Congolese villagers massacred in church

BY MARY DURRAN
DOZENS of dead bodies were found in the courtyard of a Congolese Catholic church on Christmas morning.
The Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, has been blamed for the massacre. The group has been murdering civilians in the Congo to avenge attacks on them by the Congolese army.
According to Caritas Congo, 400 people, including two priests, have been killed. A Catholic church in Duru was burned to the ground and 6,500 people took refuge in another Catholic church nearby, the aid organisation reported.
The wave of violence was triggered in early December when Ugandan, Congolese and southern Sudanese forces launched an offensive against the rebel group.
St Joseph Sister MarieBernard Alima, executive secretary of the Congolese bishops’ justice and peace commission, said that 50 bodies were found in the courtyard of a church in the village of Doruma.
Sister Marie-Bernard said: “It is the civilian population who are paying the price of this violence.” She said the local justice and peace commission had taken scores of people to the hospital. “There are many people who were wounded by machete in the attacks. Several people suffered amputations. The priority of the justice and peace workers is to ensure that these people now receive medical attention,” she said.
“The situation in the Doruma and Faradje region grew very violent” in late December and “several civilians were killed in surrounding villages during these days – around 200 bodies were found”, she said.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as Monuc, has deplored the violence in the region. It has called on the Congolese army to intervene in a way that “respects humanitarian law and with care to avoid reprisals against the civilian population”.
Caritas Congo also reported that during the violence 20 children were abducted as child soldiers for the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Caritas Congo is the local affiliate of the international Catholic umbrella group Caritas Internationalis.