Posted on 05/31/2003 8:16:24 PM PDT by FreedomCalls
From her hiding place in the woods outside the Congolese town of Bunia, Ruta Bonabingi watched as militiamen roasted and then ate the severed arms of her dying daughters. It was the horrifying finale to 48 hours of terror for Ruta and her family.
Three weeks after ethnic violence engulfed Bunia and the surrounding Ituri province, crazed gunmen stormed Shar, five miles outside the town. Shooting or hacking to death anyone they came across, they torched every home in the village.
Ruta managed to escape with most of her family, although two of her brothers were killed before they reached safety in the nearby forest.
After pressing deeper into the woods for two days without food and water, she thought she had finally reached safety when out of nowhere the militiamen, from the Lendu tribe, struck again.
With bullets flying everywhere in the hail of gunfire that ensued Ruta became separated from two of her daughters, Mateso, aged 12, and Michelle, who had just turned two.
After securing the rest of her family in another hiding place, Ruta crept back to the clearing to try to rescue the girls.
"There were many people wounded from bullets lying on the ground," she said.
"The Lendu were going about with machetes, chopping off one arm from the shoulder and then the other. Some people were screaming but most were silent. Then I saw them. Their arms had already been cut off."
The militiamen calmly cooked the flesh over an open fire before throwing their victims, some of whom were still alive, into the flames. "They were both moving, although very weakly," Ruta said. It is accounts like this that have galvanised the horrified world into action.
The United Nations Security Council meets today to finalise plans for a rapid reaction force, led by France, which could be in Bunia by as early as next week. Tony Blair has hinted that Britain could send several hundred soldiers to the region later.
The latest violence in one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's bloodiest provinces erupted in the first week of May as Uganda withdrew its troops in compliance with a peace plan to end the five-year war.
Despite the presence of the 700 UN peacekeepers already in Bunia to monitor the withdrawal, rival Hema and Lendu tribesmen fought viciously for supremacy in the town.
The peacekeepers had repeatedly warned the UN that a bloodbath was likely and requested reinforcements.
They were ignored. Lacking the firepower, equipment or mandate to intervene, they retreated powerless to their compound and watched.
No one knows how many have died. The Red Cross has found 415 bodies on the streets or in mass graves, and may just be the tip of the iceberg. There are fears that thousands more were killed in outlying villages. At least 50,000 people have been victims of violence in Ituri since 1998.
The Congo conflict has claimed between 3.1 and 4.7 million lives, mainly from war-related hunger and disease, since it began, making it the world's deadliest war since 1945.
Bunia itself was relatively calm yesterday although an occasional explosion, possibly caused by landmines, rocked the outskirts of the town. Few dared to venture out on to the streets, however. The town is virtually empty after Lendus, who made up the majority of the population, fled into the hills following the Hema capture of the town last week.
Along the town's main street shop doors hung drunkenly from their hinges. Windows on many buildings were smashed, their contents looted. The few establishments that escaped pillaging were firmly shuttered. A Hema boy, aged no more than eight or nine, sauntered down the street dressed in a ridiculously oversized military uniform, his camouflage jacket flapping about his calves.
He disappeared into a building for a moment and re-emerged casually swinging an AK47 from his hip.
A pick-up truck filled with grim-faced Hema soldiers and mounted with a fearsomely large machinegun roared down the street.
At the top of the road, two armoured personnel carriers manned by Uruguayan soldiers guarded the UN compound, barely visible behind 8ft-high protective barriers of razor wire.
Hundreds of Bunia's terrified residents, both Hema and to a lesser extent Lendu, remain in the compound where they fled when the fighting erupted.
Alarmingly, the town's radio station, now in Hema hands, gave warning this week that anyone who did not leave the camp immediately would be treated as "an enemy of state", according to UN officials.
The move has chilling echoes of hate radio during Rwanda's 1994 genocide when broadcasts urged Hutus to fill up the half-empty graves.
Many appear to have heeded the call, but Basara Mateso prefers to take his chances with the UN. He fled to the compound when the Lendu attacked his predominantly Hema suburb two weeks ago.
As he fled, he became separated from two of his seven children. When he ventured back a few hours later he found the bodies of both his teenage daughters, hacked to death with machetes.
"Ngathi was cut across the chest," he said. "Mami's head was missing. Both of them were without their hearts and their livers. Their bellies had been cut open."
Missionaries, Catholic priests and foreign aid workers have all confirmed that some Lendu militiamen have been eating their victims' hearts and livers, apparently in the superstitious belief that it would make them invincible.
Apparently, horrific violence, killing your enemies down to the last baby and old man, is part of their "culture". Even in the last century, the unbelievable savagery and animality of African warfare was well known.
