UN Ready To Back French-Led Force To Halt Congo Carnage

A French-led force of peace-keepers hoping to halt killings in the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to receive United Nations approval today. The 1,000-strong battalion, including some British troops, could be deployed as early as next week.

But in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, fears were growing of a fresh onslaught. A fierce battle for the town two weeks ago saw the ethnic Lendu population expelled by militia from the rival Hema group. Now the Lendu may be preparing a counter-attack.

"Some of their positions are only five kilometres from here. They are regrouping for another attack," said an official in the razor-wire protected UN compound. "We think it's not a matter of if, but when."

Red Cross workers are still burying corpses from the latest attack, sparked by a Ugandan withdrawal from the town on 7 May. Tribal militiamen armed with, guns, spears and machetes bludgeoned or shot to death more than 400 people. Some mutilated bodies bore evidence of cannibalism.

Yesterday, Bunia was calm but tense. A jeep with a machine-gun mounted on the back sped past mostly closed shops. Among the few businesses open was a video theatre showing a film called Killer Instinct.

Thousands of terrified civilians huddled under plastic shelters in the UN compound, manned by a deployment of about 700 peace-keepers, the majority of whom are Uruguayan. During the massacres, the troops obeyed orders to remain at the base.

If there is quiet, it is only because the Lendu have fled. But there is a steady drip of violence - isolated shootings by night, some looting by day and the rape of girls as young as 10. Their uniformed male schoolmates roam the half-deserted streets, swinging sub-machine guns they are barely big enough to handle.

The bandaged victims of the latest massacres stand against the walls of a coffee warehouse used as a temporary hospital. One woman awaiting evacuation had part of her brain exposed. Kabagambe Lokana, 25, a fisherman, sat near by, a ring of machete wounds around his head. He only survived the attack by the Hema after being left for dead, he said. His father, brothers and uncles were killed and he said that he had little confidence in the French-led mission.

"I am pessimistic. People have been coming here, white and black, from all over the world, but they never bring peace," he said.

There has been steady criticism of the under-resourced DRC UN mission. "It is a long, bad story", said François Grignon of the International Crisis Group at Bunia airport. He shouted to be heard as a cargo plane full of refugees fired its engine for take-off .

But the UN says that it is patrolling an area bigger than Sierra Leone or Kosovo, peace-keeping missions that are the responsibility of tens of thousands of troops.

"Every day I receive new tasks from New York but I cannot perform miracles. My people are doing their best under very difficult circumstances."

The French resolution in the UN Security Council has met resistance from Uganda and Rwanda, which sparked the DRC war in 1998. Each has supported rival factions in Ituri.

If the resolution is passed, the multinational force would be deployed until 1 September. After that, a 1,500-strong Bangladesh-led battalion is expected to police the DRC.

But to prevent further massacres, the question now is the strength of the mandate. France's ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, wants his men to have the right to open fire to protect endangered civilians.

Any strengthened mission would also have to examine the possibility of intervening in disputes outside the city in isolated villages that are difficult to reach. M. Grignon said: "Look, this town is bloody empty. The force needs to be able to stop massacres taking place in the rural areas."

Atrocities such as the massacre at Nyakunde village last year, which left 1,200 dead, could be taking place. But for now, nobody knows because the area is inaccessible to UN troops and aid agencies.

Meanwhile in Bunia, civilians, aid workers and UN troops are praying for relief from the uncertainty - and fast.

Death in the Congo: a mother watches as machete militiamen murder her little girls

By Adrian Blomfield in Bunia
(Filed: 30/05/2003)
The Telegraph (UK)

From her hiding place in the woods outside the Congolese town of Bunia, Ruta Bonabingi watched as militiamen roasted and then ate the severed arms of her dying daughters. It was the horrifying finale to 48 hours of terror for Ruta and her family.

Three weeks after ethnic violence engulfed Bunia and the surrounding Ituri province, crazed gunmen stormed Shar, five miles outside the town. Shooting or hacking to death anyone they came across, they torched every home in the village.

