coupures 30 mai 07 (eng)

UN TO PROBE MASSACRE IN CONGO VILLAGE
Published: Tuesday, 29 May, 2007, 08:12 AM Doha Time
BUKAVU: The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday sent investigators to a volatile eastern province where up to 29 people were killed over the weekend, as Rwandan rebels denied responsibility for the massacre.“This morning the Pakistani commander (of the UN force) in South-Kivu, General Bajwa Kamar Javed, left on a helicopter to take stock of the situation in Kaniola,” and surrounding areas, the spokesman for the UN mission MONUC, Major Gabriel de Brosses, said yesterday.“In the first village, Nybuluze south of Kaniola, they killed 13 people. They killed three in nearby Muhungu. Then they moved on and killed another person in Chuhumba village,” he said.The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) in the violence-wracked eastern province of South-Kivu, said the toll could be as high as 29. “Seventeen people were killed in the villages with knives and machetes. This morning, we received information that 12 other corpses were discovered in a forest,” said Samuel Zungrana, the OCHA spokesman in South-Kivu.The attacks overnight Saturday and Sunday were the worst in the region for more than two years.Locals said the assailants were members of the FDLR, or the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Rwandan Hutu rebel group.According to MONUC, there are more than 10,000 Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in the forests and mountains of eastern DRC ever since the genocide of at least 800,000 mostly minority Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.But the FDLR yesterday denied responsibility.“The FDLR has never attacked civilian populations,” the leader of the group, Ignace Murwanashyaka, said from Berlin. “We condemn these ignoble and abominable killings and we seek... a probe into the identity of the perpetrators.”Kaniola, around 50km west of Bukavu - the capital of the volatile South-Kivu province - has for years been the target of attacks and kidnappings staged by Rwandan Hutu rebels and the “Rasta,” a group composed of local and foreign militias.The assailants came across a UN patrol and the Pakistani soldiers “chased them away,” MONUC spokesman de Brosses said, adding: “There were 10 to 12 rebels from the FDLR or the Rasta militia.”The incident comes after the Congolese army, backed by UN troops, launched an offensive against rebels in the area in April in which at least one rebel camp was destroyed.Saturday’s attack was the worst in South-Kivu since a May 23, 2005 raid, when 19 civilians were hacked to death in Nindja, near Kaniola, by a militia group.On July 9 that year, some 40 civilians - mainly women and children - were burnt to death in an attack blamed on Rwandan Hutu rebels who allegedly wanted to punish locals for backing a UN offensive against them.“The people of South Kivu can no longer continue to submit to these excesses,” said provincial governor Cibalonza. – AFP
Villagers stone UN investigators in eastern Congo
29 May 2007 20:11:39 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA, May 29 (Reuters) - Stone-throwing crowds turned back for a second day on Tuesday a U.N. team sent to investigate the massacre of at least 18 villagers by suspected Rwandan rebels in eastern Congo, U.N. officials said.
The team was trying to reach three villages in troubled South Kivu province where sleeping villagers were clubbed or hacked to death during attacks which began late on Saturday.
A dozen people were kidnapped and 23 injured in the incidents, which took place at Kanyola, 50 km (30 miles) west of the provincial capital Bukavu.
"The population didn't want to let them through. The same happened yesterday," said Kemal Saiki, spokesman for the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC).
An armed escort of Pakistani peacekeepers was eventually allowed to pass, but U.N. civilian staff were forced to return to base in Bukavu.
"There were barricades on the roads. There were angry crowds. Kids were throwing stones. They had to make a U-turn," said one U.N. official, who asked not to be identified.
According to notes left behind at the scene of the massacre, a faction of a Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), carried out the killings in retaliation for Congolese army operations against them.
The faction, known as "the Rastas", vowed to come back. The Hutu-dominated rebel group has terrorised villagers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since they were expelled from neighbouring Rwanda after the 1994 genocide there.
Peacekeepers intervened on Sunday to stop an attack on the third village, but local officials said anger at the United Nations' failure to protect the population was growing.
Kanyola and the nearby Nindja forest regularly witness violent attacks by local militia and rebels, despite the official end of a 1998-2003 war which killed some 4 million Congolese, mainly through hunger and disease.
MONUC deployed four mobile operations bases to the area in an effort to boost security but withdrew two of them just weeks ago. It now plans to redeploy the mobile bases and its peacekeepers were supporting Congolese efforts to track down those responsible for the attacks and free the hostages. By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA, May 29 (Reuters) - Stone-throwing crowds turned back for a second day on Tuesday a U.N. team sent to investigate the massacre of at least 18 villagers by suspected Rwandan rebels in eastern Congo, U.N. officials said.
