Rebels, militia accused of Congo war crimes

Two waves of terror
Katsuva's brother Willem Kambale, 66, said he watched more than 20 rebels come to the house, demand money and a mobile phone and, when they did not get either, shoot his brother behind the left ear.

U.N. officials say residents suffered two waves of terror: first the Mai Mai militia came and killed people it accused of supporting the rebels; then the rebels won control and killed those they charged had supported the militia.

The rebels also looted and burned homes and a hotel, witnesses said.

They killed many victims execution style, with bullets to the head, residents told the AP. Some residents said the rebels dressed the dead, most of them young men, in military uniforms.

"It's not justice," Kiwanja municipal judge Jean Katembo said. The rebels "kill people with no respect for the law."

Crimes against humanity?
Rebel leader Nkunda already is accused of crimes against humanity, and Congo's government issued an international arrest warrant against him after he defected from the army in 2004. It cites war crimes including massacres of civilians in 2002, when he was still in the army, and in 2004 when he took his rebellion to eastern Bukavu town.

Nkunda has accused the government of committing war crimes.

More than 250,000 people have been forced from their homes since Nkunda launched a new offensive Aug. 28 and captured large swaths of eastern Congo as the army retreated. The conflict is fueled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in Rwanda. Nkunda first said he was fighting to protect minority Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu rebels who participated in the genocide and then fled to Congo.

Lately he has said he is fighting to "liberate" all Congo from an allegedly corrupt government.

Thousands more refugees were on the move again Saturday. Some have been on the run for weeks, hefting bundles of belongings, children and goats as they try to keep ahead of the violence.

They trudged past hundreds of soldiers guarding the road toward Goma. Among them, AP reporters saw Portuguese-speaking black soldiers wearing green berets with pins in the shape of a map of Angola. Doss said Saturday he did not have direct independent confirmation that Angolan soldiers were in Congo.

The presence of Angolans in the volatile region could be seen as a provocation by neighboring Rwanda, raising tensions and fears that Congo's conflicts could again spill over its borders.

Congo asked Angola for support Oct. 29, as the rebels advanced toward Goma, which is on the border with Rwanda.

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