Ruta managed to escape with most of her family, although two of her brothers were killed before they reached safety in the nearby forest.

After pressing deeper into the woods for two days without food and water, she thought she had finally reached safety when out of nowhere the militiamen, from the Lendu tribe, struck again.

With bullets flying everywhere in the hail of gunfire that ensued Ruta became separated from two of her daughters, Mateso, aged 12, and Michelle, who had just turned two.

After securing the rest of her family in another hiding place, Ruta crept back to the clearing to try to rescue the girls.

"There were many people wounded from bullets lying on the ground," she said.

"The Lendu were going about with machetes, chopping off one arm from the shoulder and then the other. Some people were screaming but most were silent. Then I saw them. Their arms had already been cut off."

The militiamen calmly cooked the flesh over an open fire before throwing their victims, some of whom were still alive, into the flames. "They were both moving, although very weakly," Ruta said. It is accounts like this that have galvanised the horrified world into action.

The United Nations Security Council meets today to finalise plans for a rapid reaction force, led by France, which could be in Bunia by as early as next week. Tony Blair has hinted that Britain could send several hundred soldiers to the region later.

The latest violence in one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's bloodiest provinces erupted in the first week of May as Uganda withdrew its troops in compliance with a peace plan to end the five-year war.

Despite the presence of the 700 UN peacekeepers already in Bunia to monitor the withdrawal, rival Hema and Lendu tribesmen fought viciously for supremacy in the town.

The peacekeepers had repeatedly warned the UN that a bloodbath was likely and requested reinforcements.

They were ignored. Lacking the firepower, equipment or mandate to intervene, they retreated powerless to their compound and watched.

No one knows how many have died. The Red Cross has found 415 bodies on the streets or in mass graves, and may just be the tip of the iceberg. There are fears that thousands more were killed in outlying villages. At least 50,000 people have been victims of violence in Ituri since 1998.

The Congo conflict has claimed between 3.1 and 4.7 million lives, mainly from war-related hunger and disease, since it began, making it the world's deadliest war since 1945.

Bunia itself was relatively calm yesterday although an occasional explosion, possibly caused by landmines, rocked the outskirts of the town. Few dared to venture out on to the streets, however. The town is virtually empty after Lendus, who made up the majority of the population, fled into the hills following the Hema capture of the town last week.

Along the town's main street shop doors hung drunkenly from their hinges. Windows on many buildings were smashed, their contents looted. The few establishments that escaped pillaging were firmly shuttered. A Hema boy, aged no more than eight or nine, sauntered down the street dressed in a ridiculously oversized military uniform, his camouflage jacket flapping about his calves.

He disappeared into a building for a moment and re-emerged casually swinging an AK47 from his hip.

A pick-up truck filled with grim-faced Hema soldiers and mounted with a fearsomely large machinegun roared down the street.

At the top of the road, two armoured personnel carriers manned by Uruguayan soldiers guarded the UN compound, barely visible behind 8ft-high protective barriers of razor wire.

Hundreds of Bunia's terrified residents, both Hema and to a lesser extent Lendu, remain in the compound where they fled when the fighting erupted.

Alarmingly, the town's radio station, now in Hema hands, gave warning this week that anyone who did not leave the camp immediately would be treated as "an enemy of state", according to UN officials.

The move has chilling echoes of hate radio during Rwanda's 1994 genocide when broadcasts urged Hutus to fill up the half-empty graves.

Many appear to have heeded the call, but Basara Mateso prefers to take his chances with the UN. He fled to the compound when the Lendu attacked his predominantly Hema suburb two weeks ago.

As he fled, he became separated from two of his seven children. When he ventured back a few hours later he found the bodies of both his teenage daughters, hacked to death with machetes.

"Ngathi was cut across the chest," he said. "Mami's head was missing. Both of them were without their hearts and their livers. Their bellies had been cut open."

Missionaries, Catholic priests and foreign aid workers have all confirmed that some Lendu militiamen have been eating their victims' hearts and livers, apparently in the superstitious belief that it would make them invincible.

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