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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC: Lendu militias accused of massacre of more than 250
KINSHASA, 3 June 2003 (IRIN) - Members of the Hema community have accused Lendu militias of killing at least 250 Hemas in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Saturday.
"The Lendu combatants supported by the FAC [Forces armees congolaises, the army of the Kinshasa government] on Saturday attacked Tshomia, where troops were cantoned, from three locations," Kisembo Bitamara, political head of the Parti pour l'Unite et la Sauvegarde de l'Integrite du Congo (PUSIC), an ethnic Hema militia led by traditional chief Kawha Panga Mandro, told IRIN from Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
Kisembo said support for the Lendu had also come from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K/ML) rebel group.
The killings reportedly took place after the withdrawal of Ugandan armed forces from the towns of Tshomia and Kasenyi, about 55 km southeast of Bunia, the principal city of Ituri District. The towns are near the shore of Lake Albert, which forms the border with neighbouring Uganda to the east.
Kisembo said that the 252 Tshomia residents were killed, as well as 22 civilian members of Kawha's family, who were killed at his home. Another 37 had their throats cut with machetes on their way to the hospital while another three were "beaten and chopped up" at the local hospital.
"The bodies are still there so that observers from MONUC [the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC] who have not yet arrived can see for themselves what happened," said Kisembo, who reported that additional attacks took place on Sunday and Monday.
MONUC has confirmed that fighting took place in the region, but said it was not in a position to give a death toll or determine who was responsible.
"We do not have any observers there, so it is therefore difficult for us to confirm what may have happened," Patricia Tome, MONUC head of public information, told IRIN.
The Kinshasa government and the RCD-K/ML, which have been allied since April 2002, denied having sent any troops to the area.
"Under the agreement we reached with Uganda, we have the right to send police officers to Bunia, which we have done - and nothing more than that," Irung Awan, the DRC defence minister, told IRIN.
"The Hema should not go looking for scapegoats when they are attacked by the Lendu, whose numbers and strength they know," Kolosso Sumahili, the RCD-K/ML secretary-general, told IRIN. "There are neither soldiers from our movement nor politicians from the [Kinshasa] government in Tshomia. These two communities [Hema and Lendu] should try to reconcile rather than look for scapegoats."
Hemas are also accusing the 700 police officers sent by the Kinshasa government to Bunia of having armed Lendu combatants and used the town of Beni, headquarters of the RCD-K/ML, as a rear base to attack them.
"I saw how the police officers sent by Kinshasa gave arms to the Lendus under the pretext of disarming them," Victor Ngona, an ethnic Hema member of the special assembly of the Ituri Pacification Commission, told IRIN from Bunia.
Ngona also accused Uganda of complicity in the attack.
The Kinshasa government has denied responsibility and has called on MONUC to investigate.
"MONUC stated clearly that the Ugandans left behind arms for combatants when they withdrew [from Bunia]. In any case, it was not us," Awan said.
According to Kisembo, 20,000 inhabitants of the region have crossed the lake to seek refuge in camps in Uganda. "We plan on evacuating another 20,000 because the [Kinshasa] government and the RCD-K/ML plan on chasing all Hema from the region in order to control oil exploitation from Lake Albert," Kisembo said.
Kisembo said that houses were burned, women were raped and most of the region was systematically pillaged.
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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