Uruguayan Soldiers Accused of Fleeing Congo Battlefield

Desperate Hutu civilians attack United Nations headquarters and peacekeepers
In recent days hundreds of thousands of citizens of the Hutu ethnic group have panicked due to the imminent capture of Goma, the main city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Tsutsi forces led by General Laurent Nkunda have vowed to take Goma and the United Nations (UN) fears that most of its population of 600,000 will be massacred. After capturing Goma, the invading army may take the opportunity to get revenge on the 1994 genocide when the Hutu militia entered neighboring Rwanda and slaughtered 500,000 Tsutsis. The most serious incident involving United Nations personnel occurred on October 27 when hundreds of Uruguayan soldiers retreated from the front line at Kibati on their tanks, leaving thousands of helpless Hutu civilians to their fate. Thousands of Hutus then attacked the UN headquarters with stones and demanded that the Uruguayans protect them from the Tsutsi soldiers. Three civilians were killed as the peacekeepers dispersed the crowd. According to press reports the demonstrators were angered because the South Americans had not halted the Tsutsi advance with their modern weapons. General Nkunda has constantly repeated that his goal is not only to control Goma, but also to liberate the Democratic Republic of Congo from Hutu control. The eastern province of which Goma is the capital is rich in diamonds, gold and other valuable minerals.
Nkunda has also accused the Congolese Army of fighting alongside the Hutus against his forces. Nkunda is a former Congolese army officer that resigned after suspecting that his Tsutsi ethnic group would be attacked again as in 1994. The last reports state that Nkunda´s forces are only 12 miles from Goma and the UN provincial chief Hiroute Guebre Selassie has said that its 17,000 peacekeepers are in a disfavorable strategic position and are hard pressed to face the Tsutsis. According to Guebre Selassie, the peacekeepers have only been able to fire upon the invaders from helicopters due to the difficult terrain formed by mountainous land covered by tropical forests. The UN mission to Congo issued a statement in its webpage (www.monuc.org) explaining that “ it is in the DRC to help restore peace, and called on the population not to take out its anger on UN personnel and property”.

Colombian Army Captures Commander Karina

FARC suffers several setbacks in less than a year

During a recent public speech President Alvaro Uribe surprised his audience when he declared that “If Karina wants to surrender her life will be spared.” It seems that Uribe knew that one of the main leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was already negotiating with the authorities as to when and where she would turn herself over. It is not clear exactly how Karina was finally arrested after more than twenty years of activity with FARC but the rebel leader was shown to the local press as she entered the headquarters of the IV Army Brigade in Medellin. President Uribe had a personal grudge against Karina since she was involved in the 1993 murder of Uribe´s father.

Karina was shown handcuffed and wearing a black bulletproof vest with the initials D.A.S on the back. The D.A.S is Colombia’s main intelligence agency and played a fundamental role in Karina´s arrest that occurred on May 14 in a small town called La Soledad in western Colombia.
According to the D.A.S, Karina stated that the army had cornered her for several weeks and that her comrades of the 47th front had nothing to eat. Karina has lost an eye during earlier shootouts with the Army and many more scars suffered during her long struggle in the Colombian jungle. Before Karina´s arrest, three other FARC commanders had been killed in separate incidents:

March 7, 2008: Ivan Rios was shot as he was sleeping in a jungle base by Pedro Montoya, his chief bodyguard, that afterwards cut off Rio’s right hand with a machete and surrendered himself to a nearby Army patrol. Montoya presented Rios´ hand as proof that he had killed his superior officer and claimed the US$2.5 million reward offered by the Colombian government.

March 1, 2008: Raul Reyes, FARC´s spokesman, was killed along with 19 other rebels when his base in neighboring Ecuador was destroyed by cluster bombs fired from Colombian Air Force jets. Reyes was the man in charge of negotiating the release of many prisoners and civilian hostages held by FARC in bases deep inside the jungle. This attack also caused a major diplomatic incident between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, with the last two countries closing their embassies in Bogota, the Colombian capital.




Sept 3, 2007: In a similar operation as that of Raul Reyes, Tomas Medina (a.k.a Negro Acacio) was also killed during a bomb attack by the Colombian Air Force. According to the Colombian government, Negro Acacio was in charge of collecting taxes from well-known drug traffickers such as Fernandinho Beira Mar, the main trafficker in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.