Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides)- 1,500 civilians killed and thousands of women and girls raped since January this year in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Uganda troops of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), as well as members of the Congolese armed forces. This is denounced in a Human Rights Watch HRW Report issued yesterday 2 July.
The document, which accuses also Congolese military, says that the troops mainly responsible for the humanitarian crisis in the eastern Congolese region of North Kivu and in the district of Upper Uélé (extreme north east on the border with Uganda and Southern Sudan), are respectively the rebel troops of FDRL and LRA. Despite recent army operations by Congolese troops in collaboration with the armies of Rwanda, Uganda and southern Sudan, with the support of the UN peacekeeping Mission in Congo (MONUC), the two rebel groups continue to kill and rape and rob the people in both these areas (see Fides 14/5/2009, 28/5/2009, 3/6/2009, 8/6/2009 and 10/6/2009 ). Human Rights Watch harshly criticises Congolese military operations in the area for “failing to provide proper protection for civilians against deliberate and brutal rebel attacks ”. The Report, citing an HRW director, says “Congolese military operations have had disastrous consequences for civilians who are now attacked on all sides”.
In ulterior confirmation of the situation comes an appeal launched by Mgr. Melchisédech Sikuli Paluku, Catholic Bishop of Butembo-Beni, urging the faithful of his diocese to show solidarity with the owners of some 800 homes torched in the past month in different localities of North Kivu (Kanyabayonga, Kayna, Kaseghe, Butalongola, Bulotwa, Kimputsi, Kamandi,) by members of FDLR.
In his message, made public on 26 June, Bishop Sikuli Paluku, asks the faithful “to suffer with those who suffer ”. Despite economic difficulties, every member of the diocese is asked to bring a symbolic piece of metal sheeting to their respective parish to help the homeless build a new shelter.
The appeal of the Bishop of Butembi-Beni met with enthusiasm by the faithful who see it not only as a gesture of solidarity with the victims of violence but also a form of peaceful resistance against the FDLR and the economic interests which fund these groups, in order to force the local people to leave and free the field for exploitation of immense resources of this martyred region. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 3/7/2009 righe 32 parole 413)
