Congo's Civilians Find Hope in Hell
BUNIA, Congo, June 17, 2003 — -- There is a terrible smell in our work space, and it apparently has nothing to do with the fact that none of us has had a shower for more than a week.
It has nothing to do with the refugee camp 10 yards away, where some 5,000 people have sought safety in the shadow of the U.N. compound.
The tent where we and other journalists are working in Bunia is reportedly built atop a mass grave. Hundreds of bodies are believed to be buried here. We are told this place used to be the morgue for the local hospital. Now when it rains, there is the unmistakable smell of rotting flesh: tangy, sweet, and sickening.
During the past few years a large part of my job for ABCNEWS has been to report from some of the world's more dangerous places — Afghanistan, Kashmir, Iraq. But nowhere I have been compares with Congo.
The civil war that has raged here for four years has claimed more than 3 million lives, mostly through disease and starvation. It is by far the world's deadliest conflict. Nothing since World War II even comes close.
It seems to be a place without hope, cursed by its wealth of natural resources. Congo has some of the world's richest deposits of gold, diamonds, timber and oil. Human lives here are cheap by comparison.
This is a war in which many of the victims and combatants are children. Most of the soldiers are teenagers in hand-me-down fatigues; many are even younger. The United Nations estimates that more than half of the soldiers in Congo are minors. The average age is 12. Some are as young as 7.
Every day, you see pickup trucks overflowing with boys armed to the teeth. When they are not out soldiering, they often go to one of the town's two cinemas, where they show pirated videos of Rambo and other action movies. Jean-Claude Van Damme is a favorite here.
Today we saw one boy wearing a Tupac Shakur T-shirt. We also saw someone sporting the bearded face of Osama bin Laden on a black concert-style T-shirt. Why does he receive icon status? "Because he's a bad man, and he will kill you," the boy said, making a chopping gesture at his throat.
