10 held for DRC massacre

2004-09-24 22:18

Kinshasa - Ten people, including two minors, have been arrested in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo on suspicion they took part in a massacre at Lengabo village, in the restive Ituri region, UN officials said on Friday.

"The UN Mission in DRC, Monuc, facilitated the operation led by the Bunia prosecutor's office on Thursday at Medu, 20km from Lengabo," said Monuc spokesperson Rachel Eklou.

Three hundred people in Medu were questioned, and 10 were eventually taken into preventive custody, Eklou said.

All 10 suspects have been taken to Bunia, Ituri's main town, and will be questioned by officials about their alleged role in the massacre, in which 16 people died, Eklou said.

Knives and uniforms were confiscated from the suspects' homes in the so-called Jerusalem camp, where militiamen from the Patriotic Resistance Front for Ituri (FRPI) live.

On Wednesday, Munuc military spokesperson Major Francois Ouedraogo said witnesses had told investigators that the massacre at Lengabo village had been carried by "400 militiamen from the Ngiti tribe belonging to the Patriotic Resistance Front for Ituri (FRPI), armed with machine guns and machetes."

He also said the suspected killers were from Medu.

An investigation into Monday's attack has shown that the victims were "executed" by machine gun fire and their huts set ablaze.

The charred bodies of seven children - one an infant - and two women have been found, Monuc has said. The bodies of other victims bore deep cut marks, which proved that the attackers had used machetes in the massacre, the UN mission added.

One hundred and fifty UN peacekeepers out of some 4 700 in Ituri have been deployed in Lengabo to prevent more attacks. Villagers have said the massacre was the third time the village has been attacked in the past year.

Since 1999, interethnic clashes have claimed more than 50 000 lives in Ituri and forced between 500 000 and 600 000 people to flee their homes, according to UN figures.

Violence - mostly driven by ethnic hatred - has continued almost unabated despite the end last year of DRC's broader war, which began in 1998 when rebels rose up against the regime of Laurent Kabila. Some 2.5 million people died in the 1998-2003 war.

A UN-backed disarmament programme for Ituri got under way on September 1, but at the start of the week, officials lamented that only one militia group out of six in the region had responded to the call to disarm.

- AFP