The team was trying to reach three villages in troubled South Kivu province where sleeping villagers were clubbed or hacked to death during attacks which began late on Saturday.
A dozen people were kidnapped and 23 injured in the incidents, which took place at Kanyola, 50 km (30 miles) west of the provincial capital Bukavu.
"The population didn't want to let them through. The same happened yesterday," said Kemal Saiki, spokesman for the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC).
An armed escort of Pakistani peacekeepers was eventually allowed to pass, but U.N. civilian staff were forced to return to base in Bukavu.
"There were barricades on the roads. There were angry crowds. Kids were throwing stones. They had to make a U-turn," said one U.N. official, who asked not to be identified.
According to notes left behind at the scene of the massacre, a faction of a Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), carried out the killings in retaliation for Congolese army operations against them.
The faction, known as "the Rastas", vowed to come back. The Hutu-dominated rebel group has terrorised villagers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since they were expelled from neighbouring Rwanda after the 1994 genocide there.
Peacekeepers intervened on Sunday to stop an attack on the third village, but local officials said anger at the United Nations' failure to protect the population was growing.
Kanyola and the nearby Nindja forest regularly witness violent attacks by local militia and rebels, despite the official end of a 1998-2003 war which killed some 4 million Congolese, mainly through hunger and disease.
MONUC deployed four mobile operations bases to the area in an effort to boost security but withdrew two of them just weeks ago. It now plans to redeploy the mobile bases and its peacekeepers were supporting Congolese efforts to track down those responsible for the attacks and free the hostages.
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Congo-Kinshasa: General Gaye - the Kanyola Massacre is a Reminder That We Have More Work to Do

United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)
INTERVIEW29 May 2007Posted to the web 29 May 2007
Eoin Young
On International peacekeepers day, celebrated on May 29 every year, MONUC force commander General Babacar Gaye explains the significance of the day, and asks blue helmets in the DRC to continue their engagement to consolidate peace and stability in the country.
What is the significance of International Peacekeepers Day for you?
International peacekeepers day was instituted to pay homage and tribute to the vocation of providing basic assistance and security to populations who suffer in conflict countries. I believe it's important as it recognises the sacrifices made by blue helmets, as they strive to improve the security situation in many parts of the world.
For us in Congo, it's a day of reflection on our work and achievements here.
What are your impressions of peacekeepers here in DRC?
I have a good impression of the soldiers here, in terms of what they have achieved. Our action allowed us to organise the electoral process, the result of a long political process.
I have the habit of saying that our action allows us to bring a feeling of security to the places where we're deployed. Equally, our action maintains a certain stability which deters certain hostilities, and finally our robust operations also helps to stabilise many regions, with the surrender of militias and the repatriation of local populations.
What does it mean to be a good peacekeeper?
In my opinion, being a soldier of peace more precisely in a mission under Chapter VII, it is certainly the most complete way of using force, given that as our action profits from very important coercive means.
We have mechanised units, attack helicopters, and moreover we remain impartial with the population, and we don't ever lose the view that our primary mission is first and foremost to protect the local population.
In all these considerations, the multidimensional character of the mission in which we serve puts all the soldiers into many different arenas of activity than what they would be engaged in within their own countries. It is in this way that I consider that this maintenance of peace under Chapter VII as one of the most sophisticated forms of the use of force.
You have served in many peacekeeping missions. In your opinion, what is the difference between this mission and the others?
I served in many peacekeeping missions, all of which were very different to Congo, including the Ramadan war, in the Sinai in Egypt, deployed between two regular armies. I was also in South Lebanon in 1980.
In terms of the mandate, in relation to Chapter VII, this is where we have evolved in a different way in terms of what we do here. It is true also that my responsibilities are in some ways different. I think that all missions have a stabilising effect, if not then the situation needs to be evaluated so that some stability evolves.
Therefore, I think all peacekeeping operations have their own logic and are overall very important for the populations in which they are deployed.
What message do you have for the troops here?
The message that I want to give to the soldiers is that I have the big honour to be first of all their commander, and to express the gratitude of the Special Representative who is the boss here of all we do, in order to give the population some comfort and security. There is also a need to continue our work as there is a lot left to do.
Before this commemoration, the recent massacre at Kanyola on Saturday night last is there to remind us that there is a lot left to do in this country. Therefore I want to express my pride at their important work, and to ask all blue helmets to continue the good work
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