ccording to the lists of the local communities, a total of 966 people were killed in the clashes carried out in the Drodro territory and in 14
neighboring villages. The Drodro territory is an unstable territory in Congo, ex Zaire, 80km north-east of Bunia, regional capital of Ituri. Several survivors also showed about 20 mass graves to the MONUC (UN Mission in DR-Congo) delegation, in which non less than 250 bodies were discovered.
Rich in oil and other precious resources, the entire Ituri region constitutes the theatre of an endless human drama, which in less than five years, massacre after massacre, claimed over 50,000 lives and 500,000 immigrants, forced to leave their land of origin.
For the moment there is no precise evidence of what happened to the other 700 victims. Neither is it easy to really understand what actually happened between 5 and 8 o’clock in the morning of last Thursday 3 April in this remote area of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a few miles from the western banks of Lake Mobutu (or Lake Albert).
According to evidence gathered by MISNA, an imprecise number of people of every age (men, woman, and even youngsters), dressed in civilian clothes and military uniforms, moving from different directions at several intervals, bit by bit carried out a massacre, leaving as it seems, in just three hours, hundreds of victims, both of the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups. The MONUC (UN Mission in DR-Congo), were the first to receive reports from Hema representatives last Friday.
A helicopter of MONUC, with aboard UN representatives and three Hema representatives and two Ugandan military helicopters could only land in the area last Saturday. After being asked to join the UN representatives, the Lendu declined the invitation. Meanwhile, Ugandan military ground forces guaranteed minimum security for the delegation, appointed to gather testimonies and inspect the sites where the massacres were carried out, sites characterized by dense jungle and unworthy roads.
Amongst the survivors, 49 that suffered from machete and gun shot wounds were taken to the Drodo hospital. As often occurs in these isolated areas, precise reconstructions are nearly impossible, but everything leads us to believe that it is the umpteenth episode – maybe the most sanguinary – of the never-ending fight for the land, underway for many years between the 700,000 Lendu farmers and the 150,000 Hema herdsmen.
Relations between the two ethnic groups worsened following plots with other political powers between rebels of various factions and various places of origin, not only national. Rich in oil and other precious resources, the entire Ituri region constitutes the theatre of an endless human drama, which in less than five years, massacre after massacre, claimed over 50,000 lives and 500,000 immigrants, forced to leave their land of origin.
As already indicated by several observers months ago, Ituri and its instability, inborn and induced, constitutes an “obstacle” of the peace process which has recently led to the new Congolese constitution, promulgated last 4 April by President Joseph Kabila. The peace accord was undersigned following the so-called ‘Sun City accords’ in South Africa – which ended with the long ‘Inter-Congolese dialogue’ – also following the first meeting of the so-called ‘peace commission of the Ituri” held always last 4 April in Bunia.
(From MISNA)