rebel General can be given amnesty
KINSHASA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Congo's government has not renewed an arrest warrant for war crimes against rebel General Laurent Nkunda and he can be given amnesty under a peace deal signed with his rebel group this week, officials said on Friday.
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Doubts over the amnesty status of the renegade Tutsi general had raised fears of possible obstacles to the ceasefire pact between Democratic Republic of Congo's government and warring eastern rebel and militia factions. It was signed on Wednesday.
The accord, hailed by diplomats and analysts as the best chance in years of achieving peace offers an amnesty covering acts of war and insurgency but it does not cover war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.
President Joseph Kabila's government had previously said Nkunda was the subject of an arrest warrant for war crimes allegedly committed when his fighters briefly occupied the eastern city of Bukavu in 2004, when he launched his revolt.
But a member of the government delegation that helped negotiate the peace deal told Reuters this war crimes arrest warrant against Nkunda had not been renewed.
Is this peace for eastern DR Congo?
The peace agreement signed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Goma tells it all.
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Instead of just signing at the bottom of the agreement, on each and every of its 10 pages are scribbled signatures of the participants: the rebel groups, the government representative, United Nations, US and European Union.
Then there are the religious groups and civil society.
All signed up, but just how committed are they?
And is this really the end of the war in eastern DR Congo?
Rebels 'threaten DR Congo deal'
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Rwandan Hutu fighters in the Democratic Republic of Congo could jeopardise the new peace pact, DR Congo's UN ambassador Atoki Ileka has admitted.
Renegade rebel Gen Laurent Nkunda, who says he has been fighting to protect DR Congo's Tutsi community, signed the agreement, dependent on them disarming.
But a Hutu rebel representative told the BBC the group would not leave DR Congo until Rwanda agreed to negotiate.
Neither the Rwandan government nor representatives of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - more commonly referred to as the Interahamwe - took part in the talks where the peace deal was negotiated.
Au royaume des aveugles les borgnes sont rois.
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Originally Posted by
Tom Odom
Straight down where it is always hot
And I don't mean China :D
Tom
Not so Blind....As Tom once said ;)
À bon chat, bon rat. I'm thinking they'll melt into the 'bush' and we'll see them again. Well armed and just as feisty as the day they started.
Congo ceasefire broken, rebels and militia clash
Although I was fairly skeptical about this new peace deal, I would've given it a week or month before things went south :wry:
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GOMA, DRCongo, Jan 28, 2008 (AFP) - The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Monday it has sent patrols to check on reports that rival armed groups in the eastern Kivu provinces have violated a ceasefire, signed just five days ago.
"We have received information concerning fighting between different factions," including those backing renegade general Laurent Nkunda and the Mai Mai militias, said Sylvie van den Wildenberg, spokeswoman for the UN mission (MONUC) in the Nord Kivu region.
On January 23, Nkunda's group along with warring militias in Nord- and Sud-Kivu provinces and the Kinshasa government signed an "act of engagement" to cease fighting at a regional peace conference in Goma, Nord-Kivu's capital.
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KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese Tutsi rebels and Mai Mai militia clashed on Monday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, breaking a ceasefire signed last week...
Tutsi fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and Pareco Mai Mai militia, who both signed a peace accord on Wednesday, blamed each other for the fighting around villages 70 km (44 miles) west of the town of Goma.
No details of casualties were immediately available and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said it could not confirm who had attacked first.
The latest fighting broke out near the villages of Lusirandaka and Kasake at dawn on Monday.
"This is a serious violation of the ceasefire that we've just signed," Seraphin Mirindi, a military spokesman for Nkunda, told Reuters.
New War Crimes Suspect Arrested
Congolese authorities yesterday arrested Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, former chief of staff of the Front for National Integration (FNI), an ethnic Lendu-based militia group that committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Ituri district of northeastern Congo.
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"Ngudjolo's arrest shows that justice will reach those who seem untouchable because of their official position," said Param-Preet Singh, counsel in Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. "The arrest brings hope to the many victims of war crimes in Ituri that other political and military officials will be held to account."
Unlike the previous two ICC suspects who were already in Congolese detention at the time of arrest, Ngudjolo was not in custody when the ICC served its warrant. Human Rights Watch said that effective cooperation among the Congolese government, the ICC and other partners made Ngudjolo's arrest possible, and expressed hope that such cooperation would be repeated in the future.
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A third former rebel commander accused of committing atrocities in the Ituri district of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been flown to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to be tried on charges of war crimes, including murder, conscription of children and sexual enslavement, a spokesman for the tribunal said.
