Cannibalism in Congo, UN told
2003-01-11 16:50
Kinshasa - Villagers of northeast Congo have told United Nations investigators about cannibalism and large-scale rape and looting by rebels there, says UN spokesperson Patricia Tome.
A UN team on Saturday finished a one-week mission in northeast Congo investigating reports of major human-rights abuses against civilians of Ituri province.
"The team interviewed victims as well as witnesses of atrocities. They spoke of cases of wholesale rape, of looting ... and also cases of forced cannibalism," spokeswoman she said.
The mission was prompted by reports that two rebel groups - the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement of Jean-Pierre Bemba and its allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National - had turned viciously on civilians during fighting there.
Reports included claims that the rebels killed and ate pygmies in the region. UN authorities said earlier in the week they had found those reports to be credible.
Tome said investigators' work included seeking out pygmies who had gone deep in hiding in the forests there.
Ate parts of their own bodies
She did not elaborate. However, a Catholic cleric in the province, Melchisedec Sikuli Paluku, said pygmies and others were forced by the rebels to eat human flesh.
That included rebels forcing those they had taken prisoner to eat pieces of their own bodies, he said.
The report will be presented to UN officials including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
Vieira de Mello is expected in Kinshasa, the Congo capital, on Sunday.
Pygmies, not all of whom are below average height, are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of Central Africa. An estimated 600 000 live in Congo.
A series of peace deals has secured the withdrawal of most foreign troops in a four-year-old war in Congo. Despite a major December peace accord, fighting intensified among rebel bands in the east, however. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA