Refugees hiding in Congo church hacked to death

ATTACKERS hacked to death scores of people who sought refuge at a Catholic church in remote eastern Congo the day after Christmas, officials and witnesses said yesterday.

The Ugandan army and a rebel group have accused each other of carrying out the massacre.

Survivors and witnesses said the killings occurred close to Congo’s border with Sudan, where the armies of those two countries and Uganda began an offensive this month to root out the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, according to Ugandan army spokesman Captain Chris Magezi.

UN spokesman Ivo Brandau said 120 homes were set ablaze and thousands of people have fled for fear of further attacks.

The Lord’s Resistance Army has waged one of Africa’s longest and most brutal wars for the last two decades. In the past, aid and rights groups have accused the rebels of cutting off the lips of civilians and forcing thousands of children to serve as soldiers or sex slaves. The conflict has spilled out of northern Uganda and into Sudan and Congo.

“The scene at the church was unbelievable. It was horrendous. On the floor were dead bodies of mostly women and children cut in pieces,” Magezi told the Associated Press. He blamed the Lord’s Resistance Army for the massacre and quoted witnesses as saying the rebels used machetes, clubs and swords in Friday’s attack.

The rebels denied responsibility — spokesman David Matsanga said they had no fighters in the area and instead accused Uganda’s army of the killings.

But witness Abel Longi said he recognised the rebels by their dreadlocked hair, their Acholi language and the number of young boys among them. “I hid in bush near the church and heard people wailing as they were being cut with machetes.”

A European aid worker said more than 100 people are reported to have been killed in the attack, and the Congolese military put the number dead at 120 to 150.

Magezi said 45 civilians were killed. The governor of Congo’s Oriental Province, Medard Autsai Senga, said the death toll had surpassed 75 and bodies still were being discovered.

The UN said the rebels killed 189 people in three villages over two days, 89 of them at Doruma, where the church is located.

The rebels may have been retaliating for a recent bombing of their main camp in Garamba National Park.

Rebel spokesman Matsanga claimed that Uganda’s 105th battalion was responsible. “They were airlifted to Congo to kill civilians and then say we are responsible. They want to justify their stay in DRC (Congo) and loot minerals from there like they did before.”

Long-running peace talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army and Uganda’s government have stalled.

Rebel leaders want guarantees they will not be arrested under international warrants. Their leader, Joseph Kony, and other members are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.