Col Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, a former commander of the Fronts Nationalistes et Intégrationnistes (FNI) rebel group, whose ex-fighters were recently integrated into the national army, was on 7 February flown from Kinshasa to The Hague for trial, according to Paul Madidi, ICC's spokesman in the DRC capital.
"He is accused, among things, of having played a key role in the planning and implementation of a massacre in the village Bogoro, attacking civilians of the Hema ethnic group and recruiting children under the age of 15," said Madidi. He is also alleged to have murdered about 200 civilians and carried out arbitrary arrests.
"Ngudjolo will also be charged with the sexual enslavement of many women and girls," Madidi added.
Where such murders are often deplored, but only after sunset.
The lastest security updates from the DRC. Sometimes an accidental phrase as in the title of this post says more than the entire report.
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Subject: Security Sit Rep March 08/10Hi,Security forces launched an assault on the BDK headquarters in the capital of the western Bas-Congo province, Matadi, in the early afternoon on Saturday as sect members regrouped inside. Witnesses and local officials told Reuters that the BDK headquarters had been burned and by late afternoonwas occupied by police. Reports of two causalities and lots of wounded are not confirmed yet.Skirmishes were reported over the weekend in Masisi and Walikale when PARECOmilitia and FDLR rebels exchanged fire in Kashebere for not revealed reasons. Likewise, some PARECO militiamen and CNDP Nkunda forces clashed in Kalonge and denied the facts afterwards.On the northern axis, the CNDP forces are alleged to have looted three trucks heading to a border market in Bunagana this morning. Another vehicle belonging to the catholic church was looted at the same place yesterday and a mission of Care International was plundered early last week. Valuables, mobile telephones and money are always stolen from passengers at the junction to Bunagana.
and
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Subject: Security Sit Rep March 08/14
A gang ambushed and killed Mr Albert Prigogine, a businessman in Goma yesterday shortly after 16h00, local time. The crime raises concerns about security of civilians in a town where such murders are often deplored, but only after sunset. To cover themselves, the murderers shot down a pedestrianfor having probably seen and identified them. The victim is the owner of Masques Hotel now turned into a UN Level III clinic.The DRC government agreed to disarm FDLR Hutu fighters from 15 March 08. Regarding the Joint Nairobi Communiqué, Mr. Alan Doss underscored the necessity of reinforcing the efforts of MONUC 'in order to dynamize again the follow-up of what both the DRC and Rwanda committed themselves to.' Voluntary repatriation rate has increased, but still less than satisfactory.MONUC has already taken steps to 'gradually reinforce its military presence'in proximity zones in coordination with the FARDC. 'Operations are already being run that target the Rastas, who operate together with the FDLR. The Security Council intends to take measures against the FDLR leaders who refuse to cooperate in implementing the Nairobi Communique' he informed. Seven villagers were killed and six wounded in a night raid at Kibaki in the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern Nord-Kivu province, the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) announced Thursday. MONUC troops based in nearby Rubaya heard shooting during the night and sent a patrol to Kibaki on Wednesday morning, where 'they saw the bodies of the dead and wounded,' Dietrich told a press conference in Kinshasa.
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Air Kasai C47s as "movie star" and a Stalin refugee
Here ya go Stan from the 1942 USAAF Serial Number register . Some of the planes we used to fly in.....
Movie Star:
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100514 (c/n 18977) to Portuguese AF as FAP 6177. To Visionair in 1976 as N9984Q, ferried to Sweden to be used in the movie "A Bridge Too FAr" with InterFret Transport Aerien as 9Q-CYC, still as 9Q-CYC to TAZ (Zaire) for Air Kasai. Now stored at Ndjili Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Comradeski:
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108950 (c/n 13348) to USSR Jun 1944. To Polish Air Lines (LOT) as SP-LCC. Accident Mar 28, 1950, reguilt. To Iran Air as EP-AEE, to Government of Congo (Democratic Republic) as 90-AEE,then as 9Q-AEE, then to Jansson and Britzelli as9Q-CKA, to TAZ as 9Q-CKA. Presently stored at Kinshasa
Mbandaka: MONUC celebrates Congolese policewomen
Straight from Mobutu's hometown, Congolese police women ?
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Everything, or almost everything, was there: parade, round table and reflections on the status of the Congolese policewoman, various fun activities..., MONUC Civilian Police/Equateur has celebrated woman, in its own way, in the framework of Women's Month.
Subsequent to the "Launch of the national campaign against sexual violence in the DRC"
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The Ministry of Gender, Family and Child, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and members of the “Initiative Conjointe de lutte contre les violences sexuelles” (the joint initiative to fight against sexual violence) officially launched on 18 March 2008 in Kinshasa...
