U.N. Forces Near Massacre Site in Congo
By EDDY ISANGO
.c The Associated Press
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - U.N. peacekeepers are moving deep into a volatile northeast province of Congo to prevent massacres like the one that killed scores this week, the top U.N. envoy here said Wednesday.
Peacekeepers are now setting up at least three permanent countryside deployments in Ituri province, where rampaging tribal fighters this week killed at least 65 people, mainly children, said William Swing, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative for Congo.
Members of the 3,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force sent to the region last month had kept permanent bases only in Bunia, Ituri's capital.
``It's in these well-situated places where we can better control the movement of armed groups and avoid new massacres,'' Swing told The Associated Press in Kinshasa, Congo's capital.
The United Nations is investigating Monday's attack in Katchele, some 40 miles northwest of Bunia, where bodies were found in a mass grave, a church and in the bush surrounding the village.
U.N. officials have said the victims were from the Hema tribe. Fighters from the rival Lendu tribe are suspected of carrying out the attack.
Ituri has been beset by increased fighting between the Hema and Lendu - and massacres and reprisal killings - since 1999, a year after the outbreak of Congo's recently ended war.
The attack Monday was the first reported large-scale killing in Ituri since the beefed-up U.N. force replaced a French-led emergency force on Sept. 1. The French-led force was deployed in Bunia in June to stabilize the town after tribal fighting killed more than 500 people.
The Hema and Lendu have traditionally clashed over land and resources in the fertile province rich with timber, gold and the mineral coltan, used to make some cell phones.
The war in Congo broke out in August 1998 when Uganda and Rwanda sent troops to back rebels in a campaign to oust then-President Laurent Kabila.
The main fighting ended last year after a series of peace deals took hold.
10/09/03 00:25 EDT
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