Aid workers recovered at least 150 mutilated bodies from two rivers after reprisal killings for an uprising in Kisangani — far more than the 39 dead confirmed by the rebel forces that control the eastern Congolese city.
As many as 100 more were shot in their homes or found buried in mass graves, residents say. Most of the killings took place after the May 14 revolt had already been crushed, said Belgian priest Guy Verhaegen, who witnessed some of the killings.
During the uprising, rebel officials say mutinous troops captured the state radio station, broadcasting messages calling on residents to arm themselves to drive out the Congolese rebels and their Rwandan allies.
Thousands of residents reportedly responded to the call — killing at least five people on suspicion of being Rwandan, according to a UN preliminary report on the incident. But the uprising was crushed in just three hours.
Verhaegen (75) said he watched from his parish as soldiers drove through the impoverished Mangobo neighbourhood, firing at random into people’s homes. He said between 40 and 50 people were killed in that area alone.
Verhaegen himself was beaten by the soldiers, who entered the parish and stole a satellite phone, a radio and other items. Rwandan and Congolese soldiers later sealed off a bridge and part of the Tshopo river, according to residents who live nearby.
”Many gunshots were heard from 4 pm to midnight,” one local said on condition of anonymity.
The next day, decapitated bodies, ones without their intestines, and ones weighted down with stones began floating to the surface, he said.
Most were in military uniforms, but some appeared to be civilians, according to another resident who went to see the bodies.
Local employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who also asked not to be named, said 150 bodies were pulled from the Tshopo and Congo rivers.
In addition, UN employees said they witnessed the killing of about 60 people — most of them soldiers and policemen — the day after the uprising.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said the victims were executed at the end of the airport’s runway and buried in a mass grave. Rebel officials dispute the accounts, saying just 39 people have been confirmed dead – including 24 civilians caught in the cross fire, or who fought alongside the mutinous troops and policemen.
The Congolese Rally for Democracy rebels accuse civic leaders in Kisangani of fomenting the uprising with Congolese government backing. The Congolese rebels and their Rwandan backers seized control of the city shortly after the outbreak of civil war in August 1998, when Rwanda and Uganda backed a rebellion against the late President Laurent Kabila.
Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia poured troops into Congo to support Kabila, who was assassinated last year and succeeded by his son, Joseph. – Sapa-AP