Congo DRC, History repeating itself

I just read a piece on the BBC and was actually more interested in the comments around the article than the article/debate item itself.

Can Congo be saved from crisis?
More than 3,000 extra UN peacekeepers are needed in the eastern DR Congo to protect civilians there. Will this help the crisis?The head of UN peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, said current peacekeeper numbers were not enough to protect civilians from violence perpetrated by rebel groups and the Congolese army. There are 9,000 UN peacekeepers in the region, out of 17,000 nationwide.The latest crisis began in August when rebels advanced towards Goma, which is now ringed with refugee camps. What can be done to stabilise eastern DR Congo? Are you satisfied with the performance of the UN peacekeepers? Are you in DR Congo or Rwanda? Read the story


The news reporting itself is the same as it always has been. There are no new angles to find in a story that has gone on for almost 50 years or is there? Somehow the basic facts of what is behind the story somehow always get lost. Maybe because it would hit too close to home for comfort??
I personally do not really believe an increment of 3,000 soldiers on top of 9,000 would do even a slight difference when there is about 1.5 Million people who are running away from their homes. I would believe that those 12,000 or so soldiers would be trampled to death if the hoard of people fleeing actually were set in motion, even if they had no bad intentions. During the Rwanda Genocide UN had even more soldiers in Rwanda and they could do nothing when the violence started.

There are so many angles on should EU, US, Nato, UN help the people in Congo DRC with the current crisis. Some people say, give the various tribes their own land so they can live in peace. Other say they (the Congolese) dont want us (Europeans) help anyway so lets just not care. They did after all throw the Belgians out in the 60s. Let them solve it themselves. The range of comments basically goes from a full scale intervention by an army to get all arms out of the hands of the population/ rebels/ freedomfighters/ tribes to simply just leave it be and see what happens, after all it is their problem?




”It is easy to turn the responsibility over to others or, perhaps, to seek explanations in some kind of laws of history. It is less easy to look for the reasons within ourselves or in a field where we, all of us, carry major responsibility. However, such a search is necessary, because finally it is only within ourselves and in such fields that we can hope, by our own actions, to make a valid contribution to a turn of the trend of events.”
– From speech by Dag Hammarskjöld at the University of Cambridge, 5 June 1958 (Falkman 2005, p. 193).

I sometimes wonder what the best approach would be, but no matter how its done there will be a lot of people that suffer. People that are affected yet they have no part whatsoever in what is going on around them. Pure victims to a situation they can not get themselves out of.

Its easy to say ”Let them solve it themselves as we are no party to it and they dont want our help.” But that aint the truth in any circumstance...

Unfortunately the First world countries ARE the problem.

Congo is one of the richest countries in the world when it comes to natural resources. But in most cases the population never see a cent of anything that is mined, neither will they ever.
Rwanda is the biggest exporter of Coltan which is used in batteries and capacitors for Ipod's, Laptops, mobiles and so forth. Yet they actually dont have that material in Rwanda?! It is stolen from Congo. The Road to the Horizon has an article on this called "Did your laptop cause the war in Congo?"
There is Oil in Eastern Congo which has not yet even been explored. This does however not mean that no one is trying. There are large copper mines and other mines galore in the country. The land itself is so fertile that if you eat an orange and spit the seeds out, the seed will grow in a few weeks. Both problems as that mean people might be in the way of the treasures that lie benieth.
To say that we should leave the Congo alone to solve their own problems means that you first have to remove the greed for the resources in the country, by all other countries. I have worked in the region between 1997 -2001 and keep following up on what is going on even though I dont work there anymore.

Already then I saw a lot of strange things going on.

- Unmarked US planes flying in military "advisors" and "material" via Uganda
-”Advisors” from South Africa
-”Advisors” from Russia
-”Advisors” from France
-”Advisors” from China
-”Advisors” from India

Ugandan military commanders flying in with foreign business partners?

This was already happening in 1998 when a plane with the brother of the current Army boss of Uganda, crashed and died while on a gold trading mission in Congo. Well the current aint so current as he was charged and convicted of a large fraud with Army funds... I just found out now when reading up again on the story.

