Over 900 massacred in Congo since Christmas

Rome, Italy, Feb 12, 2009 / 23:53 pm

Troops of the guerilla Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have massacred over 900 people since Christmas in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The news reports from missionary media sources, which are not attracting attention in Europe and America, lament the inaction and “impotence” of the United Nations forces in the area.

Fides news agency reports that the LRA is a Ugandan group mainly composed of child soldiers kidnapped and forced into service. For decades the group has ravaged the land in northern Uganda and is active in Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

The armies of Uganda, Congo and South Sudan formed a joint military operation in late December 2008 to try to stop the LRA. They moved against the LRA general headquarters in the Garamba Forest in the Congo with the backing of the U.N. and the United States.

However, the operation failed to capture the guerilla leaders, who are wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

The LRA has responded with violence against Congolese civilians, sacking and destroying entire villages and killing entire families.

Fides, which is a missionary news agency, accused the U.N. Mission in Congo (MONUC) of being “yet another one of the acronyms that has become synonymous with the impotence of the international community.”

Fides claimed that MONUC members seem to be “mere spectators in the massacres of these people whom they should be defending.”