Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – This is what is not making headlines this week: the figure of how many people have been killed in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo from Christmas up until today: over 900. However the world (especially in Europe, where the people are always willing to shed a tear for the love affairs of the celebrities), has not even realized any of this, in spite of the timely news pieces published by missionary media sources (Fides among them).
The massacres are being carried out by troops of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan group (formed by child soldiers recruited by force after having been kidnapped and oftentimes after having witnessed the violent deaths of their loved ones) that for some time has ravaged the land not only in North Uganda (where it began in late 1986, taking up the reigns from a previous movement) but now also in Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
In an effort to stop the LRA in late December 2008, a joint military operation was formed by the armies of Uganda, Congo, and South Sudan, against the general headquarters of the guerrilla group in the Garamba Forest, in Congo (see Fides 15/12/2008). It is an operation supported by the UN and the Unites States, as the US media affirmed (see “Today on the Internet” 9/2/2009), however that has failed in an attempt to capture the leaders of the guerrillas, who are wanted by the International Crime Court for crimes against humanity.
In any case, the LRA has responded with a fresh wave of violence against innocent Congolese people: entire villages have been sacked and destroyed; entire families destroyed, women and children being the first ones to suffer the consequences. The 17,000 Blue Helmets of the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC, yet another one of the acronyms that has become synonymous with the impotence of the international community) seem to be mere spectators in the massacres of these people whom they should be defending, according to the mandate of UN authorities.
And yet, the headlines are others... Today, we have decided to publish what is not making the headlines. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 9/2/2009)
