Full Horror of Congo Massacre Revealed

May 22, 2003

THE mutilated bodies of 280 people, some with their hearts, livers and lungs removed, have been discovered in the town of Bunia in eastern Congo after days of fighting between tribal militias, a United Nations official said yesterday.

The continued evidence of atrocities emerged as Britain said it was considering a request to send troops to the region as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force.

"We are assisting the local Red Cross to discover bodies. The count was 280 this morning," said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC).

They warned that the death toll was expected to rise because they have only been able to search nine of the town’s 12 neighbourhoods.

The bodies discovered so far include women and children, some decapitated.

Fighters from the rival Hema and Lendu tribes have been battling for control of Bunia, capital of resource-rich Ituri province. UN officials are already investigating reports of cannibalism during the clashes.

The fighting subsided on Friday after rival factions signed a ceasefire agreement. The factions agreed to demilitarise the town, but hundreds of gunmen, many of them young boys, were still patrolling the streets yesterday armed with assault rifles, machetes and rocket-propelled grenades.

Mr Toure said around 17,000 people had been displaced by the fighting and were now under UN protection.

"We are organising the distribution of food and humanitarian aid," he said.

"We have organised a meeting of the two chiefs of the armed groups on how to govern Bunia, and the proposed location of their forces.

"They are working out modalities for a joint military police for Bunia."

The UN has requested countries to contribute to an international force to help bring stability to the region. France has been asked to lead the force and provide a battalion with up to 1,000 troops, but is still considering the request.

A French team was in Bunia yesterday to determine the feasibility of the operation.

"[The French team] will be studying the feasibility of deploying French troops here and what would be needed for such a deployment," said Colonel Daniel Vollot, commander of UN troops in Ituri.

The French army and navy officers will assess issues like the level of security in the region, the capacity of the local airport and the possible methods of deploying and supplying the troops, UN officials said.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said yesterday that Britain is also considering how it can help the force.

He told the House of Commons at Prime Minister’s question time: "I spoke to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, about this the day before yesterday.

"There is a UN force being put together now. I understand France is going to make a considerable contribution to that. We are seeing, given all our other engagements, what support we can give.

"It is going to be very important to make sure that force is properly led and properly supported because otherwise we will revisit the terrors of the Congo of a decade or so ago.

"We are doing everything we can to avoid that situation."

A Pakistani military officer was also scheduled to arrive in Bunia yesterday to explore the possibility of deploying Pakistani soldiers alongside the French troops.

But a spokesman for the French foreign ministry said Paris wanted a UN Security Council resolution authorising the force and the approval of Congo’s neighbours.

Ituri has been plagued by fighting and massacres for several years as rival tribes and rebel factions fighting in the nearly five-year war in Congo have fought for control of the province’s rich mineral deposits, vast timber forests and fertile land.

Hemas, traditionally cattle-raisers, and Lendus, predominantly farmers, have sparred for centuries over resources in Ituri. But the clashes became deadlier after Ugandan, Rwandan and Congolese governments armed both groups as proxy fighters when the war in Congo erupted in August 1998.

There are about 750 UN troops in Bunia, but they could not stop the violence. There are an estimated 25,000 to 28,000 tribal fighters in the region, with thousands deployed in and around Bunia.

The latest fighting for Bunia erupted as Uganda withdrew its more than 6,000 troops from in and around the town.

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=576442003