The list seems endless.It is not that these ”advisors” necessarily had any plans to try help the population in Eastern Congo, it was rather that they were trying to negociate contracts for mining that would see the full potential once there was finally peace in the area?, or is it? Maybe it is actually better that there is continous instability in the area so that companies supported by some rich countries can loot the treasures without paying decently for any of the resources being taken out? Afterall, people that are fleeing and starving will not see or care about the looting of the resources, will they?! Can it be that cynical? I actually think it is as all the non- mainstream information when looked at keep pointing glaringly in that direction.

There is ban on buying Elephant husks, war Diamonds.. But that was only because the general public discovered the looting?!

The problem that the people in Congo are facing is thus not their own. It is actually a problem that to the most extent is created and kept alive by the rich countries around the world. To stop sending aid to the area can only happen once the same governments get fully transparent about their real motives for being in the country in the first place. In the 50s and 60s it was easier for a few countries to loot the resources. The African states around Congo had so many internal problems they did not have to many stakes in Congo. However since the last 20 years even the surrounding countries in Africa want to claim their part of the Congo wealth.
While sending aid and advisors there is also Arms dealers like what was shown in ”Lord of War”. While the movie is intended as good entertainment the fact is it is actually very close to the truth. Arms dealers sanctioned by various countries governments. Ofcourse they cant be seen as doing this kind of trade so it happens behind the scenes. All disguised while the countries officially is helping the poor African country and takes the positive credits for the donations and loans given.

Congo is a particularly interesting country for historical reasons.

• Belgian colonization.


• The Congo war with UN involvement in the 50-60s while trying to obtain freedom.


• Killing of the UN Secretary General under mysterious circumstances.


• The obscure ways of the rich powers putting Patrice Lumumba in power only to be assasinated and replaced by Mobutu. Mobutu a very cruel but smart dictator. Himself part of a puzzle not created necessarily by the Congolese but rather by the rich countries exploiting Congo.
  
  

All this is part of various schemes of accessing the rich natural resources in Congo by parties among developped world countries, sometimes through proxy countries in Africa itself. It has absolutely nothing to do with actually trying to help the population. It might sound cynical but in this case the rich powers are extremely cynical. In some countries it is simply called "Foreign Policy". That the policy is then created to actually help companies exploit countries in the best possible way for the market back home is not very visible but not less cynical.

It is however very easy to see what is actually happening. 3 words sums it all up. 3 words which was also put in a movie many years ago.

"Follow the money" Classical words in the movie about the Watergate scandal. These days it though seems like the media for the most part is more interested in being in the hands of the powers that rule rather than being critical at looking at the full scope of the news they create.

In many cases the Dictators and corrupt governments in the poor countries are blamed for not being able to build up their standards. But who can blame them when they are shown the full potential by their counterparts who simply apply their "foreign policy" and encourage corruption through advisors and companies. It seems easier to teach someone how to become corrupt than to teach someone to build a proper functioning country where the citizens can thrive. The intrest is definetely on the former as it gives quicker gains for the lucky few.

Flying to Africa with 10 dollars in the pockets

As usual I had not been planning our holiday in time. Well we knew we were going down to Kampala but I had not booked the flights. Normally it was not a problem as the flights did not use to be full in June.

I was trying to get the bookings done online but the system kept refusing to do the final booking. Each time I re-tried the price would have gone up another 200 Dirhams.

Over the weekend we had been shopping for stuff we needed but for some reason neither the MasterCard nor the VISA card was working. I knew we had money so there should not be any problem but it did not matter were we went the cards were rejected. I saw other people shopping having the same problem. In the end I had 220 USD in cash left.
Being in Dubai this was a major problem.. Everywhere you go it is always possible to pay with cards so carrying cash was not normal.

Sunday morning I went to DNATA, while my wife was sleeping in, as we still had no bookings. I figured I could get a seat with my gold card and she already had her ticket but no seat.

I arrived at DNATA around 1030. Being in shorts and a T-shirt I was already casual enough :-) The T-shirt being black saying "I am not paid enough to be nice to you". I like T-shirts that are a bit sarcastic every now and then ;-)

It finally came to my turn and the girl at the travel desk start finding us some seats.
"Well Sir. You will have to wait 2 weeks before we can get you a seat." she says. What??? I need to fly sooner than that.. what about in business class.
Well Sir. it looks full but there are two seats on today's flight..
And today's flight is at 1430 so are you sure you can make it to the airport in that time. I said if you can book it fast and let me get back home right now then no problem. It was now 1130 already.

