Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides)- “I firmly condemn the killing of United Nations peacekeeping troops by Ugandan rebels who have already caused the death of so many innocent civilians. I call for a decisive intervention on the part of the international community to put an end to violence in eastern Congo which has lasted too long”. This statement was made by Cardinal Bamungwabi Nzabi Etsou, Archbishop of Kinshasa, capital of DR Congo. The Cardinal is in Rome with other Catholic bishops of Congo for their five year ad limina visit to the tombs of St Peter and St Paul and to report to the Pope on the life of the Church in their country.
“The Guatemalan UN peacekeepers are in our country to guarantee national sovereignty and international legality throughout the territory” the Cardinal said. “We should also remember all those Congolese killed by rebel groups in eastern Congo. Only last week an armed Rwandan group committed a massacre at Kanyabayanga in Kivu. I call on the international community, the United Nations and the European Union to help the Democratic Republic of Congo to take decisive action to stop all violence”.
Yesterday 23 January , 8 Guatemalan special forces members were killed when they met a group of Ugandan rebels in Garamba National Park. They had been looking for fighters from the Lord's Resistance Army, accused of carrying out atrocities across northern Uganda and in southern Sudan. The UN says 15 LRA rebels were killed out of a group of about 50 or 60 injured. Five members of the peacekeeping force were injured in the incident and were flown to hospital in Bunia, several hundred km south of the park.
Yesterday incident was the most serious loss for MONUC in Ituri, since 9 Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in February 2005. Ituri, where civil war officially declared over in 2003 but in fact continues, is one of the most turbulent regions of DR Congo. Besides local rebels there are foreign militia groups including the Ugandan LRA rebels. Formed mainly of Acholi, LRA since 1989 has fought president Yoweri Museveni who seized power in 1986 overthrowing a military junta of mainly Acholi officers who fled to Sudan an formed various groups, one being LRA. The LRA is infamous for abducting children to use as child soldiers. It is estimated that 20,000 children were abducted in 20 years of civil war. LRA ideology is a mixture of Christianity, Islam and traditional African religions. Recently LRA set up bases also in Ituri. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/1/2006 righe 37 parole 445)
