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East/Subsaharan Africa
French Commander Gives Congo Tribal Militia Ultimatum
2003-06-21
"Stop shooting immediately or we will surrender!" Oh, sorry, wrong ultimatum.
BUNIA - The commander of a French-led emergency force on Saturday gave tribal fighters controlling Bunia 72 hours to get out of Dodge the northeastern Congolese town or have their weapons taken away.
"And what will you do without weapons, hah? Answer me that!"
The head of the Union of Congolese Patriots - a militia drawn from the Hema tribe - said he agreed to pull out his fighters. ``I have no problem with that and, in fact, I have already started withdrawing troops from the town,'' Thomas Lubanga said.
"Since we stripped the town clean, it's time to move on!"
Lubanga said the emergency force agreed that his militia's leaders can keep bodyguards, who will appear armed on the streets only when they are with those they are protecting. Brig. Gen. Jean-Paul Thonier, head of the more than 600 French troops in Bunia, handed Lubanga the ultimatum, which expires at 11 a.m. Tuesday, spokesman Col. Gerard Dubois said.
Why 72 hours? Seems simple enough, I think 12 hours would do. "Get outta town or else!" And then follow through.
Hema fighters gained control of Bunia, capital of resource-rich Ituri province at the beginning of May after battles with rival fighters from the Lendu tribe. More than 500 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the fighting, which prompted the U.N. Security Council to authorize the deployment in Bunia of the emergency French-led force of 1,400 with a mandate to shoot to kill. The 700 U.N. troops already in Bunia since April have a lesser mandate that only permits them to cower inside protect U.N. installations and unarmed military observers and to fire only in self-defense. They did not intervene in the fighting in early May.
How do you fire, even if only in self-defense, when you're unarmed?
The UPC and Lendu fighters clashed again the day after the French arrived. Since then, UPC fighters, some as young as 10, have been swaggering down Bunia's rutted streets or zooming around in stolen pickups, carrying assault rifles that are often almost as big as they are. Residents are frightened of the fighters and afraid to go out to their fields to bring in food because of numerous attacks and rapes that have occurred since the UPC gained control of the town. France, many African nations and Thonier back Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for a force of 10,800 with a more robust mandate when the current mandate expires June 30. The United States has said that political will to resolve Congo's conflicts and not more troops is the answer.
There we go again getting sensible and all.
On Saturday MONUC spokesman Hamadoun Toure said two unarmed military observers abducted near the town of Beni, 95 miles southwest of Bunia, were safe and that the United Nations was working closely with the rebel group that controls the area for their release. Toure did not identify the two observers, but the Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday identified one as Russian Maj. I.E. Biryukov and the other as an unnamed Tunisian.
These guys aren't stupid enough to whack a Russian, are they?
Oh, sure they are...
Posted by:Steve White

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