OK sir that will be 210 USD for the taxes and upgrade taxes. Again I tried to pay with the credit cards but they are still being rejected. Sir you will have to go and pay cash at the other counter.

I run over to the other counter and pull out 200 USD and then pay the rest in Dirhams. Leaving 10 USD only in the pocket....

I run back and it takes a while before the tickets are written out. At 1200 I finally run out of the place and start driving home. We live about 20 minutes away from DNATA office and of course about 40 minutes away from the airport. I call my wife "Honey we are flying in 2 and a half hours if not we have to wait 2 weeks, please pack asap I am home in a few minutes."What ? you must be mad" she says. "Well what to do We cant stay 2 more weeks" I counter. She agrees and I continue flying down sheik Zayed Road. Arriving home just before 1230. She was just about ready with all the bags and we pack them into the car. I did not even have time to change as we have to get to the airport within the next 30 minutes. Again we fly down Sheikh Zayed road and manage to get to the airport just after 1300. I drop her and the bags at the entrance and then find a parking for the car. We get our boarding passes and run through the airport. Seems I am always running in airports for some reason!

Pew, we get on board the plane and finally relax. The air hostesses are looking strange at me each time they pass. I wonder what is going on then I realize that I still have the T-shirt with the nice print on :-) Next time one of the girls serve me a drink I tell them the T-shirt is there to remind me I need to be nice to people. I can hear them discussing and having a laugh in the galley.

We arrive in Uganda and luckily we have someone meeting us as we would not even be able to pay a taxi to get back home.

It took another 3 days before the cards started working and then we managed to have a good holiday.

On my return back in Dubai I get out to the parking and of course the parking ticket were up to about 300 USD. I drive to the exit and try to pay. "Sorry sir we don't take credit cards!" - What?? all places in Dubai take cards. "No sir not us!"
I grab my 300 USD and ask the guy to accept dollars as I have no Dirhams yet. The guy reluctantly accept them, of course at a bad rate.

There simply is no win situation.

A few seconds from horror

The following was published in the news after Valentines day in Uganda a few years back.

"Between 1997 and 2001, suspected ADF operatives detonated a total of 48 bombs in Kampala, Iganga and Jinja, killing 88 people and injuring 268.

The most deadly attacks occurred on July 30, 1997 when a grenade thrown into a crowd on Queen's Way killed 10 and wounded 45, and on August 25, 1998, when bombs exploded in three different buses, killing a total of 20 people and injuring 35.

Many will also remember the 1999 Valentine's Day explosion in Telex Bar in Kabalagala, which claimed five lives and injured 34, and the bomb blast on Kafumbe Mukasa Road on April 24, 1999, which cost the lives of another five and wounded seven."

Me and my wife had been out having dinner and was on the way home. Taking the normal route through Kabalagala on the way to Bunga, both suburbs in Kampala.

We came to the T-junction heading towards the Telex bar and Family shop. Things just did not look normal. People were running up from the Telex bar area and I could not figure out what was going on. Sometimes there are some fight in town if people have caught a thief so we have gotten quite good at detecting trouble. Living in danger zones you have to go by the feelings you get in situations. If it feels bad then act as if it is bad.

Anyway we saw people running up the hill away from the Telex bar area. As I am looking down towards Telex bar a bomb blows up right in front of me. It was the first time I ever saw one actually go of so close, it was an eary feeling. I immediately turn to drive up the hill away from the place and call the incident in to the office.
The radio room is asking if it just happened now-now as they had a report just a few minutes ago also. I told them it was right now and that there must have been 2 blasts in that case. We continue home on the back roads (I know them all by now.) while monitoring the radio.

The rest of the night it was quiet and everyone was told to remain at home. The next morning I come in to the office and have a chat with our technicians. Bjoern one of the Norwegian guys then tell me. "I was sitting there at Telex bar and suddenly there was a bomb. I had dead bodies around me and even more injured people." Yet he did not even have a scratch on him. Obviously he had been protected by one of the dead people without even realizing it. He left the bar and was lucky to have gone away from the second bomb.

Later on I talked to the bouncers at my normal hangout "Capital pub" and they had stopped 2 guys with their bags from coming in as they had refused to show what was in them. The target had most likely been Capital as it was the most frequented place by expats among all the bars in the area.

Two of my wife's friends died in the bombing.

There are many ifs that I have though after that incident.

