EvanL
02-24-2004, 11:29 PM
Guerilla commander named 'Cut-Throat' is blamed
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - A government-allied militia led by a commander known as "Cut Throat" has massacred more than 100 civilians and soldiers in southeast Congo, the army said today, further underscoring the difficulties faced by the government and the United Nations in calming the country's lawless east.
The UN mission for Congo has sent a team to investigate the killings, in remote regions of Katanga province, UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said in Kinshasa, Congo's capital.
Attacks reported in the past two months included an instance in which Mayi-Mayi traditional fighters threw a grenade into a church during a Sunday mass, killing 25 people inside, Congo Gen. Dieugentil Mpia Nzambe Nzambe told The Associated Press.
Congo's army and rights groups blame the killings on a Mayi-Mayi commander who goes by the Swahili name of Chinja-Chinja, or "Cut-Throat," and allegedly mutilates many of his victims for fetish rites.
"For us, this is a group of armed bandits who continue to kill, to loot the people and rape the women," Nzambe said. "We cannot understand why the Mayi-Mayi continue to act this way."
The UN mission and the government of Congo, a resource-rich nation the size of Western Europe, are trying hard in 2004 to assert the rule of law nationwide after a five-year war that split the country into regions controlled by rebels, the government and by both sides' foreign allies.
About 4,700 UN troops and military observers are deployed around northeast Congo's Ituri province.
Ethnic militias continue to attack civilians, one another and, increasingly, UN forces.
Combatants include the Mayi-Mayi, who fought on the government side during the war.
The term Mayi-Mayi is used for disparate groups in eastern Congo's forests whose fighters are often steeped in magical beliefs, such as that water can protect them from bullets. The Mayi-Mayi - known for their fierceness and dogged by rumours of cannibalism - were allied with the government during the war.
On Feb. 7, Mayi-Mayi fighters ambushed and killed seven Congo soldiers, a member of another security force, and one of the men's wives, Nzambe said.
Earlier, in January, fighters took hostage a delegation of Congolese officers who had gone to negotiate the group's disbanding, Nzambe said. Authorities paid a ransom for the officers' release, he said.
Cut-Throat's group is known for severing the tongues, fingers and other parts of their victims, said Bin Masudi, co-ordinator of the private Committee to Defend Human Rights in Kinshasa.
Masudi said the attacks had sent at least 15,000 civilians fleeing.
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - A government-allied militia led by a commander known as "Cut Throat" has massacred more than 100 civilians and soldiers in southeast Congo, the army said today, further underscoring the difficulties faced by the government and the United Nations in calming the country's lawless east.
The UN mission for Congo has sent a team to investigate the killings, in remote regions of Katanga province, UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said in Kinshasa, Congo's capital.
Attacks reported in the past two months included an instance in which Mayi-Mayi traditional fighters threw a grenade into a church during a Sunday mass, killing 25 people inside, Congo Gen. Dieugentil Mpia Nzambe Nzambe told The Associated Press.
Congo's army and rights groups blame the killings on a Mayi-Mayi commander who goes by the Swahili name of Chinja-Chinja, or "Cut-Throat," and allegedly mutilates many of his victims for fetish rites.
"For us, this is a group of armed bandits who continue to kill, to loot the people and rape the women," Nzambe said. "We cannot understand why the Mayi-Mayi continue to act this way."
The UN mission and the government of Congo, a resource-rich nation the size of Western Europe, are trying hard in 2004 to assert the rule of law nationwide after a five-year war that split the country into regions controlled by rebels, the government and by both sides' foreign allies.
About 4,700 UN troops and military observers are deployed around northeast Congo's Ituri province.
Ethnic militias continue to attack civilians, one another and, increasingly, UN forces.
Combatants include the Mayi-Mayi, who fought on the government side during the war.
The term Mayi-Mayi is used for disparate groups in eastern Congo's forests whose fighters are often steeped in magical beliefs, such as that water can protect them from bullets. The Mayi-Mayi - known for their fierceness and dogged by rumours of cannibalism - were allied with the government during the war.
On Feb. 7, Mayi-Mayi fighters ambushed and killed seven Congo soldiers, a member of another security force, and one of the men's wives, Nzambe said.
Earlier, in January, fighters took hostage a delegation of Congolese officers who had gone to negotiate the group's disbanding, Nzambe said. Authorities paid a ransom for the officers' release, he said.
Cut-Throat's group is known for severing the tongues, fingers and other parts of their victims, said Bin Masudi, co-ordinator of the private Committee to Defend Human Rights in Kinshasa.
Masudi said the attacks had sent at least 15,000 civilians fleeing.