Worth reminding that in the DRC, if sexual violence was used as a weapon by the belligerent forces involved in the different conflicts, currently it is not limited only to men in uniform. Such violence is now also committed by people in position of authority and power, and by the rest of the population.
According to the Initiative...The frequency of sexual violence occurrences in the DRC remained high...an average of 1,100 rape cases occur each month in the 11 Congolese provinces...
Part of the cure, or a new twist to the problems at hand ?
And on the Streets of Goma:Don't Go Out There
The lastest sit-rep. You have to love it when they fly in the police so they can rob the locals...
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Subject: Security Sit Rep March 08/31
Crime rate has alarmingly increased in Goma these days. Confirmed victims are numbered at 9 including a famous businessman, a CAA official, an immigration officer and a FOREX operator. Quick Response Police Units deployed from Kinshasa are alleged to be prey on civilians and some of them are suspected of being street 'children' infiltrated by the hierarchy ; 58 suspects were arrested. A hundred weapons and lots of rounds of ammunition wwere seized.
After three residents were killed last Friday night, riots erupted on the main road to the West, a UN vehicle was stoned by angry mobs. An ASI vehicle driving back to residence was obliged to divert under armed escort. More riots are predictable these days targeting government/police facilities. The Civil Society has decided demonstrations in Goma town next Thursday.
Another attempt to murder a local resident has just been reported today in the West of Goma at around mid day. Primary investigations indicate there is a land conflict between the victim, a local land owner whose property is being confiscated by a local chief, suspected of organising the crime. Unfortunately this land owner was badly wounded and is admitted at Heal
Africa hospital.
UNDSS recommendations : stay watchful, travel in a team, reduce night travel and of course never walk. Stay away from street gatherings which might be hostile demonstrators.
A motorcyclist was stabbed to death by his client in Bunia yesterday afternoon bringing the number of victims to 4 in less than three months. This caused fierce demonstrations all over the town hampering all activities. Motorcyclists are systematically targeted in most of the DRC
towns.
GOMA - The town that refused to die
A fairly old article from 2007 but a good one ! Ties in nicely with our current SITREPS.
Chris McGreal, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday October 2 2007
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"There was no government to speak of so people helped themselves..."
"People in Kinshasa haven't really experienced war like we have so they don't think about it. We think about it a lot."
...Adding to the sense of apocalypse, the Nyiragongo volcano that dominates the Goma skyline fired up a carpet of ash that hung over the town, darkening the skies and prompting mutterings of divine retribution.
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There is nothing today to mark the mass graves of the Rwandan Hutus in Goma. There is one opposite the airport, covered in banana plants these days...
"It's as though we forgot part of our history," said Lukunato. "We all knew they came here and died. Everyone saw it. They were tripping over the bodies. But I don't think anyone really remembers that they are still here, beneath our feet.
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"War has been good to Masumbuko Kakera. The peace is making him richer still but the wily Congolese trader could not have become one of the wealthiest men in Goma without the years of foreign invasion, occupation and rebel governments, besides the help of nature's occasional assault.
The wars, Lukunato said, changed everything.
"It created division between people. Before the war, I could live with you without caring where you are from. But after the war, I would say you are from the south or Rwanda, you are not from my village, you are different," he said. "I don't think we know what we are anymore. We are not one country. We are not one people. We are Gomatraciens."
UN Security Council lifts arms embargo on DRC government
When will they ever learn ?
With the adoption of resolution 1807 on Monday 31 March 2008, the United Nations Security Council decided that the arms embargo which it had imposed on all parties in the DRC by resolution 1493 (2003), would not apply any more to the DRC government.
Terms of Agreement in Lingala basically translates into "Viva la morte, viva la guerre" :eek:
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Under the terms of this resolution, the Council decided that all states, including the DRC, should take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect transfer of weapons to all Congolese and foreign armed groups in North and South Kivu and Ituri, and to the groups which did not sign the overall and inclusive Goma agreement in the DRC.
Resolution 1807 also urges all other states to continue to respect these measures, including nongovernmental agencies and other agencies undertaking activities on Congolese territory.
In search of Zawadi - Surviving DRC
By Mike Thomson
BBC News, Today programme
A very good article that looks into one of many lives destroyed.
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Although Zawadi Mongane's horrific story shocked me - and later much of the world - it is not an unusual story for this part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zawadi says that during those terrible days two of her children were killed in front of her and her brother was decapitated with a machete after he refused to obey a command to rape her.
Yet her most painful memory, which she says still haunts her dreams, is when she was forced to hang her own baby.
