68 die in DRC violence - UN
2008-03-18 08:23
Kinshasa - At least 68 people were killed in a two-week government crackdown against separatists in the Democratic Republic of Congo's western Bas-Congo province, according to internal United Nations reports.
Starting on February 28, hundreds of soldiers and police battled members of the ethnic-based political and religious movement Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) in an operation that initially began at Luozi, 200km west of the capital, Kinshasa.
BDK was campaigning for re-establishment of the pre-colonial Kongo kingdom, which encompasses parts of present-day Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Gabon.
After the violence at Luozi, clashes moved from town to town as police pursued BDK militants in a security crackdown the government said aimed to restore state authority in Bas-Congo.
215 people flee homes
A UN source, who asked not to be named, said there were further clashes over this weekend in three different towns and that three more BDK militants were killed.
The DRC's government had given an initial official death toll of 22 BDK militants killed during the Luozi clashes.
But the preliminary internal reports from UN teams, which had visited the areas worst hit by the violence, documented 68 deaths in the ongoing crackdown. The documents indicated the final death toll could be much higher.
About 215 people, mainly families who fled after their homes were burned down during the operations by security forces, were still unaccounted for, the reports said.
UN spokesperson declined to comment on the reports, which had not been made public yet. DRC's Interior Minister Denis Kalume said he stood by the death toll given by the government.
50 people killed
He said: "We trust the information transmitted to us by the local authorities. The UN investigators have been manipulated. You must be very careful of those that are coming out and saying these things. There is a lot of manipulation," he said.
UN military observers who visited Luozi days after the clashes erupted said they believed as many as 50 people were killed there alone, the internal reports said.
Witnesses interviewed in the towns of Bandakani and Lufuku said at least 100 bodies had been thrown into the Luwala River by security forces after attacks on local BDK strongholds.
Speaking to journalists last week, Alan Doss, the head of the 17 000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as Monuc, said he was aware of alleged human rights abuses reported to have been committed by both the police and BDK followers.
"The situation in Bas-Congo worries us very much. Monuc will investigate the allegations of human rights violations purportedly committed," he said.
Following the first clashes last month, Monuc, which was already overstretched trying to pacify DRC's conflict-torn east, scrambled to reinforce its presence in Bas-Congo.