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Witnesses tell of Congo massacre
BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -- United Nations investigators are gathering information at a remote Congo town where local people say nearly 1,000 civilians were massacred in what may be the worst atrocity in the country's four-and-a-half-year war. U.N. officials quoted eyewitnesses as saying women and children joined in the bloody dawn raid on Drodro last Thursday, killing 966 people within three hours with guns and machetes. "Nearly 1,000 dead -- I cannot remember a time when so many were killed in such a short space of time," said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. force in Congo (MONUC). Millions have died in Congo's war, mainly through hunger and disease. U.N. officials who visited Drodro Saturday reported seeing scraps of clothing and traces of blood above some of 20 mass graves they found. They returned Monday with medical supplies for some of the 49 wounded survivors. "We want to find out what happened, why it happened, who did that," Toure said. Drodro's population is mainly from the Hema tribe, which has been pitted against the rival Lendu in an ethnic conflict that has blown up in recent months as the factions from the wider war in the Democratic Republic of Congo have become involved. An officer from the Rwandan-backed Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), a Hema militia, vowed reprisal attacks against Lendu, but there was no word of new violence on Monday. Ugandan forces in nearby Bunia said 700 to 800 extra troops had arrived from Uganda at the weekend to stop more killing in Drodro, and had taken control of a nearby airstrip. Bunia is 50 miles from Uganda, one of half-a-dozen countries drawn into the complex war in mineral-rich Congo. Uganda has traditionally been close to the Hema but its troops have clashed with the UPC, led by Thomas Lubanga and backed by Uganda's rival in the region, Rwanda. The U.N. force in Congo has established a committee to negotiate an end to the killings in the Ituri province, but a local cease-fire agreed in March has failed to halt violence even as tribal and community leaders meet in Bunia to talk peace. Ituri province has seen some of the war's worst atrocities. Thousands of people were reported killed near Bunia in a two-week Lendu onslaught against Hema and other tribes last September which began with an attack on a hospital. Thursday's killings came hours after the Congo's government and rebel leaders signed a deal on a transition government in the capital Kinshasa, 1,500 miles to the west. At a ceremony in Kinshasa Monday, President Joseph Kabila was sworn in as head of the new government, pledging to defend a power-sharing constitution. But there was no sign of the rebel leaders due to govern with him. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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