Military

DATE=10/06/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=D-R-CONGO/VIOLENCE (L-Only)

NUMBER=2-308319

BYLINE=DINO MAHTANI

DATELINE=KINSHASA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Officials with the U-N mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo report a new massacre in the northeastern province of Ituri. Dino Mahtani reports from the capital, Kinshasa.

TEXT: The United Nations mission confirmed late Monday that a village some 60 kilometers northeast of Ituri's principle town, Bunia, was attacked by assailants with guns and machetes. U-N officials found 23 bodies, but were told by civilians that another 32 villagers had been executed, but already buried by the time the U-N reconnaissance mission arrived.

The attack came in a predominantly ethnic Hema region of Ituri. Ethnic Hemas and Lendus have been battling it out since 1999 for control of Ituri, a province rich in gold, diamonds and coltan -- a mineral used in the production of mobile phones. By some accounts, the fighting has claimed over 50-thousand lives.

Both Hema and Lendu militias have been backed by the Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese governments in what became a war within Congo's wider war. The continuing violence in Ituri province is a stain on Congo's new government of national reconciliation, which has ended Congo's five-year-long war.

/// OPT /// While Hema and Lendu groups are not represented in the new power-sharing government, other rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda now find themselves represented in the new government of Joseph Kabila. /// END OPT ///

The latest round of killings has taken place close to towns northeast of Bunia that have already been gutted by militia attacks. Civilians in this particular area, the majority of whom are Hema, have consistently claimed that Lendu attackers have been responsible for the savage killings.

The U-N mission has been bringing together Hema and Lendu militia leaders, and organizing joint peace marches in Bunia town, in an attempt to bring peace to the war-torn region.

The French-led European force, which was deployed in Bunia in June had enforced a no weapons rule in Bunia itself. U-N troops, which have taken over, have been focusing their energies on continuing that effort.

UN troops, which will eventually number almost five-thousand, were expected to have begun deploying from Bunia into the province of Ituri by mid-September. So far, this has not happened, largely because of the problems they have faced in the town of Bunia itself. (SIGNED)

NEB/DM/TW