Uganda’s Museveni slams UN for failing to take on rebels

Uganda’s president on Friday accused United Nations peacekeepers of failing to disarm rebels in the east of neighbouring Congo and said his army should be allowed to hunt them down instead.

In an Eid message, President Yoweri Museveni alleged the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) allowed Ugandan Islamist group the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) to operate.

“ADF was defeated in Uganda but they are still in DR Congo with the United Nations. You know, the UN sometimes engages in insecurity conservation. They conserve insecurity. They co-exist with ADF,” Museveni said.

Museveni said Kinshasa and the UN had denied repeated requests that Uganda be allowed to enter Congo to fight the ADF in its eastern bases.

“When we say, ‘Let’s come and help you,’ they say, ‘We shall do it.’ I don’t want to quarrel with DR Congo or the UN but if (ADF) enter Uganda, we shall kill them. It’s not good to talk about killing during Ramadan. But that’s what will happen,” Museveni said.

Uganda sent troops into DR Congo during a regional war between 1998-2003.

In 2005 the UN’s International Court of Justice ruled that Ugandan troops had looted the country’s resources, killed and tortured civilians, deployed child soldiers and razed entire villages, and ordered Uganda to pay DR Congo up to $10 billion (9 billion euros) in reparations.

Uganda has denied the charges and so far has refused to pay any reparations.

In his Eid message Museveni said the ADF, whose leader Jamil Mukulu was extradited to Uganda from Tanzania last week, was behind recent killings of prominent Muslim leaders.

He also sought to reassure Ugandan Muslims saying, “You shouldn’t be frightened because surely we shall defeat these people.”