DR Congo refutes report of massacre

  1. Posted on Thursday 1 April 2010 - 10:23
    Muhyadin
    Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    The Democratic Republic of Congo has rejected the Human Rights Watch's report that said that the Lord's Resistance Army rebels had killed about 300 people in December. DR Congo's Justice Minister Lessa Bambi Luzolo said that the Human Rights Watch report was not a serious report but said only 25 civilians died.
    drc map
    "When it comes to victims in the civilian population, the number of victims is no more than 25," Lessa Bambi Luzolo.

    The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said 321 people were massacred in a killing that happened in DRC's remote northeast in December but Luzolo rejected any massacres.

    "A few people attacked in passing by uncontrolled elements of the LRA", Luzolo said in a statement in Kinshasa.

    "It's about events that happened in December 2009 and the non-governmental organisation speaks about it as if it was yesterday," he added.

    Not only Democratic Republic of Congo but Uganda has also doubted the HRW massacres report.

    "They are remaining only with 200 fighters and those are scattered around northern DRC and Central African Republic. It could not have carried out such a large-scale attack and then escaped unharmed," AFP news agency quoted Ugandan army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye on Monday.

    On Tuesday, the UN mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) briefly said its own investigation shown that at least 290 people were killed and another 150 kidnapped. MONUC has not yet officially released the report.

    10 civilians and 15 LRA fighters were killed a new LRA attacks in March, according to officials in the neighbouring Central African Republic.

    Human Rights Watch report has said those dead from December 14-17 massacres including at least 13 women and 23 children. Three year old girl was among them.

    The LRA, Ugandan militia notorious who have been fighting against Ugandan government since 1988, has killed 849 civilians and kidnapped a further 1,486, including 185 children in 2009, according to OCHA report released last February.

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