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Lendu Attack Peacekeepers, Hundreds of Hema Flee

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
May 6, 2003
Posted to the web May 6, 2003

By Emmy Allio And John Thawite
Kampala
The rising tension in Congo's Ituri region took a dramatic twist on Sunday when
Lendu militia descended on Bunia town, sparking a massive exodus of civilians.
By daybreak, the United Nations forces supposed to secure the area had also
fled.
Bunia sources said the Lendu militia vandalised the home and offices of the
Hema king, Kawa Mandro Panga. They looted offices and homes of the Hema
businessmen. About 8,000 Hema took refugee at the UPDF detachment at the
airport.
The Lendu also raided and vandalised the Bunia office of the United Nations's
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
UN soldiers guarding the office fled and others in the area rushed to the
safety of the UPDF at Bunia airport.
Brig. Kale Kaihura, the overseer of UPDF operations in Ituri, was yesterday
reportedly attending meetings with MONUC officers.
The last UPDF soldiers in Bunia will leave on Thursday, the army said.
UN spokesman in Kinshasa Hamadoun Toure said the UPDF was still responsible for
Ituri security. He said, "only a few bullets were shot at the UN office by some
armed Iturians."
Toure said, "So long as the Ugandan soldiers are still in Congo as an occupying
force, they are responsible for the security of Ituri. As par international
conventions, Uganda has no choice but to maintain security in Bunia."
The pandemonium resulted into looting. Hema chiefs accused Kinshasa police of
aiding the Lendu.
UPDF spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said that was what the UPDF was
preventing in Bunia and that the situation was now in MONUC hands.
"Whatever is happening now in Bunia is what we have been fighting off for a
long time. Our mission is clear. We are pulling out. It is now the duty of the
United Nations and Kinshasa police to stabilise Ituri," Bantariza said.
The local population accused the Kinshasa police of being docile when the Lendu
were attacking. A total of 700 security personnel from Kinshasa and about 200
Uruguayan UN troops are now guarding Bunia town, previously secured by the
UPDF.
By yesterday afternoon, about 200 Hema refugees landed at the Old Entebbe
Airport aboard two cargo planes belonging to Air Navette and Sante Air.
The refugees from wealthy Hema families jammed the airbase. Military sources
said the refugees were part of an estimated 8,000 Hema who have camped in Bunia
airport determined to flee. The Hema fear massacres once the UPDF leave.
Kisembo Bitamara, the chief of Bahema South of Ituri, yesterday said the
confusion in Ituri was being fomented by Kinshasa whom he said sent soldiers to
Ituri posing as policemen.
Union of Patriotic minister Prof. John Baptist Dhetchuvi, told The New Vision
from Goma that, "The UPDF are hated by the population. I have heard that they
were being killed by the Lendu militia. In fact, a genocide is on the way in
Ituri."

   

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