Rebels, militia accused of Congo war crimes

updated 9:55 a.m. ET Nov. 9, 2008

KIBATI, Congo - Rebels and pro-government militiamen executed civilians this week in two waves of terror that the top U.N envoy to Congo said Saturday amount to war crimes — ones that highlight the inability of undermanned U.N. peacekeepers to protect civilians.

Meanwhile, Congo's army advanced toward rebel lines Saturday, with renewed fighting near the provincial capital of Goma threatening a fragile cease-fire.

Fighting broke out Friday near Kibati, about six miles north of Goma. By Saturday morning the army had moved more than half a mile north into a no man's land that had been unpatrolled since the rebels called a cease-fire 10 days ago after routing the army.

'War crimes'
U.N. envoy Alan Doss said "war crimes that we cannot tolerate" were committed at Kiwanja, by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's fighters and by Mai Mai militiamen supporting the government.

U.N. investigators on Friday visited 11 graves containing what villagers said were 26 bodies, U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg said. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the death toll could be higher.

"We are getting reports of more than 50 dead, but we are still in the process of confirming that information," Anneke Van Woudenberg, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press.

Van den Wildenberg and Dietrich said it appeared the rebels committed many more executions than the militia.

U.N. peacekeepers have a well-established base in Kiwanja, about 50 miles north of Goma, but it has only 120 soldiers in the town of 30,000 to 50,000.

They were pinned down under crossfire for some of the first day of the killings Tuesday, and were hampered because militiamen were hiding in houses among civilians, military spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich told The Associated Press.

'Very difficult' to protect
Peacekeepers also were trying to deter rebel attacks on two other towns, Nyanzale and Kikuku, on Wednesday when the killings in Kiwanja continued, he said.

The peacekeepers carried out small patrols in Kiwanja and were fired at by militia, he said. The peacekeepers returned fire.

"It's very difficult to protect thousands of civilians, especially at night," Dietrich said.

Doss told a news conference, "Sadly we can't protect every person in the Kivus (provinces)."

Regional leaders at a summit Friday in Nairobi condemned the peacekeepers' failure to protect civilians — the primary mandate of the 17,000-man force in Congo, a country the size of Western Europe where dozens of armed groups daily perpetrate gross human rights abuses.

An AP reporter in Kiwanja on Thursday saw the bodies of two men lying on the main road where they had been shot, less than a mile from the U.N. camp.

Witnesses said rebels had targeted people from the Nande tribe, from which the Mai Mai draws most of its fighters.

On Friday, six relatives wrapped the body of 49-year-old Zawadi Katsuva in a tarpaulin and carried it to a shallow grave in the back yard of his home. It is not known how many such victims may go uncounted, as Congolese bury their dead as soon possible because of the tropical heat.

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