia killed. [The dead] were carried away by their fleeing colleagues."

"Three civilians, among them two girls, suffered bullet injuries. [Some] 53 houses were burnt by the FDLR, who also took away goats, sheep and cows," Chomachoma said.

Lord's Resistance Army, LRA, members (file photo): At least 125,000 people have been displaced in the past three weeks alone by LRA attacks in Haut Uele, Orientale Province

Farther north in Orientale Province, at least 125,000 people have been displaced in the past three weeks alone by LRA attacks in the district of Haut Uele, says the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

"A staggering 540,000 Congolese have been uprooted in Orientale by deadly LRA assaults since September 2008," UNHCR said in a 28 August statement.

During the same period, the rebels have reportedly killed some 1,270 people and abducted 655 children.

The attacks have caused about 8,000 Congolese to flee to neighbouring Southern Sudan and the Central African Republic. Of these, 6,500 are in the Western Equatoria region of Southern Sudan, where recent LRA attacks in the area of Ezo forced UN staff to evacuate.

Humanitarian agencies estimate that at least two million people have been displaced by anti-FDLR operations and FDLR counter-attacks since January in eastern DRC. This figure surpasses that during the 2006 civil war.

Recently, the DRC government said it would continue military operations against Rwandan militias in the eastern provinces until they were dislodged from Congolese soil.

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

Copyright © 2009 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

In Congo, UN's Alan Doss is Flying While Union Chief Maintains He's Banned

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 27 -- Alan Doss, the British chief of the UN's Mission in the Congo MONUC who has been documented to have asked for a bending and breaking of UN rules to have his daughter hired in the UN Development Program, on Wednesday claimed of the Kimia 2 operation, criticized for resulting in further displacement and of being co-coordinated by indicted war criminal Bosco Ntagana, "the outcome is largely positive."

From the point of view of UN headquarters, then, Alan Doss is "on message," as well as representing Permanent Five Security Council member the UK. Could this explain the lengths to which the UN is going to defend Doss' nepotism, personal use of Mission resources and mismanagement of relations with the local staff? Click here for local UN staff e-mail.

On Doss' April 20 e-mail to UNDP asking for "leeway," widely described in the UN as outrageous, still nothing has been done. The UN and Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York have also refused, since August 14 and 17 respectively, to provide any answer to whether Alan Doss has used UN resources for his family in his previous non-family post in Liberia, where sources tell Inner City Press Doss tried to bend rules to get a job for his wife with UN Volunteers.

On the Congo, the UN on Thursday after more than 10 days responded, though a spokesperson who has asked to remain nameless, that

on your " family question": As far as we can determine, there is no rule against staff members receiving visits from family members. Mrs. Doss has visited the DRC and has stayed in-country on several occasions since Mr. Doss became SRSG. She doesn’t reside in the DRC. Mrs Doss has flown on UN aircraft in the DRC (during the SG’s visit earlier this year, for example). There is no rule against non-MONUC or non-UN personnel flying on UN/MONUC flights. In the DRC, non-MONUC passengers fly on a space-available basis and according to categories of priority (reimbursement is not normally sought for travel by non-MONUC passengers on MONUC flights.)

Beyond Doss' reported seeking of "leeway" in Liberia, as in New York, the above does not address whether other MONUC staffers can bring family to the non-family location and fly for free on UN planes. Who can do it? And who decides?

Alan Doss shaking in Congo, staff and UNDP victims not shown

On staff relations in the Congo, the UN on Thursday morning wrote

Subj: Your Report/Question on MONUC and Mr. Nondo
From: unspokesperson-donotreply [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 8/27/2009 10:19:21 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time

Dear Matthew, Your report regarding MONUC and Mr. Nondo was incorrect.

MONUC informs that Mr. Nondo has neither been banned from MONUC premises, nor suspended.

While for the record Inner City Press appended the incorrect position to its initial article, Inner City Press has Mr. Guershom Nondo's e-mail about the situation, and now puts it online here. Nondo states:

"Please be advised that starting this morning I am not allowed to enter MONUC premises... MONUC administration has decided to put me in administrative leave starting this morning until further notice. This decision is related to ... the ongoing interim Salary Survey as well as all similar activities."

Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesperson's office, which erroneous charged error, for a response, even suggesting they seek one from DFS Officer in Charge Tony Banbury, but none has been received. Banbury has been aware from the first article that the issue is being raised. Is the claim, as with the UNDP worker whose job Doss stole for his daughter, that the lower ranked staff member is lying? How low will the UN go? How much abuse of power will be permitted?

