Global Policy Forum

By Hussein Bogere, Grace Matsiko & Agencies

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned Uganda against pursuing the Lord's Resistance Army rebels into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. At the same time he encouraged the DRC to disarm the LRA rebels who crossed into that country last month triggering diplomatic tension between the two neighbours. Annan's caution came two days after the DRC called for United Nations sanctions against Uganda, including a total arms embargo, over Kampala's threat to send troops across the border to disarm LRA rebels led by Vincent Otti. "Any recourse to the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo, contravenes the United Nations Charter," Annan said in a statement on Wednesday.

President Yoweri Museveni warned late last month that Ugandan forces would be deployed to the volatile eastern Congo, unless Kinshasa government and the UN peace mission (MONUC) dealt with members of the LRA who had fled there. But the DRC's UN envoy, Ileka Atoki, said on Tuesday: "This declaration by itself is a violation of the charter of the UN, which forbids any kind of threat against the national sovereignty of any member state." In a letter to the president of the council, Ambassador Mihnea Motoc of Romania, Atoki demanded that the council condemns Uganda, arguing that President Museveni's comments "represent a threat to international peace and security under provisions of the UN charter."

It is this diplomatic saber-rattling that provoked Mr Annan's response. "Inflammatory statements detrimental to the conduct of United Nations operations do not serve the cause of peace and could result in putting the lives of U.N. personnel in danger," he said. However, the Uganda defence and army spokesman, Lt. Col. Shaban Bantariza, told journalists yesterday that "no one will stop Uganda's army from going to DRC, as long as we have agreed (with the parties involved) to go."

Bantariza was speaking at the weekly cabinet press briefing in Kampala. "Otti is planning to abduct people from Uganda, Sudan and DRC," he said. "This is a regional problem. Who is going to help us? Others can only assist. If Monuc and FDRC, DR Congo's army, cannot handle Otti, we are willing to help if they ask us." Bantariza added that the UPDF was comfortable with the pledge and commitment of the Congolese army to flush out Otti. "We have reinforced in the West Nile. It's a precautionary development," Bantariza said. Otti, the LRA's second-in-command, fled to DRC's Garamba jungles a fortnight ago. However, press reports yesterday indicated that he had relocated to Ariwara hills after over 200 DRC soldiers were deployed to disarm him. Otti and his followers fled from southern Sudan, which has been their launch pad for the last 19 years. Annan condemned the incursion of the LRA fighters and supported the Congo government for vowing to disarm the group "with the assistance of United Nations" peacekeepers.

Some 320 remnants of LRA fighters who have raped, maimed and killed children in northern Uganda, last month came to northeastern Congo and held talks with Congolese officers but did not surrender. William Swing, head of Monuc, told the Security Council last week that U.N. peacekeepers were prepared to support the Congolese army against the LRA, "if necessary by force." Earlier in the week, Maj. Gachinya Mpozayo, a Monuc commander in Congo, had told a joint cross-border security meeting of Congolese and Ugandan officials that the UN force had already deployed a battalion of its troops in the vicinity of Garamba National Park. "If they (rebels) fail to surrender within a week, we shall fight and arrest them," he said.

The LRA controversy is not on the political agenda of the United Nations, but it was mentioned in a Security Council statement because of the group's migration to the Congo. Uganda has objected to the council dealing with the issue. Nineteen years of warfare by the LRA has devastated northern Uganda and displaced more than 1.6 million people, causing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. More than 10,000 children have been kidnapped by the rebels and forced to become fighters, porters and sex slaves. Uganda, at one point, chased the LRA up to the Sudan, with Khartoum's permission but never routed them. Diplomats question whether some factions of the Sudanese army supported LRA leader Joseph Kony, who was allowed to set up bases in the Sudan. The United Nations is waiting for the imminent announcement that arrest warrants have been issued for Kony by the Hague-based International Criminal Court. The warrants would be handed to the governments of Uganda, Congo and Sudan.

Meanwhile, Uganda and DRC officials will next week hold talks in Kampala over LRA entry into Congo. Military sources in Kampala said the meeting would be part of the regular bilateral talks aimed at strengthening relations between the two countries. Next week's meeting follows another between the Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, DRC military chiefs and Monuc commanders about a fortnight ago.

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