Mercy Nalugo
30 April 2008
Kampala — Government plans to send a protest note to the United Nations Security Council criticising the alleged arming of Ugandan dissident groups in DR Congo like the rebel ADF UN troops.
Defence Minister, Crispus Kiyonga told the House Defence committee yesterday that he had directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare a formal protest against the UN officers, whose actions he said are aimed at destabilising the security of eastern Congo and Uganda.
The committee is scrutinising the defence ministry's budget estimates for the financial year ending 2009.
"The government is very upset with the conduct of some of these UN officers. We have intelligence information that they are giving guns to these people (ADF) and even the BBC news has captured it. Some are conducting illegal trade there," he said.
The ADF before it was routed in 2001, largely run bases in the Rwenzori region, in the districts of Kasese and Bundibugyo. The United Nations Mission in the DR Congo (Monuc) is the largest in the world, with 17,000 troops spread across the country.
The head of UN operations in DR Congo, Mr Alan Doss acknowledged that some UN personnel had behaved inappropriately, but said this should not mean the countries that sent them were culpable.
Meanwhile, chief negotiator; Riek Machar meets LRA leader Joseph Kony today to implore him into signing the final peace agreement.
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