DR of Congo: UN, Red Cross recover nearly 280 bodies in Bunia

United Nations staff and local Red Cross workers have recovered close to 280 corpses as an uneasy quiet settles over the town of Bunia, site of a brutal inter-ethnic power struggle that has gripped north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) now for weeks.

According to a UN spokesman in New York, representatives of the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) and humanitarian actors have been working closely with the local Red Cross chapter to collect the dead in Bunia. So far, 274 corpses have been picked up and interred.

In the wake of two weeks of deadly clashes between rival Hema and Lendu clans fighting for control of Bunia, the main city of DRC's mineral-rich Ituri district, MONUC has confirmed a raft of atrocities – including massacres and arbitrary executions – which left bodies lining many of Bunia's streets. Among the victims were children, infants and two priests, whose bodies were horribly mutilated.

Meanwhile, as MONUC prepared to deploy a human rights officer and a child protection officer to Bunia to gather information, Iulia Motoc, the UN’s Geneva-based Special Rapporteur on human rights in the DRC once again voiced her deep alarm at the massive violations of human rights in Ituri.

Ms. Motoc exhorted the ethnic communities and the armed groups to lay down their arms as soon as possible, to end their attacks, to demonstrate their attachment to the peace process and to collaborate with the UN in order to restore a favourable climate for a definitive cessation of hostilities.

The situation in Bunia remains tense, however. “There have been reports of militias attempting to infiltrate sites where internally displaced persons are currently located,” spokesman Fred Eckhard said, adding that MONUC is mounting stricter surveillance to prevent infiltrations from taking place.

Based on the agreement reached in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on 16 May, the militia leaders in Bunia met with the leaders of the Ituri interim administration to discuss the cantonment of the armed groups.

“The humanitarian situation in Bunia remains critical,” Mr. Eckhard said. The total number of displaced persons seeking shelter at MONUC premises in Bunia is 4,000 and another 9,000 at the airport. Humanitarian conditions outside the town are also troubling, as security constraints and landmines pose serious impediments to humanitarian access to people in need, and have made it difficult to assess the number and condition of the thousands affected throughout the district.