- What if we had been driving 3 minutes earlier?
- What if we had reached Capital, as the plan was to go there?
- What if the bouncers had not been vigilant?
- What if Bjoern had not been so lucky?

Luckily none of those ifs were the case though. Still touching wood.

My dear cat Sussie remembered

Yesterday my dear cat Sussie died. She was the most affectionate cat you could find.

I already had a cat at that time and my wife found Sussie in the middle of the winter outside in the snow. Scared, freezing and dirty. Just a small kitten maybe 6 months old. We could not imagine someone throwing out a cat so young in that way. But then maybe she had escaped. She was a young cat but very smart. At 6 months she new how to open a door by hanging on the door handle.

The first time I saw here she was so weak. I was in bed while my wife gave her a hot bath. As soon as she was dry she ran straight to bed and just wanted to lie right next to me. I don't know why but she wanted my comfort.

When we moved to Uganda we took the cats with us and Sussie has lived there ever since. From being an indoor cat she became a free cat who never went more than 100 meter or so from the house, by her own choice. She loved being out, lapping up the un, but she never forgot the feeling of being left out in the cold so she would always run back in the house.

As a cat she lived a very good life. Even if I travelled a lot there was always someone in the house looking after her. We never even rented out the house when moving to Dubai as I wanted her to have a good place to stay even if I could not be there all the time. People thought I was crazy, but I loved my cat!
She would be as independent as a cat can be and if she didn't want to be patted there was no chance to catch her. She however always came to me, jumping up in my lap, purring away.

Some people love dogs and some cats and I am for sure a cat person. While she would not make a sound when there was a threat she was very good as a watch-cat. Any time there was a threat outside I would simply look at were Sussie was looking. Long before anyone else she had already scouted out people coming close to the house, night or day. She was also very good at determining friendly people from not so friendly people. As there is a lot of mice, rats, snakes and other animals crawling around in Africa she had plenty to play with. For us it was very good. We never had any rodents or other animals in the house or even in the garden. The occasional Gecco would not survive for long.

Sussie became 12 years old.

My dear Sussie will always be remembered.

Once I climbed a mountain with the karamojong

I was on my way back from a mission in northeastern Uganda. All the radio installations were succesful and the staff in the suboffices were happy. they had though one request and that was to get them all connected together by radio.. Thus so they would be able to use their handsets to talk from office to office. I had seen the landscape and figured out that it should be no problem to achieve that final goal also. I had found that the perfect location would be Mount Napak or Napak hills as they referred to it. Asking around everyone told me it was an easy climb and that it would be easy to secure a location for a repeater on the top.



The plan was to head back to Kampala but as it was very early in the morning we figured that we could make it to the top and back and still make it to Kampala before sunset. The guys had told me it would take less than an hour to get to the top. We met with the local village council who was all to happy to appoint one of his deputies help us get on the way. We drove to the foot of the mountain were we met up with some Karamojong guys who would guide us up the mountain. The karamojong guys said it was an easy 30 minute walk to the top. Perfect we concluded as that would give us even more time to get back and on our way home.

the karamojong are tribe that roam around in Uganda and into Kenya with their cattle. They rarely build anything permanant. They rather just follow the seasons and the grazing patterns for their cattle. They are a very tall tribe and almost always dressed in a tradition chequered skirt. they dont carry any belongings with them except for the 3 essential things they have. A toothbrush, A walking stick and a woooden T shaped piece that can serve either as a stool or a pillow. that is it.. just the bare essentials. In some cases you will find them with a gun also. the gun is mainly for protection. Since they dont like to shoot their animals they sometimes do targetpractice on passing cars. The intent is not necessarily to kill but on a number of occasion ofcourse this has been the end result !?

The guides we got for the mountain was though not the gun carrying ones which made me more at ease.

We started to walk. As usual I carried a bottle of coke but as the walk was supposed to be like a walk in the park I only had a small bottle. We started of in a good pace withthe karimojong leading the way. I think it took about 10 minutes then all us rookies were tired.. these guys were not walking.. they were running!!! We requested them to take it slower and we managed another 10 minutes then we stopped again and said that maybe it is better we lead the way and they follow our pace.



