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--- Begin Message --- Wednesday, 15 January, 2003, 14:00 GMT
UN confirms DR Congo cannibalism
By Mark Dummett
BBC, Kinshasa
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2661365.stm
UN investigators have confirmed reports of human rights violations committed by rebel troops during recent fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including rape, torture, arbitrary executions and cannibalism.
The UN mission in DR Congo says soldiers from the Ugandan-backed Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) and two smaller factions were responsible for the atrocities which took place between mid-October and the end of December in north-eastern Congo.
More than 350 witnesses and victims interviewed by the UN rights investigators confirmed earlier allegations that rebels from the MLC had committed widespread human rights violations during their recent advance on the town of Beni.
In one case, investigators heard how a young girl was cut into small pieces by the soldiers and then eaten.
In others, how hearts and other organs were cut out of victims and forced on their families to eat.
'Freaks'
The rights investigators heard that the soldiers systematically raped women and looted houses in the town of Mambasa and in villages along the road towards Beni.
Members of the minority Pygmy community, forced to flee their forest homes for the first time anyone can remember, were among those targeted.
The UN spokesperson in Kinshasa described the rebel soldiers as "freaks" who were out of control and said that abusers of human rights wherever they were in Congo, should be brought to justice. She said a copy of the investigators' findings had been given to the UN Security Council.
In spite of recent advances in Congo's peace process, there is still insecurity in much of the country, particularly the north-east, where the rape and massacre of civilians have become commonplace.
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U.N. Probe Confirms Cannibalism in Congo
By EDDY ISANGO, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 57 minutes ago
Jan 15, 2003
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=515&ncid=723&e=1&u=/ap/20030115/ap_on_re_af/congo_cannibalism
KINSHASA, Congo - A U.N. inquiry confirmed systematic cannibalism, rape, torture and killing by rebels in a campaign of atrocities against civilians in the forests of northeast Congo, with children among the victims, U.N. authorities said Wednesday.
Accused rebel groups include the Congolese Liberation Movement of Jean-Pierra Bemba, one of two key insurgent movements now promised a leading role in Congo's government under a power-sharing agreement to end the central African nation's war.
Rebels called their terror campaign Operation Clean the Slate, said Patricia Tome, spokeswoman for the U.N. Congo mission in the capital, Kinshasa.
"The operation was presented to the people almost like a vaccination campaign, envisioning the looting of each home and the rape of each woman," Tome said.
The charges are laid out in a preliminary report based on a six-day mission by U.N. investigators last week to remote Ituri province. The investigation was prompted by reports from clergy and nonprofit groups operating in the province.
The findings have been given to the U.N. Security Council and to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello urged Congolese authorities to bring the culprits to justice. "Impunity must be banished from Congo," he said during a visit to Kinshasa.
Bemba announced Tuesday that the rebel group had arrested five of its own members, including its chief of operations in Ituri province, Lt. Col. Freddy Ngalimo.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) was asked at a news conference Tuesday about reports of human rights violations in Congo, including cases of forced cannibalism. Annan replied:
"I cannot confirm the claim about cannibalism. ...My envoys and the human rights experts have confirmed that there have indeed been violations, and we are in the midst of drafting a report to determine what to do."
Bemba said the five would be tried by a rebel military court.
"Those people we have arrested have been implicated in rapes, in thefts, and other complaints. Our inquiry has not yielded to us any information concerning the alleged cannibalism," he said.
The allegations named Bemba's movement and the allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National rebel movement, which are fighting the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation for mineral-rich areas of Ituri province.
A series of peace deals secured the withdrawal of most foreign troops last year in Congo's four-year war, which split the nation into rebel- and government-held zones. Despite the accords, fighting among the rebel groups intensified at the end of 2002 in the lawless east.
U.N. investigators said the attacks occurred at Mambasa and Mangina, 30 miles and 45 miles respectively from the northeast city of Beni.
The report cited 117 instances of arbitrary executions between Oct. 24 and 29. It cited 65 cases of rape, including the rape of children, 82 kidnappings and 27 cases of torture.
"The testimony given by victims and of witnesses was of cannibalism and forced cannibalism," including people made by rebels to eat members of their own family, Tome said.
Atrocities found by investigators include the removal and consumption of hearts of infants, small girls killed and mutilated, "people executed alive before the members of their families, and the rape of children," Tome said.
U.N. investigators previously have reported that the targets of cannibalism also included Pygmies, whom rebels routinely enlist as hunters. The district's lead Roman Catholic cleric, Monsignor Melchisedec Sikuli Paluku, earlier told The Associated Press and others of rebels forcing cannibalism upon Pygmies.
Investigators said they went into the bush to interview Pygmies who had gone into hiding after the rebel campaign.
Authorities have not specified a motive for the alleged rebel terror campaign, but the east has seen frequent attacks on villages by rebels that believe locals are supporting their rivals.
Belief in magic is thought to have played a role in the alleged cannibalism. Fighters and others often believe that consuming parts of human bodies gives them special powers.
Bemba led a Uganda-backed rebel movement during Congo's war, which aid groups killed 2.5 million people � mostly through disease and famine gravely aggravated by the fighting.
Congo's government, rebels and political opposition signed an accord in December to share power in an interim government meant to lead the country into democracy. The accord gives Bemba's group key ministries, and Bemba is looked to claim one of four vice presidencies in the interim government.
===========================
Monuc Confirms Cannibalism in Mambasa, Mangina
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
January 15, 2003
Posted to the web January 15, 2003
Kinshasa
http://allafrica.com/stories/200301150417.html
The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUC, confirmed on Wednesday that rebel groups in the northeast of the country had been engaging in acts of cannibalism.
"The rebels forced people to consume body parts of their family members," Patricia Tome, MONUC's director of information, said.
MONUC said it had received witness reports of rebels belonging to the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) and its ally, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-National (RCD-N), being involved in cannibalism and forcible cannibalism in Mambasa and Mangina, respectively situated 50 and 70 km northwest of Beni.
A preliminary report, which has been forwarded to the UN Security Council and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, cites 117 cases of arbitrary execution, 65 of rape, including child rape, 82 cases of abduction either for sexual purposes or work, and 27 of torture.
"There were horrifying things in the report concerning cannibalism, such as babies whose hearts were torn out and taken away or given to someone to eat, of small children who were killed, mutilated, and of people who were executed in front of their families," Tome said.
Witnesses told MONUC that soldiers belonging to MLC, RCD-N and the Union du peuple congolais had looted property, committed systematic rape, summary executions, and been involved in kidnappings in an operation called "clean the blackboard [effacer le tableau]".
The summary executions were perpetrated primarily among the Nande in Mambasa, the pygmies, and populations in villages around Mambasa and Beni.
MONUC sent a team of investigators to North Kivu and Ituri District on 31 December 2002, to investigate allegations of serious human rights abuses committed during the MLC and RCD-N occupation of Mambasa between 12 and 29 October, their return there on 29 November, and advances made around Beni. A total of 368 victims and witnesses were interviewed, MONUC said in a communique. The total number of victims remains unclear.
The head of MLC, Jean-Pierre Bemba, announced on Tuesday the arrest of five members of his rebel group accused of crimes in Mambasa. Bemba has assured MONUC that he will cooperate with investigations.
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