Attacks in Rwanda genocide week
There have been two fatal attacks in Rwanda during a week of mourning for the victims of the 1994 genocide.
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Police said armed men threw a grenade at the genocide museum in the capital, killing one policeman and injuring another.
In a separate incident, a car was driven at speed through a commemoration procession, killing one person.
A BBC reporter in Rwanda says tensions remain between survivors and the many people who took part in the killings.
"This act of terrorism was intended to frighten people away from coming to the Kigali Memorial Centre, but has had the opposite effect," said James Smith, head of the Aegis Trust which runs the museum.
The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says he saw more than 1,000 genocide survivors at the centre on Friday paying their respects to slain friends and relatives.
Mass graves found in Bas-Congo
KINSHASA, 11 April 2008 (IRIN) - A DRC human rights group has said mass graves with human remains have been found in the southwestern Bas-Congo Province where security forces recently clashed with followers of a religious sect.
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"The most recent of these graves, containing the remains of 20 bodies, was discovered on 31 March in Materne, between Boma and Matadi towns," Amigo Gonde, coordinator of the NGO, African Association for Human Rights (Asadho), told IRIN.
"The other two graves - discovered further away and several days earlier - contained some 30 bodies."
Gonde, who demanded an independent inquiry, said one of the graves had apparently been dug up. "The grave at Materne had been dug up by unidentified persons and its contents taken to an unknown place, but there are indications to suggest the bodies were indeed there," he said.
The remains, the NGO quoted local residents as saying, were suspected to be those of Bundu Dia Kongo sect followers because shreds of cloth and flags used by its members were found at the site.
Gonde denounced a continuing crackdown on the sect, saying security personnel were trying to apprehend some followers who had escaped into nearby forests.
It was barely a year ago that MONUC declared the situation in the port city of Matadi "back to normal", with shops, schools and businesses functioning. MONUC did however caution unconfirmed killings of BDK political religious sect members involved in the 2007 unrest and the inability to confirm a death toll for the province. It would now appear that issue has been laid to rest (no pun intended) and/or removed :cool:.
Winged Frogs and Ending Corruption in the Congo
This one was on the SWJ media round up. It is difficult for me not to laugh when I read this stuff. Consider:
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"The report must be in order," said Yangala, 62, a meticulous man in a khaki suit who explained how different things were when he worked for Mobutu's government. "In the old system, I would just take the public money and go drinking with women. When I moved to a different job, I would take the typing machine, the lamps, even the curtains -- I would put them in my house. Now there is no way. Now there is shame."
and
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Attempting to satisfy the rising expectations since the 2006 elections, the governor of Katanga, Moise Katumbi -- who presides over an area the size of France -- has made several symbolic gestures.
Though he has no official power to do so, he decreed a new minimum wage of $150 a month. He bought several ambulances and hearses with his own money. He levied new property taxes, planted roses at the airport and painted downtown shops in shades of salmon.
But provincial lawmakers here worry that such efforts will remain symbolic unless a culture of reform takes root, which they say would begin with the implementation of the new constitution.
More at Congo's 'Change of Mentality'
Provincial Officials Seek to End Graft, Mismanagement
Hidden Killers On the Loose
Kinshasa
The full extent of the threat posed by landmines and other unexploded ordnance in the Democratic Republic of Congo is unknown but the deadly weapons are a daily concern for tens of thousands of displaced people in the east.
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According to Mine Advisory Group (MAG) country director Marc Angibeaud, de-mining efforts through international NGOs such as MAG, Handicap International and DanChurchAid, have cleared the countryside of thousands of anti-personnel mines and UXO, especially in Equateur, Maniema, Katanga and South Kivu provinces.
Work has also been done by the commercial de-mining company, Mechem.
From June 2007 to January 2008, more than 28,000 sqkm of land was cleared; over 3,500 weapons, 5,000 UXO and 35,000 items of ammunition destroyed, and mine education sessions conducted for over 10,000 people. De-miners have also been trained.
"Clearance activities have not only prevented accidents from explosions but also freed land for agriculture and rendered safe many roads and a water source crucial to the villagers' daily activities," MAG noted in a 31 January statement.
"The destruction of the ammunition also means it will not be available for trafficking - a significant problem in the Great Lakes region - thus contributing to regional peace-building."
No military solution in DRC' says ex-UN general
Major General Patrick Cammaert is optimistic as to the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he served as deputy commander in chief of the Peace Mission until February last year.
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The Dutch general says that the DRC armed forces should be careful with their attacks on insurgent general Laurent Nkunda and the FDLR, a Rwandan rebel group also operating in the Eastern part.