Slowly we started to realize that this 30 minute walk was probably going to take a bit longer or shall we say much longer! As we felt we were already high up we decided that to eturn without reaching the peak would just be achieving nothing we all agreed that we would continue all the way even if it would take a bit longer time. 3 hours and 45 minutes later we finally reached the peak. The mountain is stnading about 1000 meter above the surrounding areas. On reaching the top we were told that we had passed several villages?! We had not seen any but they had seen us. As the karimojong living on the mountain are very suspicious to visitors they hide and only make themselves known if they know your intent.

The view from the top was spectacular. We could see almost 150 km towards the north or as far as we wanted the radiosignal to reach. We talked to the guys in the Kotido office just on our small radio and they could not believe we were on the mountain top so far away. We located a good site for a repeater and then it was time to head down again. By this time we were exhausted but the local guys had barely even raised the pulse one beat. I found out that it wss not uncommon that they ran up the mountain all the way, or ran between the different villages even if they were as far away as a marathon or two! At the same time I also realized that they actually had no concept of what 30 minutes would be. 30 minutes or 4 hours did not make a difference. You reach when you reach and that was it.

Continuing down we stopped at one of the villages and suddenly we were greated by the villagers. As we had run out of anything to drink they offered us water. Infact they even offered to slaughter a goat for a barbeque. We kindly said not to the goat but drank some very fresh water from the mountain. As they have a serious problem of guinea worm in most of the areas we had to sift the water through a napkin.

After a 20 minutes rest we continued down the mountain. It took almost as much time as going up and we were exhausted. We had though found a good site for our systems so I was happy with the climb.

Speed trap African style

Once more me and Frode was out driving on the country side in Uganda. I had been given the "141" for the weekend and Frode had another land cruiser. Most of the time we would drive in separate cars and keep in touch over the radio as we both loved to drive especially if we could find some off road mud holes :-) We wanted to go visit some of the islands closer to Masaka and it was about a 2 hour drive from Kampala. We have driven that road so many times it was not really interesting to explore further.

As there was almost no traffic on the road we were speeding away at around 140km/h. The maximum speed in Uganda at the time was 80 km/h.

In some areas along the road there is very long hills up and down and sometimes the police set up speed controls. They didn't have any radars so it is kind of a gamble as to what they actually measure :-) If they stand up on one hill they can see the cars going faster than the others on the downhill slope of another hill.

Normally the police would not stop our cars. As we approach the top of one hill the police is frantically waving at me to pull over.

The police that pulled me over ask me to drive up to the next policeman about 20 meters away.

I drive over to that policeman and stop. Were this police was he could not have seen me speeding.

He looks at me and then the car. Then he ask me. - Why did my colleague pull you over?

- I don't know? (as I had never been pulled over in Uganda before)

Then the police turn around and shout something in the local language to his colleague, who shouts something back. He then turns back again stretching his hand into the car pointing at the speedometer.

- You were speeding!? Then he points his finger in a circle around anything between 80 -140 km/h.

- Ok... yes I might have been driving a little too fast coming down the hill, I say.

- You know speeding is not allowed.

- Yes.

Then he walks around the car and comes back and says.

-Ok Sir you know I should not stop you.

- Yes Sir.

- But you know you were speeding

The exchange continues like that for a while then he says.

-Why don't you buy me some tea.

-Sir you know I can't do that

- Yes Sir, but you were speeding

- Yes, I might have gone a bit too fast. But if I give you tea I would have to report it to the office.
- Hmm... Sir.. ok..... please continue but no speeding.

- Yes sir. will keep it within the limit.

- Ok, you know I should not stop you?!

-Yes Sir

- Ok have a nice day ssebo.

- Same to you Sir.

Then we continued to Masaka in the speed within the circle of what the policeman had pointed at. Still today I have not figured out if they have different rates for different speeds or if it is the same.

Helping hand

The office had given me the "141". 141 was the last digits on the registration plate on the Land cruiser once donated by SRSA (Swedish Rescue Services Agency). We were in the end only two guys who wanted to drive it as it was a left hand steered car in a left hand drive country... Thus you ended up sitting at the end of the road with little vision on the center of the road when passing other cars.

The car was a special one as it was a Land cruiser fully equipped with double transceivers on both HF and VHF. It was essentially a mobile command centre ready to go to any emergency and with stickers all over so it could not be mistaken for any other car. It was also equipped with a winch to be able to get out of bad situations in mud.

