"Some 600 Congolese soldiers have fled into Uganda, following clashes
with rebels who have seized a border town.
"The Ugandan military said the fleeing troops had been disarmed.
"As the rebels took control of the Democratic Republic of Congo side
of the town of Bunagana, an Indian peacekeeper was killed, the UN
says.
"M23 rebels loyal to Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by
the International Criminal Court, took up arms in April.
[...]
"Security sources have told the BBC's Ignatius Bahizi in Uganda that
the M23 rebels control a 15km (10 mile) stretch of the border running
south from the famous Virunga National Park, home to rare mountain
gorillas.
"Ugandan army spokesman Capt Peter Mugisa says the 600 Congolese
soldiers are in the custody of the Ugandan military. He told the AP
news agency they fear being massacred by the rebels if they return."
In Kinshasa, the news of the disarray of the FARDC fell like a bomb.
And Kinois were quick to point to the deafening silence of President
Kabila since the outset of the M23 insurgency and his appointment of
General Gabriel Amisi Kumba aka Tango-Four (also spelled Tango-Fort)
as Commander of FARDC Land Forces, the de facto second in command of
the entire Congolese army.
Gen Amisi is now leading the doomed FARDC operations in eastern Congo.
Gen Amisi was an officer in the Rwandan-backed militia of the then RCD
warlord Azarias Ruberwa.
Kinshasa residents I just talked to are calling for the prosecution of
Gen Amisi, a good-for-nothing army senior officier, they charge, who
only knows how to manage the football team Vita-Club and his sprawling
real-estate properties in Kinshasa.
Gen Amisi is a junior high dropout without any formal military
training and owes his senior rank to the misguided integration of
rebel forces into the ranks of the FARDC.
People are now accusing him of providing intelligence to his erstwhile
buddies of M23.
Gen Amisi was also accused by rights groups of carrying out massacres
of civilians and police trainees in Kisangani in 2000-2001, when the
city was still occupied by Rwandan forces and their allies.
In November 2010, a Report by the UN Panel of Experts on the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accused Gen Amisi of enriching
himself in the lucrative trade of blood minerals in eastern Congo--an
accusation later confirmed by a BBC reporter who did extensive
investigations in the Kivus after Kabila briefly suspended minerals
trade in eastern Congo.
***
PHOTO: General Gabriel Amisi Kumba akaTango-Four (also spelled
Tango-Fort), FARDC Land Forces Commander, President of the Kinshasa
Football team Vita-Club
PHOTO CREDITS: AFP
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