Some 125,000 flee east DR Congo rebel attacks: UNHCR

(AFP)

GENEVA — At least 125,000 people have fled their homes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past three weeks amid "large scale destruction" by Ugandan rebels, the UN refugee agency said Friday.

"The Ugandan rebel group, the so-called Lord's Resistance Army, continues to cause large scale destruction and displacement in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo," said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"At least 125,000 people are known to have been driven out of their villages in Haut Uele district of Orientale province by the LRA in the last three weeks alone," he added.

Some 1,270 people have been killed and over half a million people uprooted from the province by the violence since September 2008.

"The rebel group is accused of widespread killings, kidnappings of civilians and raping of women," said Mahecic.

The UNHCR also lamented that the insecurity and impassable roads were hampering relief agencies' ability to access the needy.

The DR Congo, Ugandan and South Sudanese armies had launched a major joint military operation against the LRA from the end of 2008 to March 2009, but failed to quell the rebel force, which has long battled in north Uganda and retreated across the DRC border.

Copyright © 2009 AFP.

Executive Director joins NBA star to launch new health facilities in DR Congo

© UNICEF DR Congo/2009/Asselin

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman stands by a bed occupied by Gabriel Kelani, 7, who is recovering from malaria, in the paediatric ward of the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital in Kinshasa, DR Congo.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a five-day visit to assess the situation of women and children amidst what is widely seen as Africa's worst humanitarian crisis. Here is one in a series of related reports.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 26 August 2009 – As this country tries to recover from years of civil war and unrest, the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital (BMMH) offers hope in an impoverished Kinshasa neighbourhood.

VIDEO: Watch now

Mutombo Hospital, opened in 2007, aims to be a model for the rebuilding of a national medical system in DR Congo, where the collapse of the health care infrastructure has left millions vulnerable to a multitude of illnesses that are easily preventable in much of the developed world.

“We have suffered a lot,” says Dikembe Mutombo, the Congolese-American basketball legend whose foundation built the hospital named in memory of his mother. “The civil unrest in the country has destroyed the fabric of our society when it comes to the health care system,” he added.

Monitoring, treatment and prevention
Yesterday, at a ceremony attended by Mutombo and UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman, BMMH launched two ‘centres of excellence’ – the Immune System Monitoring Laboratory and the Occupational Safety Centre for Health Workers.

The new lab will improve monitoring and treatment of patients living with HIV/AIDS. The safety centre will train more than 300 clinicians on prevention of occupational disease contagion.

“People come to health centres to get rid of diseases,” said Dr. Mireille Kanda, Senior Advisor with the Mutombo Foundation, “and we don’t want anyone leaving here with something they didn’t arrive with.”

A US-based medical technology partner, Becton, Dickinson and Company, will provide a range of safety-engineered injection and blood collection devices, as well as laboratory and occupational safety training for at least 330 health care workers.

A model for health care
At the inauguration of the new centres, Veneman cited the hospital as an example of what a health care system could look like if it were properly implemented throughout the country.

© UNICEF DR Congo/2009/Asselin

Outside one of the new ‘centres of excellence’ at Mutombo Hospital, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman (left) stands with NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo (back centre), DR Congo Minister of Public Health Mwami Mopipi Mukulumany (far right) and Becton, Dickinson Executive Vice-President Gary Cohen (third from right).

“The Democratic Republic of Congo remains one of the poorest countries in Africa, with poverty, conflict and disease contributing to a public health crisis,” she said. “Partnerships such as the one we recognize today are addressing this devastating situation and help provide an infrastructure for expanded care and services to those who otherwise would not have access to these life-saving resources.”

Since 1998, some 5 million people have died from war, hunger and disease in DR Congo. More than 500,000 children under the age of five die every year here, mostly from preventable causes such as cholera, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition.

ICC prosecutor argues against release of Congo rebel leader Bemba

08/26/09: Jurist reports that chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday filed arguments against releasing former Democratic Republic of Congo rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba. The ICC ordered Bemba's conditional release earlier this month, a decision which Moreno-Ocampo immediately appealed.

08/15/09: Jurist reports that the International Criminal Court on Friday ordered the conditional release of former Democratic Republic of Congo rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba, a decision which Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced he would appeal. The court found no evidence to suggest that Bemba would pose a danger, interfere with court proceedings, or fail to appear for trial.

