UN investigates multiple graves in east Congo
14 September 2007, 16:41
By Joe Bavier
Kinshasa - United Nations peacekeepers have discovered three graves, each containing several bodies, at a military base in eastern Congo recently abandoned by rebels loyal to a renegade general, a UN spokesperson said on Friday.
The multiple graves were found at Rubare, some 60km north of Goma, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, where heavy fighting between the rebels and the army forced thousands of civilians to flee.
UN investigators are examining the Rubare graves. It is not immediately clear who the dead were, how they died or how many are buried there. Some reports put the number at 27.
Until a UN-mediated ceasefire last week, North Kivu was the scene of two weeks of fierce clashes between the Congolese army and Tutsi fighters of General Laurent Nkunda, who has led a three-year rebellion against the central government.
"We have seen the graves... This is an area previously under the control of Nkunda's elements," Major Gabriel De Brosse, military spokesman for Congo's UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC), told Reuters.
The site at Rubare had served as the headquarters of Colonel Innocent Nzalunida, an Nkunda loyalist and battalion commander in the army's mixed Bravo Brigade.
UN officials were checking reports from escaped prisoners at Rubare who said 27 people were killed and buried at the base.
UN agencies say North Kivu, where 300 000 people have been forced from their homes since November, faces a humanitarian emergency as malnutrition rises among the displaced civilians.
MONUC and human rights campaigners accuse Nkunda loyalists in certain mixed brigades of the army of killing and terrorising civilians they suspect of collaborating with their traditional enemies, Rwandan Hutu rebels who also operate in North Kivu.
The mixing of Nkunda's fighters into national army brigades was part of a peace accord reached in January. The deal collapsed last month and Nkunda's men deserted back to the bush.
Soon after this, at least six bodies were found half-buried at two former Bravo Brigade positions in the towns of Katweguru and Kiseguru, 35km from Rubare.
At least 15 people were killed by suspected Nkunda soldiers in the village of Buramba in March, and five more were executed near a Bravo base in July, according to rights activists.
On Thursday, Congo's President Joseph Kabila told Nkunda's rebels, who now control a large part of North Kivu, they must rejoin the national army or face forcible disarmament.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that although it had managed to distribute emergency food rations to a large number of recent refugees in North Kivu, many more remained out of reach of help.
"We are dealing with a humanitarian emergency that could spiral out of control unless we get proper access to the worst-affected areas," WFP's Congo Country Director Charles Vincent said in a statement.
Kinshasa - United Nations peacekeepers have discovered three graves, each containing several bodies, at a military base in eastern Congo recently abandoned by rebels loyal to a renegade general, a UN spokesperson said on Friday.
The multiple graves were found at Rubare, some 60km north of Goma, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, where heavy fighting between the rebels and the army forced thousands of civilians to flee.
UN investigators are examining the Rubare graves. It is not immediately clear who the dead were, how they died or how many are buried there. Some reports put the number at 27.
Until a UN-mediated ceasefire last week, North Kivu was the scene of two weeks of fierce clashes between the Congolese army and Tutsi fighters of General Laurent Nkunda, who has led a three-year rebellion against the central government.
"We have seen the graves... This is an area previously under the control of Nkunda's elements," Major Gabriel De Brosse, military spokesman for Congo's UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC), told Reuters.
The site at Rubare had served as the headquarters of Colonel Innocent Nzalunida, an Nkunda loyalist and battalion commander in the army's mixed Bravo Brigade.
UN officials were checking reports from escaped prisoners at Rubare who said 27 people were killed and buried at the base.
UN agencies say North Kivu, where 300 000 people have been forced from their homes since November, faces a humanitarian emergency as malnutrition rises among the displaced civilians.
MONUC and human rights campaigners accuse Nkunda loyalists in certain mixed brigades of the army of killing and terrorising civilians they suspect of collaborating with their traditional enemies, Rwandan Hutu rebels who also operate in North Kivu.
The mixing of Nkunda's fighters into national army brigades was part of a peace accord reached in January. The deal collapsed last month and Nkunda's men deserted back to the bush.
Soon after this, at least six bodies were found half-buried at two former Bravo Brigade positions in the towns of Katweguru and Kiseguru, 35km from Rubare.
At least 15 people were killed by suspected Nkunda soldiers in the village of Buramba in March, and five more were executed near a Bravo base in July, according to rights activists.
On Thursday, Congo's President Joseph Kabila told Nkunda's rebels, who now control a large part of North Kivu, they must rejoin the national army or face forcible disarmament.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that although it had managed to distribute emergency food rations to a large number of recent refugees in North Kivu, many more remained out of reach of help.
"We are dealing with a humanitarian emergency that could spiral out of control unless we get proper access to the worst-affected areas," WFP's Congo Country Director Charles Vincent said in a statement.
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