Hello! The world has dumped buttloads of billions of dollars into this cesspool, not to mention the various charitable orgs who've spent decades there and resources (food, medicine, etc)out the kazoo, only to see conditions/behaviors amoung the natives improve not one jot.
And when, this year, our president places on the table another 4 BILLION (of our money(!!!!)) in additional aid for these folks, they proclaim its not enough as if it their sensibilities are affronted. But we continue to hear stories like this one.
Oh yeah, let me send these folks lots more of my hard earned money. Woohoo!
Thay can't squeeze it in through the wall-to-wall Laci Peterson coverage. Here is a clear example of how the managing editors at CNN/FOX/ABC/CBS/NBC are derelict in their duty to the American people by wasting time covering the Laci Peterson story causing stories like this to -- genocide mind you -- to get shunted aside. Or maybe it is deliberate since there is no anti-American angle for them to harp on they feel it is not worth covering -- it doesn't advance their political cause. Or maybe they are racist and feel this activity is not news, since they think they are acting out their natural tendencies. Or perhaps it's not politically correct to show strife in Africa -- we are supposed to think that the post-colonial governments are living in peace and harmony -- certainly not that colonialism was good in that it put a stop this level of barbarity. And so forth.
Next time you are being excoriated for saying so, let me know --- I want to join the debate on your side....
AfricaWatch:
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CIA -- The World Factbook -- Zimbabwe
First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.
-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--
| Parallels between Apartheid SA & USA today | ||||||
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ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ... Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa The Coming Anarchy -South Africa - The sellout of a nation-- FYI, I wrote this a while back: I don't know what will happen in southern Africa beyond a general breakdown into chaos & anarchy... the old bugbear was the Soviets gaining control of the tip & choking our fleet's movements, coupled with control of the mineral wealth. Now it look like Quaddaffi is angling to take over Rhodesia and perhaps spread to South Africa. At this point, we are 20 years too late, but we can at least bear witness to the debacle. Bear in mind I am a partisan- I supported ( with reluctance ) the old white-minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa, because I knew the Communists and their puppets- including proxies like Cuba- were angling for control of southern Africa. One big problem we have is our media. They have tried to portray the situation in southern Africa as a clone of our own civil-rights struggles when in fact just the opposite was true. Africa is degenerating into chaos and anarchy under the guise of "liberation" and "one man, one vote." What I used to tell people was that while Apartheid was an onerous, offensive system, I would prefer being a black South African under Apartheid to being a person of any color under the old Soviet system- and I still believe those words to be true and correct. Given time, the old South African government would have worked out its problems- but it was not allowed to do so. Today, we are seeing the results of this folly in Zimbabwe- or rather, we see what tiny bits the web and small elements of talk radio cover. The whole story of contemporary Africa is a sad tale of tribalism, class warfare, kleptocracy, and massive corruption- and one the media here "won't even talk about" because it does not fit within their template of acceptable ideas. I would also add, that both the press and entertainment arms of the media encouraged and supported the toppling of the old governments, i. e., they were in collusion, and complicit in the fall. Now that things have worked out at variance with their idealistic fantasies, they simply "don't talk about it..." "Why do you keep posting this stuff? Nobody cares about Africa, anyway..." Clive, Cincinatus's Wife, blam, myself, and a few others get asked that occasionally- we are among the keepers of the "AfricaWatch" columns, and we continue to post articles about what I believe will prove to be one of the great, tragic stories of the new century. The mainstream press never publishes more than one Africa story a day, and it's usually some fluff or dodge around how grim the situation is over there. But the truth is archived here on Free Republic, and I maintain that one day, when things over there are too awful to be ignored any longer, those who have eyes to see will read the stories here, and be appalled at the silence. That is all...
backhoe |
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In Washington, D.C. (the murder capital of the U.S. once again! Go Team!), the number of murder cases solved is less than 20%.
My cordial but emphatic suggestion: get yourself some serious artillery; pistol(s) and rifle.
Armed Regards,
Besides, as I often say, the difference between western civilization and others is not the depths to which we've sometimes fallen (terrible things have undeniably happened in the west), but rather the heights to which we've climbed. We've had our share of brutality, but we've also created most of the greatness of the modern world. One can show viciousnes in the West comparable to what is going on in the Congo (almost). But there is no African Venice....no African Plato....no African Newton.
The Rape of Nanking. Japanese vs. Chinese
Also, the Pacific Theatre:Guadcanal, Iwo Jima. Americans vs. Japanese.
Best regards,
Those are tricky bullets.
The UN does more harm then good when it pretends to be willing to protect people. Better to deliver heave weapons to the villagers than to send a few "peacekeepers" unarmed even with a "mandate."
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