Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bukavu (Fides Service)-“The rebels soldiers say they have withdrawn but this is not true. They have simply concentrated their troops in a few points, particularly near to a parish in the north of the city between a beer factory and a quinine factory” Fides was told by local sources in Bukavu, a city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, taken two days ago by rebels and guerrillas of the pro-Rwandan group RCD-Goma, Congolese Union for Democracy
“A climate of terror reigns in the city. Fearing violence, many girls and women go to parishes and convents to ask for protection” the sources told Fides. “At night time the rebels attack private homes. They target mainly leading members of the civil society who all these years have led the people in peaceful resistance against the foreign occupying troops and their local allies. They aim is to make the people pay for this resistance which all these years has prevented the splitting of Congo”.
“They are creating a state of police and oppression. The people of eastern Congo are tired of war imposed from outside”- say local Fides sources-“The Congolese love life. The river, which divides Bukavu from Rwanda, is a cultural as well as a geographical border. That is the origin of ethnic extremism and culture of death which does not belong to the people of Bukavu”.
In Bukavu at present there are an estimated two to four thousand rebels mainly Banyamulenge Tutsi of Rwandan origin. “The rebels say they took control of Bukavu to protect their ethnic group from being massacre ” say local Fides sources. “But they more than anyone else have introduced ethnic extremism. The genocide in Rwanda cannot become an alibi for crimes committed in Congo, where more than 3 million people have died since 1998”.
The Rwandan government has denied that its troops are involved in the fighting in Bukavu. In Kinshasa, capital of the DRC, the city traffic is paralysed by demonstrations of people who say the United Nations mission failed to prevent the conquest of Bukavu. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 4/6/2004 righe 31 parole 373)
