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Congo Massacre
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Sunday it had been told nearly 1,000 civilians were massacred by tribal militias with machetes and guns in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo last week and buried in mass graves.
"The (U.N.) investigating team heard that 966 people were massacred. They identified 20 mass graves and visited 49 seriously injured people in hospitals," Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo (MONUC), told Reuters.
Witnesses said the massacre occurred on Thursday when attackers raided the town of Drodro and 14 neighboring villages near the Ituri district's capital Bunia, some 50 miles from the border with Uganda.
The identity of the attackers was unclear, but ethnic clashes in Ituri have killed thousands of people since 1999. Some local residents suggested ethnic hatred might have been the trigger for the latest killings.
Toure said MONUC investigators had talked to local priests, tribal leaders and eyewitnesses who said the orgy of killing lasted for three hours.
The investigators, who visited Drodro on Saturday, saw evidence of clothing and traces of blood above the mass graves, Toure said.
The massacre report emerged just days after Congo's warring factions signed a long-awaited political settlement to end several years of conflict in Africa's third biggest country.
CIVIL WAR
Congo was plunged into civil war in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda backed an uprising in the east to overthrow the Kinshasa government. At one point, six foreign armies were drawn into the war for Congo's mineral wealth, and two million people are believed to have died, mainly from hunger and disease.
Ugandan army spokesman Shaban Bantariza said he was aware that "hundreds had been killed" in Drodro but was waiting for further information from army investigators.
Ugandan troops have remained in Ituri district at the request of the United Nations, which feared a power and security vacuum in the area.
Human rights groups say up to 500,000 people have fled their homes and 50,000 more have been killed in the past four years, as rival rebel factions, ethnic militias and the Ugandan army have fought for control of the gold-rich Ituri district.
Peace talks are planned for northeastern Congo, organized by the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC) which is supported by the Congolese and Ugandan governments and MONUC.
Hema and Lendu tribal militias signed a cease-fire agreement in March to allow the IPC to begin its work and eventually lead to the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from eastern Congo.
Residents of Drodro, a mainly Hema town, said Thursday's attackers spoke a Lendu language.
Fresh fighting was reported on Sunday between Rwanda-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-Goma) rebels and a tribal militia group in the eastern Congolese town of Bukavu.
RCD-Goma senior official Joseph Mudumbi told Reuters the Mai Mai tribal militia group was loyal to a former governor of Bukavu. The town is controlled by RCD-Goma.
A local journalist in Bukavu said later calm had returned to the town but that the Mai Mai group was still on the outskirts.
In the peace settlement signed last Wednesday, Congo's government, rebel groups and opposition parties agreed to a transitional government to rule the former Belgian colony for up to 2-1/2 years until its first democratic elections in four decades.
"The (U.N.) investigating team heard that 966 people were massacred. They identified 20 mass graves and visited 49 seriously injured people in hospitals," Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo (MONUC), told Reuters.
Witnesses said the massacre occurred on Thursday when attackers raided the town of Drodro and 14 neighboring villages near the Ituri district's capital Bunia, some 50 miles from the border with Uganda.
The identity of the attackers was unclear, but ethnic clashes in Ituri have killed thousands of people since 1999. Some local residents suggested ethnic hatred might have been the trigger for the latest killings.
Toure said MONUC investigators had talked to local priests, tribal leaders and eyewitnesses who said the orgy of killing lasted for three hours.
The investigators, who visited Drodro on Saturday, saw evidence of clothing and traces of blood above the mass graves, Toure said.
The massacre report emerged just days after Congo's warring factions signed a long-awaited political settlement to end several years of conflict in Africa's third biggest country.
CIVIL WAR
Congo was plunged into civil war in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda backed an uprising in the east to overthrow the Kinshasa government. At one point, six foreign armies were drawn into the war for Congo's mineral wealth, and two million people are believed to have died, mainly from hunger and disease.
Ugandan army spokesman Shaban Bantariza said he was aware that "hundreds had been killed" in Drodro but was waiting for further information from army investigators.
Ugandan troops have remained in Ituri district at the request of the United Nations, which feared a power and security vacuum in the area.
Human rights groups say up to 500,000 people have fled their homes and 50,000 more have been killed in the past four years, as rival rebel factions, ethnic militias and the Ugandan army have fought for control of the gold-rich Ituri district.
Peace talks are planned for northeastern Congo, organized by the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC) which is supported by the Congolese and Ugandan governments and MONUC.
Hema and Lendu tribal militias signed a cease-fire agreement in March to allow the IPC to begin its work and eventually lead to the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from eastern Congo.
Residents of Drodro, a mainly Hema town, said Thursday's attackers spoke a Lendu language.
Fresh fighting was reported on Sunday between Rwanda-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-Goma) rebels and a tribal militia group in the eastern Congolese town of Bukavu.
RCD-Goma senior official Joseph Mudumbi told Reuters the Mai Mai tribal militia group was loyal to a former governor of Bukavu. The town is controlled by RCD-Goma.
A local journalist in Bukavu said later calm had returned to the town but that the Mai Mai group was still on the outskirts.
In the peace settlement signed last Wednesday, Congo's government, rebel groups and opposition parties agreed to a transitional government to rule the former Belgian colony for up to 2-1/2 years until its first democratic elections in four decades.
Just heard on the radio (WBUR) that these 966 people were killed in a 2 1/2 hour orgy of excecutions.
-FMK.
ACK!
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