06/29/09: CNN reports that former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba is Monday due to appear before the International Criminal Court, where he faces war crimes charges of rape, torture and pillaging during civil war in the African republic. Bemba, who was arrested near Brussels in May, is accused by the ICC of commanding a rebel group that carried out a widespread attack against civilians between October 2002 and March 2003.

06/16/09: Reuters reports that the International Criminal Court on Monday ordered former Congolese rebel warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba to stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape and pillaging.

01/13/09: Jurist reports that the International Criminal Court began a confirmation of charges hearing against former Democratic Republic of Congo vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba. Bemba, originally arrested in May 2008 by Belgian authorities, faces charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity for violations allegedly committed in the Central African Republic between October 2002 and March 2003. ICC prosecutors said Bemba is responsible for ordering troops to use rape and torture to intimidate CAR civilians against supporting rebel forces in the country. Lawyers for Bemba argued that the forces that allegedly committed the crimes were acting under the authority of the CAR government, and that the charges against Bemba were politically motivated.

Congo-Kinshasa: Bemba Free, But Where to Go?

Eugène Bakama Bope

26 August 2009

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analysis

Accused war criminal Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, the former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has been granted conditional release pending his trial but a country has first to be found to accommodate him.

The prosecution at the International Criminal Court, ICC, has appealed against the decision made on August 14 - though in principle Bemba is now free to await trial outside of detention.

Legally speaking, the court probably had no choice.

If we are to believe in a fair and unprejudiced justice system, then a detainee must be granted bail, so long as he has given adequate assurances that he will appear at his trial, and will not pose any obstacle to its proceedings.

Freedom should always be the principle and detention the exception.

Bemba is head of the largest political party in the DRC - the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, MLC - and his conditional release comes at a fortuitous time.

The party, which had been flailing in the political wings, now has an excellent opportunity to regroup ahead of the country's national elections, due to be held in 2011.

The MLC fought against the Congolese government during the country's civil war between 1998 and 2003. Following the end of the hostilities, the MLC participated in the transitional government, with Bemba as one of the vice-presidents.

In the 2006 presidential elections, Bemba won the second highest number of votes in the country, marking him as a formidable opponent capable of unseating President Joseph Kabila.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bemba on May 24, 2008, for his alleged involvement in atrocities committed in the Central African Republic, CAR, in 2002-2003 when MLC soldiers were drafted in to help oppose a coup attempt.

Bemba's conditional release in no way pre-determines the outcome of the trial, which is still ongoing.

But, in appealing against the decision, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the court, expressed concern that Bemba could flee, and moreover could harm or intimidate witnesses crucial to his trial.

The prosecution team has so far had noticeably little success in finding anyone upon whom the atrocities in CAR can be pinned. Following lengthy investigations, Bemba was the only one to be charged.

From the very beginning, there was widespread speculation in the DRC that Bemba's detention was no more than a cynical move by Kabila to get rid of a dangerous political adversary.

News of his release is likely to reinforce this view at home, and provide the MLC with fresh ammunition against Kabila.

It has also given a tremendous morale boost to party members, who now have a central leader around whom they can once again rally.

The ultimate hope within the party is to have Bemba tried and acquitted ahead of the 2011 elections.

Having him eventually back on home soil, where he continues to enjoy considerable support, could help raise the MLC's performance at the polls significantly.

However, given the tight timetable, even if he is acquitted he may not make it back to the country in time.

For all the excitement surrounding his release, Bemba's direct influence over the party apparatus will be limited.

Inevitably, the ICC will impose tight conditions that will not allow him to reassert control over the party or interfere in the DRC's domestic politics.

Moreover, he will be barred from returning to the DRC, and so all communication with party members would have to be from abroad.

Bemba could enjoy greater influence over Congolese politics if he were to be released to a nation where there is a large expatriate community from his home country.

However, this now looks unlikely.

Bemba has suggested six countries as possible hosts: Belgium, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy and South Africa and the ICC will hold hearings with these countries in September to see what they say.

Three of them - Belgium, France and South Africa - have large Congolese populations. Bemba also maintains strong family ties in Belgium.

But none appears particularly willing to offer Bemba temporary residence.

Belgium and France have openly said that they are not in a position to accommodate the former rebel leader, fearing that accepting Bemba could create internal frictions. South Africa has remained non-committal, and stressed that it has not yet made any offer to play host.

It is therefore probable that, once he is released, Bemba will have to opt for somewhere that is more detached from his home country's affairs.

This will no doubt curtail his political involvement, even if it does not diminish the excitement with which news of his imminent release has been met by party members.

