11/6/2009 7:11 PM ET
(RTTNews) - A French medical charity group alleged Friday that some of its measles vaccination sites in rebel controlled-territories in eastern DR Congo came under fire last month when security forces attacked rebel bases in the region while thousands of civilians had gathered at the sites for vaccinations.Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday denounced the army attacks on rebel bases when the aid group was carrying out vaccinations for children in the region, stating that "such actions seriously compromise our neutrality.""The attacks coincided with the beginning of our vaccination and put the lives of civilians in extreme risk. Thousands of people, and the MSF teams, were trapped in the gunfire. The attack was an unacceptable abuse of humanitarian action to fulfill military objectives," Luis Encinas, head of MSF programs in Central Africa, said in a statement.Saying that the charity felt that its vaccination camps were used as "bai(RTTNews) - However, the UN withdrew its support for an FARDC unit, the 213th Brigade, earlier in the week, accusing the unit of killing "at least 62 civilians." Following the UN move, the Congolese government suspended military operations in the area to allow an inquiry into allegations that soldiers had killed civilians. The presence of some 6,000-strong FDLR rebels along the Congo-Rwanda have been at the heart of years of unrest in the region. The presence of FDLR rebels along the border region prompted the armies of DR Congo and Rwanda to launch a joint offensive against the rebels in January. The joint operation succeeded in weakening the 6,000-strong Hutu rebels in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with over 90 rebels killed in the joint offensive. It was finally called off in late February after the joint offensive achieved its objective.
t" the Congolese security forces, Encinas asked: "How will MSF be perceived by the population now? Will our patients still feel safe enough to come for medical care?" He was apparently referring to a UN-backed October 17th army offensive against Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels in eastern Congo. The offensive targeted all seven MSF vaccination sites in the Masisi territory of eastern Congo, which under rebel control at that time.
Earlier, MSF had launched a mass vaccination campaign in Masisi district on 17th October to support the Congolese health ministry in its efforts to tackle a measles epidemic. MSF maintains that it had informed all the parties to the conflict, including FDLR rebels and Congolese military, about the vaccination campaign, and had received security guarantees from them.However, the Congolese army launched attacks on each of the seven MSF vaccination sites when the charity's medical teams were vaccinating thousands of children in Ngomashi and Kimua regions of the Masisi district, which was controlled at the time by the FDLR.The MSF claim came amidst international concerns over the alleged atrocities committed by Congolese security forces during the UN-backed offensive against Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo had backed the army offensive against the FDLR rebels by providing rations and fuel to the army troops, helping in planning operations and evacuating injured Congolese soldiers by UN helicopters.
(RTTNews) - However, the UN withdrew its support for an FARDC unit, the 213th Brigade, earlier in the week, accusing the unit of killing "at least 62 civilians." Following the UN move, the Congolese government suspended military operations in the area to allow an inquiry into allegations that soldiers had killed civilians. The presence of some 6,000-strong FDLR rebels along the Congo-Rwanda have been at the heart of years of unrest in the region. The presence of FDLR rebels along the border region prompted the armies of DR Congo and Rwanda to launch a joint offensive against the rebels in January. The joint operation succeeded in weakening the 6,000-strong Hutu rebels in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with over 90 rebels killed in the joint offensive. It was finally called off in late February after the joint offensive achieved its objective.
In addition to the joint offensive against the Hutu rebels, Rwanda had also agreed to use its influence over the Tutsi rebels to end the ongoing hostilities in eastern DR Congo.It was the first act of cooperation between the two neighboring countries in thirteen years after Congo cut off diplomatic relations with Rwanda in 1996 after Rwandan forces, along with Tutsi militia, invaded eastern Congo to hunt down Rwandan Hutu fighters who sought refuge there after the 1994 genocide.The Hutu FDLR rebels had fled Rwanda to Congo after taking active part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which over 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in a period of 100 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment