"I have no comment at this time."
Posted on 01/09/2003 8:11:20 AM PST by Destro
Thu 9 Jan 2003
Pygmies being eaten by rebels in Congo's ongoing war, UN reveals
JAMES ASTILL IN NAIROBI
REBEL soldiers are massacring and eating pygmies in the dense forests of north-east Congo, UN investigators said yesterday.
A UN team has spent the past week investigating allegations of cannibalism in remote Ituri province, where fresh fighting between several rebel groups has displaced around 150,000 people in the past month.
Many of the displaced tell of rebel fighters capturing and butchering pygmies across the front-line, said Manoddje Mounoubai, a spokesman for the UN cease-fire monitoring mission in Congo yesterday.
"The UN is taking these accusations very seriously and has sent a team of six officials to investigate the accusations and other human rights abuses in the region," Mr Mounoubai said.
However, other UN officials in the capital Kinshasa and the eastern city of Goma said the widespread incidence of cannibalism had already been established.
"Ituri is completely out of control and cannibalism is just the latest atrocity taking place," said one UN official, who asked not to be named until the investigators deliver their report. "Perhaps this will finally alert the world to what’s going on."
Ituri’s forest-dwelling pygmy tribes have been caught between opposing pro-government and Ugandan-backed rebel groups in the last battles of Congo’s four-year regional war.
The two Ugandan-backed movements routinely enslave pygmies to forage for forest food and prospect for minerals, said a UN official linked to the investigation. Any hunters returning empty-handed are killed and eaten, the official said.
Sudi Alimasi, an official with the pro-government Congolese Rally for Democracy -Liberation Movement said the group began receiving reports of cannibalism from people displaced by fighting over a week ago. "We hear reports of [enemy] commanders feeding on sexual organs of pygmies, apparently believing this would give them strength," Mr Alimasi said. "We also have reports of pygmies being forced to feed on the cooked remains of their colleagues."
Cannibalism has re-emerged throughout eastern Congo as the last vestiges of colonial influence have been eroded during the war. Much of the vast forested area is controlled by the Mayi-Mayi, a loose grouping of tribal militias united by magical beliefs and a taste for human flesh.
On a recent assignment to eastern Congo, The Scotsman saw many Mayi-Mayi fighters wearing the body parts of their Rwandan enemies.
"Several groups have turned cannibal in the Congo," said Professor Julian Bauer, a Kenya-based activist for indigenous peoples. "Some of them are eating people in connection with their spiritual rituals and some of them just think it’s good meat."
An agreement last month between the Congo’s government and main rebel groups has triggered intense fighting in Ituri, in a last-ditch grab for the area’s mineral spoils. Most of the area remains too dangerous for UN and humanitarian agencies to reach.
"We are hearing reports of untold horrors in Ituri," said Wyger Wentholt of Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the few western agencies present in the region. "The violence is escalating, displacing tens of thousands of people. A lot of them are telling us about cannibalism."
Guess the govt. cracked down.
Where's Tarzan when you need him?
We should all be celebrating diversity instead of being so judgemental.
I suspect that the real reason this article fills so many of us with revulsion is simple racism.
Through sixty-six and seven they fought the Congo war With their fingers on their triggers, knee-deep in gore For days and nights they battled the Bantu to their knees They killed to earn their living and to help out the Congolese
Roland the Thompson gunner...
His comrades fought beside him - Van Owen and the rest But of all the Thompson gunners, Roland was the best So the CIA decided they wanted Roland dead That son-of-a-bitch Van Owen blew off Roland's head
Roland the headless Thompson gunner Norway's bravest son Time, time, time For another peaceful war But time stands still for Roland 'Til he evens up the score They can still see his headless body stalking through the night In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun
Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in He found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin Roland aimed his Thompson gun - he didn't say a word But he blew Van Owen's body from there to Johannesburg
Roland the headless Thompson gunner... The eternal Thompson gunner still wandering through the night Now it's ten years later but he still keeps up the fight In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun and bought it
You know the saying that in every joke there is a half of truth.
In 1994, US-supplied surface to air missile downed Rwandan jet and killed Rwandan and Burundi presidents on board. As a result, Hutus of Rwanda started genocide of Tutsis. Prior to downing of the jet, CIA analysis estimated possible risk and placed death toll estimate to "anywhere between 500 and 500,000". It was 800,000. After Tutsi regime was established after the genocide, it facilitated use of Rwanda as a staging ground for attack on Congo. In Eastern Congo, rich in COLTAN, anywhere between 200,000 and 2,000,000 million were killed and Coltan is free for grabs
Kaboom....SISSSSSS . Indeed.
"I have no comment at this time."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.