‘03 truce didn’t end Congolese strife

KISORO, Uganda - The flat ground beneath the Muhavura Volcano and its surrounding terraced green hills shelter tens of thousands of Congolese refugees from North Kivu province just across the border.

More than two dozen green canvas tents embossed with the logo of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) replaced their homes and farms, some 18 miles away or more.

The 1998-2003 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo is officially over, but armed gunmen across eastern Congo refuse to lay down their arms. Nowa Bitegetsimana, 36, his family and their fellow refugees fled to Uganda.

“There were bullets, but I didn’t know who was firing at whom,” he said.

North Kivu clashes

What happened in North Kivu province, according to refugee accounts, is that Congolese army troops clashed with the forces of Laurent Nkunda, a dissident general who was once, and maybe still is, backed by Rwanda.

Balthasar Seminane, 33, a pastor, said Gen. Nkunda’s forces included Rwandan Tutsis — an unverifiable claim, because Congolese Tutsis exist in sizable numbers in the east.

The fighting pushed 20,000 Congolese into southwestern Uganda, though thousands may have gone home by now, according to the UNHCR.

“We want to return, but we need peace,” Mr. Seminane said.

The deployment of 17,000 troops by the U.N. observer mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, seeks to secure the resource-rich but lawless east by forcibly disarming the militias lurking there.

First vote in decades

Timing is crucial as the DRC moves toward April 29 presidential and parliamentary elections, its first in more than 40 years.

With an aggressive approach that combines surface patrols with air support from helicopter gunships, MONUC has persuaded thousands of militiamen to stop fighting and converted these Congolese refugees as well, despite not being nearby to help them this time.

“If it wasn’t for MONUC, we’d all be dead,” said Mr. Bitegetsimana. “Nobody would be alive.” Yet the leader of his host country, President Yoweri Museveni, has frequently accused MONUC and the Congolese government of failing to clamp down on Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and two other militias roaming eastern Congo.

Gen. Museveni threatened to again invade Congo if it didn’t take action. “In effect, Congo is giving bases to terrorists,” he said.

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