Horror in the DR Congo
Ellen Knickmeyer of AP and Danna Harman of The Christian Science Monitor have sounded the warning klaxon of humanitarian horror in the region of Kabinda, in eastern DR Congo. We have fetched the gruesome pictures, pictures that can stand by those of the Holocaust and, except for the skin color, look much the same. These pictures reflect sin in its worst form, crimes against humanity, against our most helpless humanity, our children. Damn all of you who are responsible for this. Damn you all. We might choose to sacrifice our place in heaven just so we can meet your ass in hell and tear it to shreds. May 7, 2001, and updated with six new photos on May 15 Pygmies Fleeing Congo War Bring Tales of Cannibals, January 22, 2003, By Fiona O'Brien, Reuters (Excerpts)
"I am going to tell you exactly what I saw," Amzati Njogi said, his four-foot frame rigid as he began to tell his story. "I saw bad things taking place. I heard people screaming, my mother, sister. I decided to go closer...to see what was going on. Then it all went quiet. I saw them with machetes cutting someone's throat. Then there was a big fire. I asked God to get me through it. I looked for a while. Then I saw that they were cooking them on the fire and adding salt. I saw them kill and eat and share...I fled for a whole day until I got to my uncle's house."
Njogi's uncle Angali Sale said a Bantu woman came to him for help after rebels forced her to cook and eat parts of her own husband.
"They slit the throat of this husband, took his head off and cut him into small pieces," he said. "Then they made his wife cook the meat, then made her eat it. She did. When she finished, they told her to go and not to look back."
Others tell of houses being burned, small girls being raped, arbitrary killings. The United Nations says it has credible evidence that human flesh has been eaten, and that human rights abuses have taken place on a large scale.
U.N. Probe Confirms Cannibalism in Congo, January 15, 2003, by Eddy Isango, AP (Excerpts)
A U.N. inquiry confirmed systematic cannibalism, rape, torture and killing by rebels in a campaign of atrocities against civilians in the forests of northeast Congo, with children among the victims, U.N. authorities said Wednesday.
Accused rebel groups include the Congolese Liberation Movement of Jean-Pierra Bemba, one of two key insurgent movements now promised a leading role in Congo's government under a power-sharing agreement to end the central African nation's war.
A recently signed peace accord gives Bemba's group key ministries, and Bemba is looked to claim one of four vice presidencies in the interim government.
Rebels called their terror campaign Operation Clean the Slate, said Patricia Tome, spokeswoman for the U.N. Congo mission in the capital, Kinshasa.
"The operation was presented to the people almost like a vaccination campaign, envisioning the looting of each home and the rape of each woman," Tome said.
The findings have been given to the U.N. Security Council and to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Congo Seeks UN Court After Cannibalism Charges, January 16, 2003, Reuters (Excerpts)
The Democratic Republic of Congo urged the United Nations on Thursday to set up an international tribunal to prosecute rebel soldiers blamed for a wave of cannibalism, rape and torture in northeastern Congo.
U.N. investigators said in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa said on Wednesday they had corroborated reports of cannibalism, looting, systematic rape, summary executions and kidnappings in the remote and densely forested area near the Ugandan border inhabited by Pygmies.
The investigators blamed the atrocities on fighters from the Ugandan-backed Movement for the Liberation of Congo, led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, and two smaller rebel factions.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), Congolese demand a tribunal for crimes against them in Ituri, January 28, 2003 (Excerpts)
"Indigenous people from the Ituri District of Province Orientale in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have demanded that the Kinshasa government create a criminal tribunal to hold accountable those who have committed crimes against them, including murder and cannibalism.
"Nzoki Amzati, said he witnessed cannibalism committed by soldiers of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC). 'I was returning from the field and had time to hide in the brush, from where I saw members of my family being killed and eaten by soldiers of [MLC leader] Jean-Pierre Bemba. From my hiding place I saw soldiers tear out the heart of a child and then eat it after having roasted it over a fire.'"
