The Union of Congolese Patriots (french: Union des Patriotes congolais, or UPC) is a political and militia group in

Ituri Ituri is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Ituri, Bas-Uele, Haut-Uele, and Tshopo provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Orientale province. Ituri was ...

, northeastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, formed towards the end of the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War,, group=lower-alpha also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year a ...

. It was founded by Thomas Lubanga in 2001 and was one of six such groups that sprung up in the mineral-rich Ituri region on the border with

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...

in the

Ituri conflict The Ituri conflict (french: Guerre d'Ituri) is an ongoing conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While the two groups had ...

. The UPC supported and was primarily composed of the Hema ethnic group. What began as a struggle for control over land and resources, broke out into ethnic warfare as atrocities increased and as arms from Uganda and

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

became available, and units of the Ugandan army became involved. By February 2003, the UPC was said to have fielded an estimated 15,000 soldiers. The UPC carried out numerous attacks upon civilians and other serious

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

abuses in pursuit of its policies. In August 2002, the UPC took control of the town of Bunia with the help of

n forces, following which it received support from Rwanda. In late 2003, the UPC split into several factions: one led by Kisembo Bahemuka and known as the UPC-Kisembo (UPC-K), another under Thomas Lubanga and known as the UPC-Lubanga (UPC-L), and the ''Parti pour l'unité et la sauvegarde de l'intégrité du Congo'' (PUSIC) - Party for Unity and Safeguarding of the Integrity of Congo, formed by Mandro Panga Kahwa. The UPC-L was militarily stronger as most of the militia stayed with Lubanga. After the 2004 accords most of the UPC-K eventually merged into PUSIC. The UPC-L was implicated in the deaths of nine

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

i MONUC peacekeepers on 25 March 2005. Lubanga was arrested along with Floribert Ndjabu, leader of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front. In March 2006, Lubanga was arrested under a warrant issued by the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to pro ...

for the alleged war crime of using

child soldiers Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures. Children in the military, inclu ...

, and was flown to the Netherlands. Bosco Ntaganda was named its leader in his absence.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

states that between August 2002 and March 2003, the UPC arrested and tortured over 100 opponents, was responsible for the murder of a

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

n peacekeeper in January 2004 and the kidnapping of a Moroccan peacekeeper later that year. In January 2005, Commander Bosco Ntaganda was offered a position as a general in the national Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC), but had refused the post. The UPC won three National Assembly seats in the 2006 general elections.

Military wing

The military wing of the party was called the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (''Forces Patriotiques pour la libération du Congo'', FPLC) and was under the command of Thomas Lubanga with Bosco Ntaganda as Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Upon Lubanga's arrest, Ntaganda assumed the rank of Commander of the FPLC.

References

External links

The Curse of Gold: Ch III. Methodology

, June 2005
D.R. Congo: Army Should Not Appoint War Criminals
14 January 2005 {{Armed groups in the Congo wars Factions of the Second Congo War Rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Military units and factions of the Ituri conflict Democratic Republic of the Congo politicians convicted of crimes