In those days it was common that expats were allowed to take the official vehicles home over night as it was the only way to properly disburse the cars, thus minimizing the risk of theft and potential terror attacks during the night. It was easy to throw a grenade into our office compound in Kampala and immediately take out 10 or more vehicles.

Me and Frode, another of my colleagues were heading out for some fun as it was weekend. His girlfriend had also joined in for the trip down to Haandi for dinner. From there we would then find our way to the local night scene.

When heading back we took the normal route. In Kampala streetlights are a luxury we keep dreaming of thus all the roads are treacherous. Partly because of all the potholes, which can reach enormous proportions as the road repairs leave a lot to desire in most parts of town. Well the pothole is one problem but the way people seem to avoid them is by driving completely around them rather than taking a visual stock of how to negotiate the hole while still getting it under the centre of the car. I have probably done thousands of maneuvers to avoid cars with drivers who simply focus on the hole rather than looking at oncoming traffic!

The other threat is the potential for robbery or accidents during the night.

We turned up on the very steep hill and as usual we drove with the full "Hella" lights turned on. We had them installed both on the roof and in front on the bull bar. On both sides of this road there was a very deep ditch, just about a meter in depth and about 1 meter wide. This was to ensure the rainwater would not carry away the road during the heavy rains we normally experience.

To our amazement there was a car standing with the back wheels up in the air and the nose down in the ditch. Both front wheels were in the ditch. Me and Frode looked at each other and by the sign on his face he was thinking the same as me.. "Lets get to work and help these guys out."

We thought that, with the winch and the strength in our car this would be a piece of cake. It was an elderly couple and they were very scared even though no one was injured. There was no damage to the car in general so to us it looked like they had driven slowly or tried to do a u-turn.. Making a u-turn in hat area would be a crazy thing to do but we have seen worse happen many times.

We tried to find a space to hook up the car but we could see that it was an old car with rust in all the bad places so we had to make sure we got it right or the couple would probably start chasing after us for wrecking their car.

While we were trying to get light in the right spots and get the cable around one of the local guys, who saw our car parked with full headlights, joined in. We told him we did not need any help as we had it under control. The old couple did not speak too much English and the guy started talking to the couple and was waiving his arms in different directions. Sometimes hovering over us with out commenting anything to us. But then back to the old couple waiving his arms and continuing to talk in one of the local languages.

Somehow we managed to fix the wire in 3 points and then started pulling. We adjusted one of the wires and then managed to get the car out unharmed. The old couple were very happy and thankful. We rolled in the cable and jumped in to our car waving goodbye to the couple. Frode's girlfriend then said.

- What are you not going to charge them some money?!

Again me and Frode looked at each other and burst out laughing. - What do you mean charging?! we both countered in tune as if we had rehearsed the timing.

- but ofcourse they have to pay you guys for helping them.

We countered that, back home in Scandinavia if someone is in trouble it is just common courtesy to help out and anyone would help and would think none of it. The girl looked completely lost at that time and we laughed again. For us it was just a nice thing to do and as usual we always looked at situations to see if we could find a solution to a challenge.

- but..... the girl countered again - The guy who was talking to the couple and waiving his arms...

- yeah ?!

- Well he got 10,000 Ughs from the couple.

- What do you mean he got money ?!

- Well I heard him telling the old couple that as we knew nothing on how to pull out cars he would take control of the situation and tell us what to do.and thus supervise the situation so their car would get safely out of the ditch.

- What!!!?? are you sure.

- Yes that is what he told them and I saw that they gave him the money.

We b0th looked puzzled but then we concluded- Well this is crazy Kampala...

We did the job and another guy got 4 beers out of it :-)

My second flight with UN, the real inititation to the work

I had just dismantled the technical equipment from our office in Mwanza and was ready to fly back to Kampala. It was as my 30th birthday and this was the first time I actually worked on my birthday but work was so new and interesting that it was not on my mind in a negative way rather on the contrary.

After the adventure with the small beech craft I was not sure what was in store for my return. I just knew it would not be the same plane but the rest I would never even have been able to imagine.



The Norwegian guys who had been running the small logistics coordination office already started to celebrate in the morning as it was "syttene Maj" well 17th of may for the uninitiated.. that is the day the whole of Norway is celebrating my birthday or their national day :-)

We packed up the last pieces and they said lets join the 2nd Iljusin -76 and fly back with that one to Entebbe.

