Zairian recounts torture by Serb mercenaries
March 19, 1997
Web posted at: 11:10 p.m. EST (0410 GMT)
From Correspondent Catherine Bond
KISANGANI, Zaire (CNN) -- Standing amid the ruins of a
Zairian ammunition dump, Guy Mwanatambwe recalled the horrors
of being held captive by Serb mercenaries paid by his
country's government.
"We were imprisoned here by the mercenary Yugo, a colonel who
locked us up for 10 days. There was a hangar here. That's
where they guarded us," Mwanatambwe said.
Col. Dominic Yugo was the apparent commander of a band of
mercenaries from the former Yugoslavia hired by Zairian
President Mobutu Sese Seko to protect Kisangani from a rebel
attack.
But according to Mwanatambwe, instead of shielding the city's
residents, Yugo spread terror instead. Last weekend, rebels
captured the city, dealing the government a humiliating loss.
The rebels, who have been battling the Zairian military since
September in an effort to oust Mobutu, now control the
eastern third of the central African nation.
In Kisangani, the Serb mercenaries arrested Zairian men and
accused them of collaborating with the rebels. One
22-year-old detainee was sexually assaulted, and most were
electrocuted, beaten and interrogated, Mwanatambwe said.
"They obeyed their colonel like dogs obey their master."
-- Guy Mwanatambwe
"They beat us with bamboo," he explained. "They beat us on
the soles of our feet. The colonel would take someone in
front of the car with a spotlight, ask them questions and
fire bullets on either side of the head."
Stripped and interrogated
Yugo's real name isn't known. Yugo is presumably his nomme de
guerre, an apparent reference to the former Yugoslavia. His
band of mercenaries may have included Croats and Serbs, who
were enemies during the Bosnian civil war.
"They were all Slavs -- Serbs, Croats," Mwanatambwe said.
"There were no French. They were almost all Serbs. They
obeyed their colonel like dogs obey their master."
Mwanatambwe was arrested by the mercenaries because he
resembles an ethnic Tutsi, and the rebels fighting the
Zairian army are led by Tutsis.
They held him for three weeks. After 10 days, he and the 26
other captives from the aircraft hangar were transferred to
the Zairian army's operational headquarters at the airport.
Mwanatambwe said he and other captives were deprived of
water, food and access to a toilet. They were interrogated in
the map room, the nerve center of Zaire's unsuccessful
counter-offensive.
Six days before the rebels took Kisangani, the prisoners were
moved to a building containing the power transformer. Dozens
of other men held captive by the Zairian army also were
detained there.
Last week, three men were led away from the room Mwanatambe
was in. He believes they were executed. At one point,
Mwanatambwe was stripped and interrogated.
"It was like a nightmare," he said. The nightmare finally
ended Saturday after the mercenaries fled.
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