Cammaert admits that military pressure is needed, but adds that it should prepare the ground for political talks both with Nkunda and the FDLR.
A relatively short video which from the start concludes UNAMIR was a failure and UN actions in the DRC were more successful, concluding optimism in the DRC's future with democracy and strong will :wry:
he Prosecutor vs. Jean-Pierre Bemba
Jeez, nabbed my neighbor and former VP of the DRC! How many folks could claim to have a .50 cal. nest in their front yard? He kept our neighborhood safe, often anything but quiet, and the Italian restaurant 'round the corner was booming with business during uprisings and civil wars :cool:
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ICC Arrest Jean-Pierre Bemba – massive sexual crimes in Central African Republic will not go unpunished The Hague, 24 May 2008
Jean-Pierre Bemba, charged by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Central African Republic, was today arrested in the suburbs of Brussels, Belgium.
Mr. Bemba is chairman of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC), an armed group which intervened in the 2002-2003 armed conflict in Central African Republic (CAR) and pursued a plan of terrorizing and brutalizing innocent civilians, in particular during a campaign of massive rapes and looting. Mr Bemba had already used the same tactics in the past, in CAR, in the DRC, always leaving a trail of death and destruction behind him.
He is the first person arrested in the context of the ICC investigation in CAR which was opened by Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May 2007. Further investigation are proceeding.
“This arrest was a complex and well-prepared operation’’ said Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo. “We are grateful to all countries involved, including Belgium which immediately executed the Arrest Warrant in accordance with their obligations under the Rome Statute. I am thankful to all those who assisted in tracing Mr. Bemba, to avoid any possibility of his escaping international justice”
The number of rapes carried out with shocking brutality is a particular feature of this case. “He had done it before in CAR, he had done it before in the DRC. He had to be stopped.” said Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo.
More at the link...
Rwandan genocide 'suspect' held
Kenyan police have confirmed they are carrying out DNA tests on a man suspected of being the most wanted criminal from the Rwandan genocide.
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... it could be Felicien Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman accused by the International Criminal Court of being a key financier of the Rwandan genocide.
They are seeking to establish whether the man they are holding is Mr Kabuga, a man with a $5m (£2.4m) bounty on his head.
He is accused of being one of the key figures behind the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
In the past the Kenyan authorities have been accused of harbouring alleged war criminals and have been threatened with action from the UN security council.
Mobutu's money in Switzerland can bring up
all kinds of problems...
When 7.6 million dollars just isn't quite enough :eek:
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The politicians here are not going to saw off the branch they are sitting on.
Mobutu's money is the fruit of corruption, but politics haven't changed that much. When the government awards mining contracts to the Chinese without calling for tenders, it means commissions have been paid.
A Swiss court has ordered eight million Swiss francs to be unblocked in favour of the heirs of Mobutu Sese Seko, the former dictator of Zaire. The Swiss are trying to convince the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to send an envoy to collect the money in the name of the Congolese people, but Kinshasa doesn't seem to care.
When the sum in what appeared as only Mobutu's Swiss piggybank came up at a press conference concluding Calmy-Rey's visit, Kabila could hardly conceal his disappointment. "Unfortunately it is only eight million Swiss francs, not the tens of billions we expected." So, does Congo's current leader think that the game isn't worth the candle?
Congo ex-leader sent to The Hague
Ex-vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba of the DR Congo has been extradited to The Hague to face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the CAR.
Hmmm, justice comes to Africa ? If they could catalog or even imagine what my neighbor did in his own country... he'd have been hung by the short and curlies several times... decades ago :rolleyes:
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Mr Bemba went into exile after being accused of high treason in his home country for refusing to disarm his militia after his defeat in presidential elections in 2006.
He was leader of the rebel group (and one of four vice-presidents in a transitional government), the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, which later became a political party.
selling them fake gold dust
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Stan
UN troops 'armed DR Congo rebels
"The UN has covered up claims that its troops in Democratic Republic of Congo gave arms to militias and smuggled gold and ivory, the BBC has learned."
Three Indian army officers have been let off with a warning over allegations of gold trafficking while they were UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo.
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A UN report said there was evidence that Indian troops in eastern Congo had traded gold and drugs with a militia involved in the Rwandan genocide.
Some Indian soldiers were alleged to have traded gold with the militia, bought drugs from them and even flown a UN helicopter into the Virunga National Park, where they exchanged ammunition for ivory.
Those soldiers have been let off with a warning.
Critics of the UN will argue that this is exactly what they expected and proves that allegations, no matter how serious, seldom result in the disciplining of the troops under its command.