Troops loot DRC refugee camps
2008-11-24 17:04
Kibati - Soldiers went on an overnight looting and shooting spree in a sprawling Congolese refugee camp, stealing from hungry and traumatised people who have fled fighting in the east of the country, witnesses said on Monday.
They said one woman was killed by a stray bullet on Sunday night when soldiers went house-to-house and tent-to-tent in Kibati, a village north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma that has been overrun by about 70 000 refugees.
The soldiers demanded money at gunpoint and stole people's few possessions - many of which had been donated by aid agencies, the witnesses said.
The people taking refuge here are among about 250 000 who have been driven from their homes by fighting stemming from a long-simmering rebellion that escalated in August.
Patrice Sebahunde said he was awakened at 22:00 by four soldiers pointing guns in his face. They took his family's food, clothes and their plastic water bucket.
"They came up, pointed a gun at me, and said, 'Wake up, wake up, give us money and everything you have'," said Sebahunde, 60, who sat on the front porch of his wooden cabin and stared grimly at the sea of white plastic tents in what used to be his front yard.
Sebahunde and several other witnesses said the soldiers shot in the air, and that one stray bullet hit a 45-year-old woman in the head, killing her instantly. A 20-year-old woman was killed at Kibati on Thursday night when soldiers shot in the air and a bullet pierced her tent and hit her in the head.
The same story
UN refugee officials who had reported Thursday's shooting said they had no information about any violence on Sunday.
"Shooting is not something you can easily hide," said spokesperson David Nthegwe. "Our information on the ground last night says there was no looting and nobody was killed."
But at least 10 witnesses who spoke separately to The Associated Press told the same story.
Sunday's rampage followed an afternoon showdown between soldiers and UN peacekeepers outside the camp.
Soldiers stopped the peacekeepers' convoy at an impromptu roadblock and dragged 23 Congolese men off the trucks, accusing them of being rebels. UN officials said the men were rebels who had surrendered as well as national policemen and civilians.
During the incident, people hurled stones at the peacekeepers' vehicles, angry at the organisation's failure to protect them.
Another refugee, Bernard Udafuye, said the incident convinced him that the UN peacekeepers sided with the rebels. He said he was sure that the men travelling with the UN were rebels, but did not say how he knew.
"Today I have no faith in (the UN)," said Bernard Udafuye, 45. "They help the rebels."
On Sunday, peacekeepers' spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said there were 10 surrendered rebels among the 23 and that they were to have been turned over to the military on Monday. "But because of this incident, it was agreed on the spot to hand them over."
Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda accuses the peacekeepers of siding with the soldiers. The UN mandate orders the peacekeepers to give support to Congo's army - a ragtag, poorly paid collection of the defeated army of ousted dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and several of the rebel groups that helped overthrow him, including fighters of current President Joseph Kabila.
Udafuye said his house was looted by soldiers on Sunday night who stole food and a bucket, but he did not blame the troopers.
Nkunda 'exploiting instability'
"It was just an accident, that they stole from us," he said. "They are hungry."
A quarter of a million people have been displaced in eastern Congo since August, when the latest round of fighting between the rebels and the government began.
Nkunda says he is protecting Congo's minorities, especially ethnic Tutsis he says are threatened by Hutu militias from Rwanda, many of whom fled to Congo's forests after participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Critics accuse Nkunda of exploiting the instability to gain power, and say his attacks have increased resentment against Tutsis.
The government is refusing Nkunda's demand for direct negotiations.
- AP