TANZANIAN POLICE INVESTIGATES ARMS SALE TO REBELS IN DR CONGO

SIMBEYE (TANZANIA), Dec 8 (NNN-DAILYNEWS) — INSPECTOR General of Police Mr Said Mwema has said that Tanzanian police have launched a formal inquiry of individuals accused by a United Nations report of smuggling weapons to rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

?For the police, the first step towards investigating a tip-off is an inquiry which we have already launched against individuals mentioned in the report,? said Mr Mwema who introduced a maiden questions-and- answer session with the media involving all top brass police at the headquarters.

Mr Mwema was providing additional information after Director of Criminal Investigations, Robert Manumba?s response to journalists who wanted to know the law enforcers’ position on the subject.

?The sad part was to name a country as a culprit instead of individuals,? DCI Manumba said earlier.

He reiterated Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister, Bernard Membe?s position that the UN experts report had no substantial evidence to link the government with the arms smuggling scandal.

Mr Manumba also stressed that individuals named in the UN report may be involved in weapons smuggling to eastern DR Congo based FDLR Hutu rebels who have wreaked havoc to innocent civilians and destroyed property.

In its draft report which the UN System Coordinator in Dar es Salaam said was pre-maturely published by the media, the UN experts said the FDLR received significant deliveries of weapons and ammunition in 2009 from outside the DRC, in particular equipment that had been smuggled into South Kivu across Lake Tanganyika from Tanzania.

?The group has corroborated such information through several interviews with FDLR ex-combatants who personally witnessed such arms transfers, and from the group?s analysis of phone records of an individual who is in communication with both the FDLR and Tanzanian officials who the group has confirmed as being part of an arms trafficking network,? the report said.

Four FDLR ex-combatants interviewed separately by the Group have confirmed several deliveries of weapons and ammunition to FDLR units based in the Uvira and Fizi areas of South Kivu since November 2008, the report noted.

Speaking soon after the report?s publication in the media, Membe dismissed it as having no facts and basing its information on unreliable sources.

?We call upon the international community to ignore the report and treat it with disregard,? Membe said. As the UN experts group continues with investigations against individuals named in the report, the IGP said the police would be following the matter closely. — NNN-DAILYNEWS