Union des Patriotes Congolais
The Union of Congolese Patriots ( UPC ) is a political party and was an armed militia in the region of Ituri in eastern Congo . It was founded by Thomas Lubanga in 2000. The UPC consisted primarily of members of the Hema ethnic group . The UPC recruited child soldiers , which is what gave it the name "Children's Army".
In August 2002 the UPC took over military control in the provincial town of Bunia . She was supported by Uganda and Rwanda. After the Ugandan soldiers withdrew in May 2003, the fighting in Bunia escalated. Hundreds of civilians were killed and tens of thousands of people were displaced. The UN Security Council authorized a military intervention in June 2003. France provided the main contingent with 1,000 soldiers. After that, the situation in Bunia relaxed. Lubanga traveled to Kinshasa to negotiate the future political role of the UPC. He was arrested in March 2005 and transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague a year later .
Today the UPC exists solely as a political party, although some of its former military leaders are active in other armed militias.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Henning Tamm: UPC in Ituri: The External Militarization of Local Politics in North-eastern Congo (PDF). Rift Valley Institute, 2013, accessed December 29, 2014 .
- ^ Criminal trial against militia leaders: Serious crimes against children in the Congo. Die Zeit, February 2, 2009, accessed on December 29, 2014 .
- ↑ Alwin Schröder: Genocide in the Congo: The killers from the Okapi bar. Spiegel Online, June 13, 2003, accessed December 29, 2014 .