Hutu rebels raped, killed and kidnapped thousands: UN

RWANDAN Hutu rebels operating in eastern Congo have executed, raped, beaten or kidnapped more than 1,500 civilians over the past year, according to a UN report released yesterday.

Since June 2004, Hutu rebels from the militia group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, along with a spin-off militia, raped 320 women, executed 175 people, kidnapped 465 people and beat 748 others in eastern Congo's south Kivu province, the report released in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, said.

Most of the atrocities took place around the town of Walungu, the scene of fighting in December between rebels and government forces. Walungu is about 30 miles south-west of Bukavu, the provincial capital.

The report says that Hutu militia, along with a breakaway Hutu group calling themselves Rastas, raided and pillaged Walungu and surrounding villages from the encircling forests, snatching residents and holding them for ransom.

Residents are asked to pay up to €160 per kidnapped person, said UN human rights official Fernando Castanon, who helped conduct over 400 interviews for the report.

Families in the nearby village of Kanyola have paid over €18,850 to militia for the safe return of their loved ones, said Castanon.

"The systematic kidnapping of civilians is the principle source of finance for these armed Hutu groups," said Castanon, at UN headquarters in Kinshasa.

Thousands of Hutu rebels fled to eastern Congo after allegedly taking part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide that killed over 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Rwanda and Uganda have invaded Congo twice, in 1996 and 1998, under the auspices of ousting Hutu rebels, who they claimed were masterminding another slaughter of Tutsis across the border.

The UN estimates there are as many as 10,000 Hutu rebels living in the forests of the east. Last month, Hutu rebel leader Ignace Murwanashyaka announced his militia were ready to disarm and return to Rwanda.

William Lacy Swing, the head of the UN mission in Congo, will travel to Rwanda tomorrow to meet with President Paul Kagame about the repatriation of the rebel forces.