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UN probe finds bodies in shallow graves in Congo
United Nations, Apr 13: A United Nations team investigating reported killings in a heavily forested district in the eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has found bodies in shallow graves.
United Nations, Apr 13: A United Nations team
investigating reported killings in a heavily forested district
in the eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) has found bodies in shallow graves.
Some bodies were seen "coming out of the mud" in Lukweti,
a village 200 kms northeast of the north Kivu provincial
capital, Goma, said Jacqueline Chenard, a spokesperson for the
UN organisation mission in the DRC (Monuc).
The team has been investigating a report that rampaging gunmen had allegedly killed at least 25 people during three days of murder, rape and arson last month in an eastern district of DRC.
Villagers reported that about 40 people were killed, including some in an area that could not be reached as the departing attackers had destroyed a bridge connecting one part of the village to the other, Chenard said adding the rebels also burned down about 150 homes.
The marauders were identified variously as Rwandan rebels involved in the 1994 genocide, members of the formerly most important Congolese rebel group the Congolese rally for democracy, and Mayi-Mayi tribal militias who were allied with the former DRC government in the five-year civil war that ended last June with the formation of a multi-factional transitional government. Meanwhile, two UN peacekeeping soldiers in the Nepalese battalion, deployed in the Ituri provincial town of Mahagi, were killed Sunday and three others injured when two tyres on their vehicle burst simultaneously, the UN said.
The two deaths brought to 36 the number of Monuc members who have killed since the establishment of the mission in November 1999.
Bureau Report
The team has been investigating a report that rampaging gunmen had allegedly killed at least 25 people during three days of murder, rape and arson last month in an eastern district of DRC.
Villagers reported that about 40 people were killed, including some in an area that could not be reached as the departing attackers had destroyed a bridge connecting one part of the village to the other, Chenard said adding the rebels also burned down about 150 homes.
The marauders were identified variously as Rwandan rebels involved in the 1994 genocide, members of the formerly most important Congolese rebel group the Congolese rally for democracy, and Mayi-Mayi tribal militias who were allied with the former DRC government in the five-year civil war that ended last June with the formation of a multi-factional transitional government. Meanwhile, two UN peacekeeping soldiers in the Nepalese battalion, deployed in the Ituri provincial town of Mahagi, were killed Sunday and three others injured when two tyres on their vehicle burst simultaneously, the UN said.
The two deaths brought to 36 the number of Monuc members who have killed since the establishment of the mission in November 1999.
Bureau Report