2 000 DR Congo militia disarm in lawless district

KINSHASA – Nearly 2 000 militia fighters have laid down their weapons in Congo’s lawless Ituri district in the last two weeks, ahead of historic polls in the vast African country, a disarmament official said on Saturday.

Disarmament centres reopened two weeks ago after being closed for a year, giving militia groups a second chance to give up their guns a month before the Democratic Republic of Congo is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections. Much of the mineral-rich country remains violent and Ituri – a remote northeastern district where fighting has killed 60 000 since 1999 and militia fighters are still holding five UN Nepali peacekeepers hostage – is no exception.”More than 1 800 people have disarmed – the figure is getting near 2 000,” Colonel Francois-Xavier Duku, the head of Congo’s national disarmament commission for Ituri, told Reuters by phone from Bunia, Ituri’s main town.Last year over 15 000 gunmen signed up to UN-sponsored disarmament programmes before the centres closed when the deadline expired.But despite the presence of thousands of UN peacekeepers and their support of the national army, the violence continued, as the militia re-recruited former fighters who were not given fresh starts as civilians.However Duku said that with elections just weeks away and the disarmament centres open again, the “time was right” for the gunmen to lay down their weapons.”People realised that there was no more conflict between ethnic groups so there was no reason to keep hidden weapons,” he said.The Ituri conflict, which used to pit various ethnic-based militia against one another but is now centred around the militia’s joint rejection of state or UN authority, has continued despite the official end to Congo’s war in 2003.- Nampa-ReutersMuch of the mineral-rich country remains violent and Ituri – a remote northeastern district where fighting has killed 60 000 since 1999 and militia fighters are still holding five UN Nepali peacekeepers hostage – is no exception.”More than 1 800 people have disarmed – the figure is getting near 2 000,” Colonel Francois-Xavier Duku, the head of Congo’s national disarmament commission for Ituri, told Reuters by phone from Bunia, Ituri’s main town.Last year over 15 000 gunmen signed up to UN-sponsored disarmament programmes before the centres closed when the deadline expired.But despite the presence of thousands of UN peacekeepers and their support of the national army, the violence continued, as the militia re-recruited former fighters who were not given fresh starts as civilians.However Duku said that with elections just weeks away and the disarmament centres open again, the “time was right” for the gunmen to lay down their weapons.”People realised that there was no more conflict between ethnic groups so there was no reason to keep hidden weapons,” he said.The Ituri conflict, which used to pit various ethnic-based militia against one another but is now centred around the militia’s joint rejection of state or UN authority, has continued despite the official end to Congo’s war in 2003.- Nampa-Reuters