The iljusin is one of the real work horse planes that we use for transporting whatever is needed. there was 3 of them that had been based in Mwanza and they were all wrapping up the last flights as the operation in DRC Congo was scaling down after the Rwanda Genocide.

We saw the first one take off fully loaded with food commodities for the refugees in Kisangani.
the noise they make when taking off can not really be described. It is just enormous and there are no normal commercial planes like it. Looking inside it is a purely mechanical plane and if there is any electronics it is with old Valves or Tubes as we would find in radios from the 50s and 60s. All the control wires are fully visible inside to save on weight and cost.

The crew for a plane is quite large as they carry their own spares and repair equipment so they are almost completely self sufficient... With a Russian crew just give the plane fuel and the crew some Vodka and the flights are on the way :-)

As it was their last flight run before returning back home to Russia they were in both a sad mood but also celebrating their departure from a job well done. their return to Russia effectively meant that they would be out of a job as there was money nor interest in actually repairing the planes to get them back in business. (this was in 1997)


We sat in the back when taking off. I asked if there was any seat we needed to take with seat belts but it was obvious that this plane was not equipped with such luxuries. We could sit anywhere we wanted or why not simply lie down on the bags the plane was full of. When an illusin takes of and land it is almost not noticeable compared to other planes.. It basically drives off horizontally until it just lifts without any angle upward to speak of. the crew in the back were refreshing themselves with some black label and so did both me and the Norwegian guys.

After abut 3 hours we reached Kisangani and the pilot flew around the airport 2 turns before landing. As it was in a potential war zone with both government troops, rebels as well as rebel fighters from Rwanda in the vicinity a constant lookout was needed. Once the pilot was satisfied everything was OK he talked to his friends from the first plane on the ground and we landed.

The reason why we had to fly to Kisangani even though it was half the way through DRC, for the Rwanda crisis, was that the people had by any means tried to avoid the genocide and had basically disappeared into the jungles around Goma/Bukavu only to somehow appear in and around Kisangani several hundreds of kilometres away.

We parked the plane and opened the doors. there was a lot of military on the ground and the atmosphere was very tense. I had a camera and took some pictures from inside the plane but did not take it outside.. that proved to be a very good decision as one of the other guys was almost attacked instantly when trying to take photos of the plane in front of the building.

About 30 people started offloading the plane by hand. The 50 kilo bags of food disappeared in rapid succession out of the plane. After about 30 minutes they were ready.

I was then informed by the pilot that we would bring all the people that we saw standing in line on board the plane and fly them to Kigali.

I will never forget the sights nor the smell of what was to follow.

The crew rolled out some blue tarps on the floor in the plane. then they locked the entrance between the cargo hull and the cockpit and informed us to not under any circumstance open the door once we were in the air.

We all started helping the refugees getting onto the plane. They moved slowly and were so weak and skinny with hollow eyes barely able to focus on anything. In every ones eyes you could just see the fear. The knew they would be returning to a country which had just been hell on earth. They all carried a small returning pack consisting of some water and some little food. Mothers carrying their children. Each time we led someone into the plane their eyes were just saying one thing, please don't let anyone harm us, yet they spoke nothing.

Talking to our guys on the ground I was informed that I was lucky to come at this time.. If I had arrived even one week before I would have seen people in much worse shape than I now saw.

We helped about 350 people into the plane. The all sat down on the floor stomach to back in several rows.

The main cargo door was closed and we climbed into the cockpit.
As there was no seat anymore the pilot told me I could even watch the take-off standing behind his seat. I was a bit sceptical so I instead found a small cushion which I placed next to the navigator who is sitting below the pilots. It would be the perfect view to somehow feel the acceleration of the plane and see the rush of the ground running passed as we took off.

We taxed out started taking off. Once we had reached an altitude of about 500 metres it got cloudy several times. Suddenly I see another iljusin right in front of us heading directly towards us. the pilot quickly made a maneuver banking right. Luckily the other plane did the same... Only then did the navigator notice that he had forgotten to turn on the radar.

The flight went smooth after that and we continued somehow celebrating but in a more subdued way. The people in the back had been through hell and survived and they were now on the way home and would hopefully be living a better life than the had for the last 2 -3 years.

When we landed in Kigali airport I stood behind the pilot and I could barely even feel when the wheels touched the runway.