The views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of IWPR.

Congo Mai Mai Militias Want To Be Part Of National Army-Radio

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Up to 1,700 Mai Mai militias, operating in Walikale, the main tin mining district in Congo’s North Kivu province, have asked to be integrated into the national army in a bid to improve security in the mineral-rich region, U.N. sponsored Radio Okapi reports Thursday.

Radio Okapi reported that militia leaders have written to the Congolese military in a letter dated Aug. 20 complaining they had waited for four months now to be integrated, a situation that is forcing some of the combatants to defect to the Rwandan Hutu rebels.

Early this month, a group of Mai Mai militias attacked the Bisie tin mine in Walikale, and killed up to 16 miners. The militias also looted mineral ores, mining equipment and money from Congo’s largest tin mine.

Major Sylvain Ekenge, a spokesman for the Congolese army, told Okapi separately that the militias who want to integrate into the national army must follow the right procedures. He said the army had completed the integration process in North Kivu and is now concentrating on South Kivu. The volatile Kivu provinces produce nearly all of Congo’s tin. Congo is Africa’s largest producer of the metal.

-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +256 75 262 4615; bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk

Thousands at risk from DR Congo lake gas

Tue Aug 25, 2009 4:45pm GMT

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Gases trapped below the surface of a lake in eastern Congo could explode any day, threatening the lives of tens of thousands of locals, the country's environment minister warned on Tuesday.

Huge amounts of carbon dioxide and highly combustible methane gas are dissolved in Lake Kivu, which straddles the heavily populated border between Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Rwanda.

Though scientists believe the overall danger across the lake as a whole is minimal, researchers have discovered a pocket of gas in the relatively shallow Gulf of Kabuno, in the lake's northwest corner.

"The risk of explosion is imminent," Jose Endundo said.

"It's like a bottle of Coca-Cola or champagne. If there is too much pressure inside the bottle, it will explode. It's the same phenomenon," Endundo told Reuters in an interview.

An estimated three cubic kilometres of carbon dioxide lie just 12 metres below the surface of the gulf, which sits atop a tectonic faultline.

Scientists fear a major earthquake or large lava flow from a nearby volcano could provoke a giant release of gas, creating a deadly cloud.

An eruption of some 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 that had been trapped under Lake Nyos in isolated northwestern Cameroon killed around 1,700 people in 1986.

"The risk is that this gas escapes and asphyxiates thousands of people. There is an urgent need to evacuate gas from the Gulf of Kabuno, which now holds 10 times the amount of carbon dioxide that Lake Nyos contained," Endundo said

Several large villages lie on the shores of the Gulf of Kabuno, and the city of Goma, with a population of around 1 million, is located around 20 km (13 miles) to the east.

"Anything is possible, if this cloud is pushed by the wind," said Michel Halbwachs, a volcanologist and Lake Kivu expert with France's Universite de Savoie.

"We could have a very light scenario or we could have a very heavy scenario ... Entire neighbourhoods could be hit," he said of a region whose inhabitants are already suffering mass killings and rapes as Congolese soldiers battle rebels.

The World Bank has set aside $3 million to fund a project to remove gas from the gulf, Endundo said, adding that Congo was looking for other sources of finance to complete the project.

Proponents of commercial extraction projects say pumping out Lake Kivu's carbon dioxide along with its potentially lucrative methane reserves could help alleviate the danger of a gas eruption on the lake as a whole.

Earlier this year, Congo and Rwanda agreed to a joint project to produce 200 megawatts of power from Lake Kivu's methane reserves.

Rwanda has already begun extracting small amounts of methane using a demonstration rig on its side of the lake. It was producing two megawatts of power by the end of 2008.

reuters

Uganda, Congo relations back to normal

Publication date: Tuesday, 25th August, 2009

Oryem dances with a guest as ambassador Okoto and his wife also swing to the music

By Alex Balimwikungu and Henry Mukasa

UGANDA and the DR Congo have restored full diplomatic relations 15 years after they severed them.

Congo's newly-posted envoy Jean Charles Okoto Lulakombe presented his credentials to President Yoweri Museveni at State House Entebbe on Monday.

Uganda's ambassador to Kinshasha Maj. James Kinobe reported to his station in March and presented his credentials to President Joseph Kabila.

The relations suffered when the UPDF entered the Congo in 1997 in pursuit of ADF and NALU rebels holed up in the east of the country.

