U.N.
investigators uncover communal grave at site of new U.N. offices.
U.N. investigators uncover communal grave at site of new U.N. offices in
eastern Congo Fri Dec 13, 9:51 AM ET
KINSHASA, Congo - Investigators have
uncovered the remains of 38 people buried in a communal grave at the site where
the United Nations (news - web sites) is building new headquarters for its
peacekeeping force in eastern Congo, U.N. officials said Friday.
U.N.
experts were sent to the site — once the regional governor's office in
rebel-held Kisangani — after a number of bones were dug up Aug. 11 during
renovation work, U.N. special representative Amos Namanga Ngongi said in the
capital, Kinshasa.
"The remains of one body were found in an area apart,
but the 38 others were in a communal grave," Ngongi said.
It was not
clear how or when the people died, though their remains appeared to have been
buried between 1994 and 2001, he said. Investigations were continuing.
Since 1992, the site has been held by a succession of different armies —
including the forces of former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Congolese Rally for
Democracy rebels, Mayi-Mayi tribal fighters and soldiers from neighboring
Rwanda.
Mobutu was toppled in 1997 in a rebellion led by former
President Laurent Kabila. The following year, Kabila in turn faced an uprising
that has drawn in the armies of more than six countries.
Peace moves
picked up after Kabila's assassination last year and the succession of his son,
Joseph.
Following a series of peace deals, most of the foreign
combatants have withdrawn and the United Nations has deployed thousands of
observers and armed troops in the mineral-rich nation, the size of Western
Europe.
Aid agencies say the four-year conflict has cost 2.5 million
lives, most from hunger and disease brought on by the war.
The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
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