Posted on 12/22/2002 10:20:34 AM PST by HAL9000
Soldiers of the MLC force prisoners with the cannibalism (bishop)
Sunday December 22, 2002 - 16h22 GMT
KINSHASA, 22 déc (AFP) - the bishop of Butembo (north-eastern of the democratic Republic of Congo), Monseigneur Melchisedek affirmed Sunday with the AFP that rebels of the Movement of Release of Congo (MLC) of Jean-Pierre Bemba "force their prisoners with the cannibalism".
"In their progression towards Beni and Butembo (two localities of Ituri, the North-East) the men of Jean-Pierre Bemba deliver themselves at worst the atrocities. They force their prisoners to eat bodies of killed men, in particular of Pygmés. It is terror ", declared with the AFP by telephone Mgr Melchisedek giving a report "on multiple testimonys of people moved by the engagements".
"They baptized their operation of conquest of Ituri +Effacez the tableau+ was indignant the bishop who counted" several thousands of people in débandade "ebbing towards Beni and Butembo.
"This afternoon (Sunday) the troops of the MLC reinforced by elements of Roger Lumbala (Gathering congolais for the democracy-National/RCD-N), of Thomas Lubanga (Union of the Patriots congolais- UPC) and soldiers of the APR (Armed patriotic Rwandan) were not any more that to some 65 kms of Beni" chief town of Ituri, indicated the bishop to the AFP.
Friday, a Western journalist with Beni estimated at some 30.OOO the refugees "in real danger".
According to testimonys' reccueillis by Mgr Melchisedek, the men of Bemba attack the villages and when the inhabitants fled "a large helicopter of transport comes to deliver weapons and ammunition and carries the spoils of the plundering of the boxes... one does not know where".
Sunday, Mbusa Nyamwisi, the president of the Rcd-ml (Gathering congolais for the democracy-Movement of release), movement politico-soldier close to the government of Kinshasa gave a report on confrontations "between troops ougandaises and those of the Mlc/rcd-n coalition on right bank of the Lake Albert, quoting a spokesman of the army ougandaise.
ONG working in Ituri, contacted by the AFP, expressed "their extreme concern if the men of Bemba take Beni and Butembo".
"We fear that they reproduce in Ituri the made exactions with Bangui: meutres and slaughters ", said to the AFP a humane worker who required anonymity "by fear".
At the time of the attempt at coup d'etat against Central African president Angel-Felix Patassé, in October, a thousand of soldiers "lent" by Jean-Pierre Bemba were announced to Bangui by many crimes and exactions against the civil populations.
In spite of the signature of the agreement of peace intercongolais of Pretoriadécembre) the engagements between the MLC, Rcd-n and the Rcd-ml - all signatories - make rage for the control of this area which abounds in gold, diamonds and oil.
Mbusa Nyamwisi affirmed Saturday evening with the AFP that "Bemba with its mecenaires and its Libyan weapons, wants to be ensured of all the north of the RDC before the end of the year".
DRCongo rebel troops force prisoners into cannibalism: bishop
KINSHASA (AFP) - Rebel troops in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province are forcing their prisoners to eat human flesh, a bishop told AFP by telephone.
Troops from the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), one of the country's two main rebel groups, are "committing the worst imaginable atrocities," according to Monsignor Melchisedek, the bishop of Butembo, in the Ituri province.
Melchisedek claims to have gathered accounts of such atrocities from the many people fleeing the fighting, as MLC rebels continue to close in on the town on Beni, the main town in Ituri.
"The men of (MLC leader) Jean-Pierre Bemba... are forcing their prisoners to eat the organs of men who have been killed, mainly of Pygmees. It is horrific," he said.
On Sunday MLC rebels and troops from several allied rebel factions were just 65 kilometres (40 miles) from Beni, Melchisedek told AFP.
According to his sources, MLC troops have "dubbed their mission to conquer Ituri 'Wipe the slate clean'," and thousands of people are being swept towards Beni by the fighting.
He quoted reports that MLC soldiers attacked villages and that once the inhabitants had fled: "a large transport helicopter flies in to deliver weapons and ammunition and carries away the loot from the houses... we don't know where".
Thousands of locals are reported to be heading eastwards, fleeing Bemba's forces. A journalist who contacted AFP on Friday from Beni cautiously estimated at 30,000 the numbers "in real danger" on the roads and described the situation as "very bad".
Many of those displaced told the correspondent they feared for their lives at the hands of the MLC and its allies, reporting that local villagers were being massacred.
Humanitarian organisations working in Ituri also told AFP they would be "deeply worried if Bemba's men take Beni and Butembo".
"We are afraid they could repeat the abuses committed in (the Central African Republic) city of Bangui: murder and massacres," said one aid worker who asked to remain unnamed.
During the attempted coup d'etat in the CAR in October, one thousand MLC soldiers seconded there by Bemba allegedly carried outviolent abuses against the civilian population.
Despite the peace agreement signed in South Africa on December 17, the Ituri province, in the foothills of the Ruhengori Mountains on the border with Uganda, which is rich in gold, diamonds and oil -- has become the most volatile region in DRC, and is well beyond Kinshasa's control.
For several armed movements, primarily the rebel MLC, Ituri is a last store of exploitable resources, more than 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) from the capital.
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