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Mai-Mai General Padiri Bulendwa vows to cruch all Uganda-backed militia in Ituri before general electoins
General Padiri Bulendwa, the Commandant of the Kisangani-based 9th Military Region ready to neutralise all the negative forces and warlords terrorising Ituri before the 30th July 2006 general elections.
Source: Digital Congo, Kinshasa 08/06/2006
After issuing all the negative forces and warlords terrorising Ituri in the north-east of Congo with several ultimatums, the Ma?-Ma? General Padiri Bulendwa vowed to crush all the negative forces and warlords operating in the north east of the country, saying he will not giving them any chance to perturb the elections.
In anticipation of the general elections due to takae place on 30.07.2006 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Commandant of the 9th Militray Region said on 6.06.2006 that he was determined to neutralise all the armed bands who continue to devastate the north eastern part of the country.
“We will put all the militia operating in the north east of the RDC off their capacity to harm, and we will do that before elections take place," he said.
Padiri issued a strong warning to warlords and their backers (Rwanda and Uganda) who are entertaining insecurity in Ituri, a district which has fallen prey to inter-ethnic conflicts whcih have caused 60,000 deaths and 500,000 internally displaced people since 1998.
More over, the commandant of the 9th Military Region, invited all the local chiefs of Ituri, a region which borders Uganda to be aware of their responsibility in the face of atrocities which armed groups never end to commit against the civilian population.
As a reminder, the National Commission for Disarmament , Demobilisation and Reinsertion (Conader by its French acronym) will launch a consciousness raising programme on 15 june 2006 targeting ex-combatants.
“Beyond that date, militiamen who will not surrender their arms will be hunted down right up to their last group,” stressed Padiri.
His concern is to see Ituri totally pacified which will foster the social-economic of that part of the Oriental Province.
As a reminder, some 16,000 militiamen were disarmed in Ituri since 2004 under the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reinsertion (DDR)programme. But despite this, about 5,000 militia who resist the disarmament have regrouped under the umbrella of the Mouvement révolutionnaire congolais (Mrc).
Backed by Museveni, they continue to destablise the region, terrorise the local population, loot minerals and timbers which take the direction of Uganda (the Congolese border with Uganda is 100% porous) and threaten the first democratic elections in Congo ever in 45 years, as Mgr Dieudonné Uringi, Catholic Bishop of Bunia denounced it. Ill-paid Congolese regular troops also engage in the looting and UN troops intervene only when it is too late when the militia have left.
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