Suspected Witches Dead in Congo

KAMPALA, Uganda, July 5 -- Villagers have hacked to death about 200 suspected witches in rebel-held northeastern Congo since June 15, blaming them for diseases that have gone untreated since Congo's war broke out three years ago, a senior Ugandan army official said today.

Ugandan troops, which had withdrawn this year from the districtnear the border, were sent back to the area to stop the killingsand make arrests, Brig. Henry Tumukunde said.

"Villagers were saying that some people had bewitched others,and they started lynching them. By the time we discovered this, 60people had already been killed by early last week. About 200 peoplelost their lives," Tumukunde said.

Tumukunde refused to say how many people had been injured orarrested. It wasn't clear whether the witches were mainly men orwomen.

Accused of Witchcraft

The killings began three weeks ago in Aru, 50 miles south ofSudan, but spread deep inside northeastern Congo, a country thesize of Western Europe. The region of rolling savannas was once arich agricultural area where wheat was grown and cattle raised, buta series of rebellions have left communities destroyed since the1960s.

The war that began three years ago has only made matters worse. "The war forced people to move to other areas, and theinternally displaced were the targets of local villagers, whoaccused them of witchcraft," Tumukunde said.

He said diseases endemic to the region were being blamed onwitchcraft, noting that drugs to treat the diseases have not beenavailable during the duration of the war.

In much of the rebel-held 60 percent of the country, routes thatwould carry trade and aid back and forth are cut off. With noimmunization programs or other health programs, measles and otherdiseases are killing people in large numbers. Plague has even madeinroads. In the worst-hit areas, people are dying from acombination of disease and starvation.

Some charities have estimated an indirect wartime death toll ofabout 2 million out of a population of 50 million in the formerBelgian colony.