DATE=2/11/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CONGO VIOLENCE
NUMBER=5-45431
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=SALIBOKO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Thousands of people have been killed in
ethnic violence in northeast Congo over the last
few months. As V-O-A's Scott Stearns reports,
troops from neighboring Uganda are accused of
taking sides.
TEXT: There has been ethnic violence in this part of
Congo for nearly 100 years and like most places it
starts with land. Ethnic Hema own most of the large
cattle ranches along Lake Albert. They want to expand
the boundaries of those ranches and have run into
ethnic Lendu farmers who are unwilling to give up
their land. Church officials say seven months of
attacks and counter-attacks have killed at least five
thousand people. Others say the figure is closer to
two thousand.
The effort to stop the fighting is complicated by the
lack of any central authority in the region. This
part of Congo is controlled by one of the rebel groups
fighting President Laurent Kabila.
Jacques Depelchin is the director of local
administration in rebel-held Ituri province. He says
the former governor here sided with Hema ranchers
against Lendu farmers.
/// DEPELCHIN ACT ///
All around the concessions (encampments) they
would keep soldiers, and these soldiers would
make forays against Lendu targets and of course
they would kill 10 here and 20 there.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Depelchin says the former governor also bought off
some of the Ugandan troops who are in Congo. (OPT) In
one instance, he says Ugandan soldiers fighting for
Hema landowners were confronted by another group of
Ugandan soldiers who were more sympathetic to the
Lendu. There was a brief fight between the two
Ugandan columns but Mr. Depelchin says only a few
casualties. (END OPT)
After entering Congo to protect its western border
from rebel raids, Uganda now finds itself in the
middle of the ethnic violence. In the Lendu village
of Saliboko, Chief Eduard Dz'Ba' Ngorima says some
Ugandan troops sided with the Hema.
/// NGORIMA ACT IN FRENCH - ESTABLISH AND FADE ///
Chief Ngorima says the Lendu do not understand why
Ugandan troops were protecting Hema interests. Some
people in Saliboko say men in uniform took part in an
attack here last month in which at least 40 Lendu were
killed. (OPT) No one would say they were Ugandan
troops, but what is clear is that those troops at
least failed to stop the attack, just as they failed
to stop an attack a day earlier in the Hema village of
Blukwa where local Red Cross officials say Lendu gangs
killed at least 400 people. (END OPT)
President Kabila's government says Uganda is fuelling
ethnic violence to justify its presence here. Uganda
says it is trying to establish security in an area
with poor roads and no communication.
Lendu chief Ngorima says things are getting better now
that the last group of Ugandan soldiers has been
replaced.
Mr. Depelchin says the ethnic violence is a poison
that extremists on both sides have spread among their
people.
/// DEPELCHIN ACT ///
Yes, Lendus have done terrible massacres Hemas
have done terrible massacres using soldiers; now
everybody agrees the war must first come to an
end.
/// END ACT ///
The fighting has displaced thousands of civilians who
are largely cut off from outside help because of the
local violence and Congo's broader war. The aid group
Medicine sans Frontier pulled out of Ituri two weeks
ago after an attack on their convoy. Hema leaders
accused the group of favoring Lendu. (Signed)
NEB/SS/GE/KL
11-Feb-2000 10:41 AM EDT (11-Feb-2000 1541 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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