At 08:10 PM 4/30/2002 EDT [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Few of them ever criticize anyone else for doing >things far worse than what they accuse Israel of doing. Few of them >acknowledge the crimes committed against Israel or that the Israelis are, as >I've said numerous times, scared out of their minds. A little balance would >go a long way to convince Israelis that the critics simply don't mean them >ill.
Indeed, for all the international attention being fawned over Jenin, I think it is appropriate to consider a little perspective. At about the same time the IDF was in Jenin, *this* was going on - with some estimates as high as 1,000 dead in the civilian massacre. I find the whole affair greatly humbling, as concerns our priorities in the world. 14/04/2002 21:17 - (SA) Hundreds die in raids South African Press Association Kigali - A Rwandan military offensive in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Tutsis, according to Tutsi sources. The Movement of Federal Republican Forces (FRF) said that "between 4 000 and 6 000 Rwandan troops" had invaded the uplands in the South Kivu province in the eastern DRC with hundreds reported dead in the region. Rwandan-backed rebels of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) have been fighting troops loyal to dissident Commander Masunzu since the beginning of March. Masunzu, who belongs to the Banyamulenge ethnic group of Congolese Tutsis from South Kivu, has accused the Rwandan army of betraying the interests of his community and wants the soldiers and the RCD, which controls most of eastern DRC, out of the vast central African nation. "Hundreds of dead have been registered in and around Minembwe. Terrorised and humiliated, the Banyamulenge population are equally the victims of looting and arbitrary arrests by occupation troops," the statement continued. "In his military campaign against the occupation, Commander Masunzu is well entrenched in his positions. He benefits from the total support of all his community and of thousands of Mai-Mai resistant fighters (tribal militias traditionally hostile to the Congolese Tutsis) who have joined him," the FRF said. The FRF is opposed to the inter-Congolese dialogue which is taking place in South Africa and in the statement called on "other Congolese patriots" to unite with their forces in "resisting the occupation". Another Banyamulenge organisation, Shikama, has also claimed that around 500 people were killed during the course of the Rwandan offensive. These included "women, old people and children targetted during helicopter bombardments and more than 200 Rwandan dead". Despite the claims by the two Tutsi groups, there has yet to be any independent confirmation of the figures. Shikama also accused the Kigali government of allowing the Rwandan intervention which it said was led by "armed groups and genocidal militias". The organisation has demanded the demilitarisation of Kivu province and has called for it to be placed under the protection of the UN. The DRC war has involved most of the country's regional neighbours who have openly provided the government and rebel forces with military assistance. The conflict is estimated to have killed around 2.5 million people. - Sapa-AFP
