Hundreds of bodies were found in northern DR Congo in what appears to be an unreported massacre. UN officials have confirmed that the massacre occurred in December of 2009 and Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is to blame. According to Reuters, perhaps more than 300 people have been found. The men had been tied around the chest by the same rope and killed with wood sticks with a blow to the back of the head and neck – a brutal and fast technique according to a UN investigator.
The UN and international rights groups state that not only were hundreds killed but at least 250 more were kidnapped. Most likely, those kidnapped were children – some forced to become soldiers for the LRA and the girls made into concubines. The apparent 4 day rampage is one of the worst massacres ever committed by the LRA in its 23 year history and it went unreported for months.
News of the killings have led to fiery debates about the role of the United Nations and their mission in the DR Congo. The UN has complained because they lack the resources necessary to protect civilians. They’re also feeling pressure from the local government who is wanting the UN out of the country by next year during which presidential elections are to be held. The UN has a base in Niangara, which is a bout 30 miles east of where the massacre took place. However, they were stocked with fewer than 100 troops and no helicopter.
The UN does have 22,000 troops stationed in eastern DR Congo where their mission is to oust Rwandan Hutu rebels. And there are an additional 4,000 troops scattered throughout the rest of the country.
The international community seems complacent and feels UN withdrawal is acceptable according to Todd Howland, director of the joint UN human rights office in DR Congo. He has questioned whether the international community was taking the threat to civilians “sufficiently seriously”. Howland feels that in any other situation peacekeepers would have been sent straight in.
“The reason is that the LRA doesn’t threaten anybody – they don’t threaten the government in Kinshasa or Kampala. It threatens the people in that particular place, and they are not significant numbers of voters.”