Yesterday, the neighbours toasted to a new chapter at a reception hosted by Ambassador Okoto at Serena Hotel, Kampala on Monday evening.

State minister for foreign affairs Okello Oryem, who was the chief guest, said the relations were bound to improve when Congo, late last year, let Uganda hunt down LRA rebels in Garamba Forest.

It isn't surprising that the two countries are exchanging ambassadors, after a lull of 15 years, Oryem said. For Uganda and the DRC to exchange ambassadors presents a new dawn.

The diner hosted in the exquisite Serena main hall was spiced by wining, dining and dancing. Local artiste Joanita Kawalya and a Congolese band with Mutuashi dance icon Tshala Muwana entertained the guests.

Other VIPs in attendance were the special presidential adviser on military affairs, Salim Saleh, Elly Karuhanga, the Seychelles consul and several African diplomats. They all joined the dance floor after a sumptuous dinner.

We are brothers. Days of intrigue between the countries are gone. We pledge unreserved co-operation and assistance, Oryem stated.

We should take advantage of this momentum for the benefit of the people of both countries.

On his part, Okoto said Uganda and the DR Congo had wasted time in the past.

There is time for war and peace. Now is the time to promote business because of guaranteed security in the DR Congo," he said.

Museveni and Kabila met at Mpondwe border post in Kasese on March 3 and agreed to normalise relations.

This was after Congo in 1999 sued Uganda in the International Court of Justice for plunder and Uganda was ordered to pay $10b in reparations.

Museveni has met Kabila several times to iron out differences. One such meeting was in September 2007 in Arusha where the two leaders signed the Ngurdoto pact. Congo agreed to flush out LRA rebels from Garamba.

The two presidents again met last May in Dar-es-Salaam over the disputed border of Rukwanzi Island.

This article can be found on-line at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/692444

In Congo, UN's Embattled Doss Bars Union Chief from Premises, Scandal Expands

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 25 -- Alan Doss, the Special Representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the Congo, is embroiled in a nepotism scandal at UNDP in New York. Meanwhile in Kinshasa, he has barred Guershom Nondo, the president of the MONUC staff union, from UN premises.

When on August 25 the Staff Union in New York sought to solve this labor problem, they were first told that the head of Peacekeeping's Department of Field Support is away from New York. Her deputy, Tony Banbury, was deemed too busy with other meetings to attend to this problem in the Congo. Finally a lower ranking official said that the "Special Representative" -- that is, Alan Doss -- would surely take care of the problem.

But how can the UN preach good governance, transparency and labor rights, particularly in the Congo, when the chief of its mission there explicitly asked the UN Development Program to bend its rules -- show him "leeway" -- and give his daughter the job of the assistant to the Deputy Director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, who was subsequently pepper sprayed by UN Security after he displayed Doss' email asking for "leeway." He then allegedly bit Security Office Peter Kolonias, but that's another story.

UN's Alan Doss in Goma -- preaching?

And here is another story: a UN whistleblower who served in Liberia says that while it is a non-family duty station, Doss brought family members there, something prohibited to other UN staff, and tried to get them hired, for example by UN Volunteers. Inner City Press has been told this by several well-placed sources. The UN has still refused to answer questions posed in writing on August 14 to Ban's Spokesperson's Office and August 14 to Peacekeeping, "Please describe and account for -- including use of UN / Mission resources including air resources -- any presence by Doss family members along with Mr. Doss in DRC, and before that in Liberia (for that latter, including any effort to use UN Volunteers resources)."

For seven and ten days, no answers from the UN. Inner City Press has asked Doss for his side the the story and received a terse email that he began at DPKO on July 1, the rest is being investigated.

On August 24, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson Michele Montas if, as has been said would happen, Ban has received a report on l'affaire Doss now that Ban has been back in New York for five days. No, the Spokesperson said:

Inner City Press: Marie had said … now it’s, I don’t know, about 10 days ago … that the Secretary-General took these allegations about Mr. Doss, the job that UNDP -- the whole nepotism issue seriously, and he expected to receive a report on his return to New York. I am wondering, has he received this report yet? And if not, when is he going to receive it?

Spokesperson: Well, you know, I asked the question today and the answer I got is that he has not received the report yet, and is still expecting it from UNDP.

Inner City Press: Because, the thing is, when she said it, she said it was somehow different than the UNDP one. She said he expected to receive it upon his return to New York. That’s why it sort of seemed to be maybe just an update on what had had happened, or why the investigation is taking so long.

Spokesperson: As far as I know, he has received nothing new about the case.