On Friday 9 December 2005, the
blue helmet's camp based in Kamanyola, north of the Ruzizi plain, hosted
an unusual ceremony. Members of the Joint Verification Team, DDRRR (demobilization,
disarmament, repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration) officers from
MONUC Uvira and MONUC Bukavu, along with a World Bank representative and
ONUB (UN Mission in Burundi) liaison officer to MONUC gathered. All had
come to attend a ceremony in which weapons confiscated from FDLR and Ugandan
candidates to repatriation were destroyed.
34 light automatic weapons, among which
FAL, MI16, FMG or AK 47, were checked before being burnt in front of the
delegation. Captain Hasan Habbas, who presided over the ceremony for the
battalion known as Pakbatt 3, describes: "Even though they look in
a poor state, most of those weapons were still in use. Once those machine
guns are burnt, they will be rolled over by an APC and, later, buried in
the ground. That way, we make sure no one will ever use them again."
The delegation from the Joint Verification Team included MONUC officers, two representatives from the African Union and two representatives from the Congolese national army, Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC). It was led by Colonel Baloko Tangala (FARDC) who seized the opportunity to explain: "We are here to witness the destruction of weapons, as it is our goal to verify all information. Usually, the member states (Rwanda, DR Congo and African Union) receive information. The team goes on the ground to check it. Recently, we had to enquire about FDLR/FARDC cooperation, as well as the presence of FDLR training camp in DRC. In both cases, we were able to deny the allegations."
Of note, Rwandan representatives were absent from the Joint Verification Team, ostensibly because they had not received on time a detailed list of the weapons to be destroyed. Would they have made the trip, they would have received, prior to the destruction, a list specifying the number and the fabric of the weapons. Diagne Ndiaga, head of DDRRR office in Bukavu insisted: "Those 34 weapons could serve a whole company, for we usually calculate that a weapon is used by 3 to 4 soldiers. Therefore, it is an important step to destroy those we receive."
Following the formalities, the fire was set to the stack by Colonel Tangala and Diagne Ndiaga. As for the ammunitions, they are to be destroyed in the coming days, by MONUC's Chinese engineering team.