Posted on 05/19/2003 10:03:08 AM PDT by Sweet_Sunflower29
Two U.N. military observers were found dead after having been reported missing for several days in troubled northeastern Congo, a U.N. spokesman said Monday.
The bodies of the unidentified observers were discovered in Mongbwalu, a gold mining center about 45 miles northwest of Bunia on Sunday where they were "savagely killed," said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo.
U.N. officials previously said the observers were from Jordan and Nigeria.
The two officers last contacted colleagues on Tuesday, when they said the situation in Mongbwalu was tense as rival Hema and Lendu tribal fighters prepared to battle for control of the resource-rich town, U.N. officials have said.
"We will open investigations into the killings to establish what happened and who is responsible." Toure said.
The United Nations has 32 unarmed military observers in Ituri, a resource-rich province plagued by massacres and killings as rival tribal and rebel factions fought for control of the area during the nearly 5-year civil war in Congo.
After the Jordanian and the Nigerian were reported missing, U.N. observers deployed in four areas outside Bunia were withdrawn.
Scores of people have been killed and thousands forced to flee their homes in Bunia after more than a week of fighting between Hema and Lendu gunmen who were battling for control of the town.
The fighting subsided Friday after rival factions signed a cessation of hostilities agreement, but the town remains tense.
Amos Namanga Ngongi, head of the U.N. mission in Congo, said U.N. officials would investigate reports that cannibalism took place during the fighting in Bunia and other towns in Ituri.
Reports of cannibalism "cannot be so persistent and false," Ngongi told reporters in Bunia. "There cannot be so much talk of such things if it is false."
Reports of cannibalism are not new to Ituri.
On Jan. 15, U.N. investigators confirmed that rebels of the Congolese Liberation Movement and the allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National had carried out cannibalism, rape, torture and killing in the province late last year.
There are some 700 unarmed U.N. military observers in Congo, who are supposed to monitor cease-fire agreements intended to end the civil war in Congo.
The U.N. force made three attempts to send search and rescue teams into Mongbwalu, but failed after Hema and Lendu factions said they could not guarantee the safety of U.N. personnel.
On Sunday, a team was able to enter the town by helicopter and exhumed the remains of the observers which were taken to Bunia.
Hemas, traditionally cattle-raisers, and Lendus, predominantly farmers, have sparred for centuries over land and other resources in Ituri. But the clashes became deadlier after Ugandan, Rwandan and Congolese governments armed both groups as proxy fighters as they sought to control Ituri's rich mineral deposits, vast timber forests and fertile land when the civil war in Congo erupted in August 1998.
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The thought of being there is punishing enough. . .
Sigh
They don't want to be seen as potential combatants, nor as being in a position of not trusting one or both sides. How can they make peace if they themselves are ready to fight?
Other that the facts that it's a stupid idea, and hasn't worked in cases where the contending sides want to fight, it's a rather noble idea, doncha think?
Hans Blix... courtesy telephone, please.
Ituri is rich in gold, oil, lumber and uranium.
Thanks for the ping!
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