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Congo-Kinshasa: Dissident General Invites UN to Investigate Abuse Allegations
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Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
28 December 2007
Posted to the web 28 December 2007
Kigali
DR Congo dissident Gen. Laurent Nkunda has dismissed accusations by the UN Mission in the country (MONUC) that he has been forcefully recruiting children into his forces, RNA reports.
We are scandalized by the denigrations and other untrue charges against the CNDP (Nkunda's party) on behalf of the MONUC which argued the recruitment of 200 students from the secondary school of Tongo, the General said on Friday in a statement posted on his behalf to RNA.
Last week UN Mission Spokesman Mr. Kemal Saiki said Gen Nkunda was forcefully recruiting children outside schools citing specifically in the village of Burungu. Mr. Saiki said children that were returning home after school were 'rounded up' and forced to fight along the militias.
According to the UN mission, Gen. Nkunda has re-recruited up 20 children in a North Kivu village of Kirambu that had been demobilized.
"These facts and others in the past constitute an inadmissible provocation on behalf of the U.N. mission of which credibility is not to question", Gen. Nkunda said. The dissident Gen wants 'Mr. Khemal SAIKI' to send an investigation mission to check the charges against CNDP before making any similar accusations.
The MONUC Spokesman maintains in follow up statement that on December 17, at Tongo School in Rutchuru area, 200 children were forcefully nabbed - their school materials and ID cards burnt.
Government arbitrary arrests
General Nkunda forces are also alleging that government forces - the FARDC - have been arbitrarily arresting 'innocent Congolese civilians because of their membership of an ethnic group' - in apparent reference to Tutsi civilians.
Nine (9) people of Tutsi ethnic group were arrested months ago in Bunagana and transferred to the Makala Prison on December 9, 2007 without being judged nor heard, Nkunda alleges.
According to him, the organization has information suggesting that more than 31 people arrested at Kibumba in North-Kivu and are illegally jailed in prisons and dungeons in Kinshasa. We will forward to you the names of the prisoners the coming days, the statement to RNA said.
Meanwhile, DR Congo Defence Minister Chikez Deimu has dismissed as irrelevant the unilateral ceasefire that Gen Nkunda has offered in the run-up to a major conference aimed at restoring peace and security to the region.
This government-organised conference, which hundreds of people from political, military and civilian walks of life are due to attend, had been scheduled to start on 27 December. The official opening has now been put back to 6 January, with preparatory meetings beginning this week.
"Nkunda is still a criminal no matter what platform he is given to talk from. He has killed people and left orphans in Kisangani and Bukavu and continues to kill and bury people alive." Minister Deimu told IRIN.
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He added: "We are organising the peace conference for the people and not for a single individual, Nkunda, so that he can declare a ceasefire now. Sooner or later, we will defeat him. The people of Congo will win. Nkunda enjoys the complicity of certain interests. That's bad."
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