Mass graves found in DRC

2005-10-02 20:45

Rutshuru - Human remains have been found in three mass graves in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thought to date from shortly after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, AFP correspondents witnessed on Saturday.

Dozens of human skulls, bones and body tissue, have been exhumed from the sites since mid-September by a Congolese army brigade, which recently deployed to Rutshuru, about 50km north of Goma, the main town in the eastern Nord-Kivu province.

"They are Congolese Hutus who were massacred by the Rwandan army in 1996 and in the following years," the commander of the 5th brigade, Colonel Jean-Marie Shekasikila, told AFP.

Following the Rwandan genocide, in which about 800 000 people were killed, most of them Tutsis, thousands of Hutus fled over the border into the DRC for fear of reprisals from the new Tutsi-led authorities in Kigali.

At the same time, Hutu extremists who took part in the genocide crossed the border to set up rear bases in the DRC.

Rwandan troops made several incursions into Congolese territory, ostensibly to root out the Hutu militias.

"We believe that thousands of people were massacred and that we will discover more graves," said Colonel Shekasikila.

"We found the first one as we were doing digging work to build a latrine, then town residents showed us two other spots where there were bones," he said.

A 5th brigade spokesperson, Jose Mabiala, charged that the killings were carried out in 1996 by Rwandan officers - amid the widespread instability leading up to the overthrow of late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko a year later.

"Rebels backed by Rwanda dominated the Rutshuru region at the time and young army officers came to kill residents," he said.

Another officer, who did not give his name, said that Rwandan troops "gathered people together under the pretext of a meeting and then murdered them, most of the time with a machete blow to the back of the neck".

The United Nations mission to the country, Monuc, on Saturday sent a team of human rights investigators to Rutshuru.

- AFP