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Lendu Down UN Choppers

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
June 18, 2003
Posted to the web June 18, 2003

By Emmanuel Mulondo
Kampala
Two military helicopters belonging to the Bunia French peace keeping force made
an emergency landing at Kijura airstrip, Kabarole district after one of them
was shot at by suspected Congolese Lendu militiamen.
The Puma transport helicopters landed at the airstrip in the tea plantations in
Kabarole district at around 10:30am. The aircraft, F-RAAF and FRAAX, were
destined for Bunia from Entebbe Airport.
The French-led multinational force spokesman Capt. Frederic Solano told The New
Vision that the helicopter was fired at as it crossed into the troubled
Congolese Ituri region.
"It was a transit flight from Entebbe to Bunia. One shot was fired at the
helicopter and it damaged its hydraulic system. It flew to a lower altitude
before it landed on the Ugandan side," Solano said.
He said the incident happened at 7:00am and nobody was injured.
Technical experts flew to Kasese to repair the helicopter. Solano said it was
too early to say who attempted to bring down the helicopters. "We don't know
who is responsible. It is difficult to say who did it," he added.
Mission leader Capt. Lamoine said they realised the problem as they crossed the
Uganda/DRC border where River Muzizi joins Lake Albert over 100km from where
they made the emergency landing.
Each aircraft carried eight military men and an assortment of ammunition.
Meanwhile, two Congolese militiamen were killed this week in Bunia after
pointing their weapons at French soldiers, Col. Gerard Dubois, a spokesman for
the force based in Bunia, told a news conference there.
"It was as a result of a request by the population that a patrol was sent in to
help civilians being threatened. When the patrol arrived (at the location of
the reported threats), two militiamen raised their weapons and pointed them at
the patrol," said Dubois
"The militiamen did not open fire, they did not have time," he added,
confirming reports that the militiamen were "very drunk."
"It was important to act quickly. Under our rules of engagement, pointing a
weapon is the same as opening fire. It is an intention to shoot," said the
colonel, adding that the patrol was made up of French special forces.
Dubois said the force, mandated by the United Nations to secure Bunia and its
airport and protect civilians from inter-ethnic violence, now had 600 troops in
Bunia, 500 of them combat troops.
Another 600 soldiers are at Entebbe airbase, where an advance party of Swedish
soldiers had also arrived.
A British reconnaissance unit was also in Bunia, he said.
DRC's Ituri region has long been torn by clashes between rival ethnic groups,
with the fighting accelerating after the vast central African country plunged
into war in 1998, bringing an influx of weapons into the former Zaire.
Despite the return of peace to most of the DRC in April this year, fighting has
continued in Ituri, with hundreds of people dying in inter-ethnic fighting in
the past month alone and 50,000 killed since 1999. Ugandan troops recently
pulled out.

   

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