There was even more soldiers on the ground at this airport than I had seen elsewhere. We got out on the runway and the soldiers was commandeering everyone left and right. the cargo door was not to be opened until all the buses for the refugees had arrived. The tension was quite high. the trust among the people was virtually none and due to the situation no one could know if there potentially would be interahamwe among the returning refugees. So everyone would have to be screened once they reached their camp.

The smell was horrendous. Most of these people had never been in a plane let alone even seen one. That combined with the fear of returning meant that many had defecated right then and there in the plane. Luckily no one had panicked and they were helped of the plane to the buses.

Once the plane was empty it was cleaned up and we later on took of for Entebbe. The crew was getting more and more frisky with the vodka and they started to sing their traditional songs.
We landed at Entebbe just at sunset. I fell asleep in the Land cruiser on the way back to Kampala with very mixed feelings. Sadness, Happiness, Excitement, Anger all mixed into one. It was my 30th birthday and on my first mission I had seen upfront and close what the real work our agency do.

My first flight with UN

I had just been on my job 2 weeks when Peter (my boss for almost 10years by now) asked me to fly down to Mwanza in Tanzania to close down a small coordination office we had there at the end of the Rwanda war. A lot of refugees were still up in DRC in Kisangani and Goma area.

I was very exited. It as my first flight in Africa to actually be able to fly over Lake Victoria and see the nature closer up from the air during daytime.

As it was my first flight with a UN plane the guys had informed me to go and talk to the air ops guy Stig. A very nice Norwegian guy who I keep crossing paths with in various emergencies.

Stig was at this time getting ready for a well deserved break as he had been a major player for the flight corridors between Entebbe and Rwanda as well as towards DRC.

I had not even reached the office when I heard his Norwegian accent shouting while speaking on the handheld radio.

He appointed Ivan, his assistant, to join me and do the formalities and get me to the lounge. In the same breath he gave strict instruction to Ivan not to leave me out of sight, even for a minute.

We got through all the paperwork ok and were sitting looking out over the tarmac and the planes landing.

Finally my plane UNK -95 arrived. Over my handheld radio I could hear Stig's voice giving instructions to various people. Suddenly he starts shouting "IVAAAN where are you". Ivan jumping out of his seat trying to answer the radio in the same breath. " I am with your passenger"
"But you know the passenger cant get lost if he already is at the gate.. I need you by the plane."
"Yes Sir" and Ivan was with his legs on the back heading down to the plane.

As I was just interested in what was in general happening I kept listening on the radio traffic.

I saw Ivan running towards the plane when a loud voice again come on the radio. "Ivan- where are you, are you with the pilot now? Before Ivan even got a chance to answer Stig once more shout over the radio... " Ivaaann-- why have you not gotten the fuel truck to the plane"

Looking out of the tarmac I see Ivan standing right in between the plane, holding his handheld radio and just looking confused. I felt sorry for him. Even the few minutes I spent with him it was clear he was a nice guy and did everything he could to ensure everything went smooth. There simply is only so much one guy can do with conflicting instructions.

In the end the plane got fuelled and the pilot and co-pilot left the plane and walked around on the tarmac. Me and 2 more passengers were ready to board.

Once more we hear Stig on the radio " Ivaaaan - why are you not with the passenger!!!!" upon which Ian without answering the radio make way up to our gate in very fast long steps.

We all enter the tarmac and head over to the plane. A small beech craft which was in use more than a year for our operation only.

I say hi to the pilot and his co pilot. The Pilot was a Kenyan guy and the co pilot a fellow swede.

They both ask us not to board the plane yet as they are inspecting the plane. Once done they both disappear into the plane and starts discussing something.

finally the co-pilot comes out and informs us that the flight is cancelled as they had found some "technical" problem with the plane.

Talking to the co-pilot in our native tongue I find out that the pilot is angry as he did not get any coffee on arrival and therefor just want to cancel the flight.

However no they had a problem....

The had arrived with the son of the country director for our operation in Burundi who was on the way to meet his father for a few days.

Once a plane is declared not suitable for passengers... they cant carry passengers.... Yet they had this 12 year old, boy whom they had taken on responsibility for.

They again discussed, and in the end they came to the conclusion that they would have to take the boy back, leave us on the ground and fly back to Nairobi.

3 hours later the plane arrived back and we continued to Mwanza... the pilot was another one :-) the co-pilot was the same..

While I flew UNK-95 many times after that, I never saw the pilot again.