UN Told of Massacre of 966 Civilians in NE Congo
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NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United Nations (news - web sites) said on Sunday it
had been told nearly 1,000 civilians were massacred by tribal militias with
machetes and guns in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web
sites) last week and buried in mass graves.

"The (U.N.) investigating team heard that 966 people were massacred. They
identified 20 mass graves and visited 49 seriously injured people in
hospitals," U.N. mission in Congo (MONUC) spokesman Hamadoun Toure told
Reuters.

Witnesses said the massacre occurred on Thursday when attackers descended on
the town of Drodro and 14 neighboring villages near the Ituri district's
capital Bunia, some 50 miles from the border with Uganda.

Toure said MONUC investigators had talked to local priests, tribal leaders
and eyewitnesses who said the orgy of killing lasted for three hours.

The investigators, who visited Drodro on Saturday, saw evidence of clothing
and traces of blood above the mass graves, Toure said.

The massacre report emerged just days after Congo's warring factions signed
a long-awaited political settlement to end several years of conflict in
Africa's third biggest country.


CIVIL WAR

Congo was plunged into civil war in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda backed an
uprising in the east to overthrow the Kinshasa government. At one point, six
foreign armies were drawn into the war for Congo's mineral wealth, and two
million people are believed to have died, mainly from hunger and disease.

Ugandan army spokesman Shaban Bantariza said he was aware that "hundreds had
been killed" in Drodro but was waiting for further information from army
representatives who had gone to investigate.

Ugandan troops have remained in Ituri district at the request of the United
Nations, which feared a power and security vacuum in the area.

Ethnic clashes in Ituri have killed thousands of people since 1999.

Talks, organized by the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC) which is
supported by the Congolese and Ugandan governments and MONUC, are planned to
bring peace to war-ravaged northeastern Congo.

Hema and Lendu tribal militias signed a cease-fire agreement in March to
allow the IPC to begin its work and eventually lead to the withdrawal of
Ugandan troops from eastern Congo.

Residents of Drodro, a mainly Hema town, said Thursday's attackers spoke a
Lendu language.

Local human rights groups say up to 500,000 people have fled their homes and
50,000 more have been killed in the past four years, as rival rebel
factions, ethnic militias and the Ugandan army have fought for control of
the gold-rich Ituri district.

Fresh fighting was reported on Sunday between Rwanda-backed Rally for
Congolese Democracy (RCD-Goma) rebels and a tribal militia group in the
eastern Congolese town of Bukavu.

RCD-Goma senior official Joseph Mudumbi told Reuters the Mai Mai tribal
militia group was loyal to a former governor of Bukavu. The town is
controlled by RCD-Goma.

A local journalist in Bukavu said later calm had returned to the town but
that the Mai Mai group was still on the outskirts.

In the peace settlement signed last Wednesday, Congo's government, rebel
groups and opposition parties agreed to a transitional government to rule
the former Belgian colony for up to 2-1/2 years until its first democratic
elections in four decades.








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