Suspected Witches Dead in Congo

KAMPALA, Uganda, July 5, 2001 -- 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Ugandan troops, which had withdrawn this year from the districtnear the border, were sent back to the area to stop the killingsand make arrests, Brig.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.

Collapsed Society

In a report released jointly today by UNICEF and the WorldHealth Organization, experts said after a recent 12-day visit toCongo that "every facet of society — whether human rights oreconomy, education or water and sanitation, housing or social care— has collapsed."

The 10-person mission blamed "decades of state and externallooting of national resources" and war for pushing "Congolesehouseholds over the brink."

In Congo's countryside, there is hardly any running water orelectricity. In the most devastated areas, people are desperatejust for soap and salt.

Although Uganda had withdrawn troops this year from the Arudistrict, it still employs troops elsewhere in Congo.

Uganda and Rwanda joined forces in August 1998 in support of arebellion seeking to oust President Laurent Kabila, whom they hadbacked in a previous, successful revolt that overthrew longtimePresident Mobutu Sese Seko of what was then Zaire in May 1997.

The senior Kabila's assassination in January and his son'sascension to the presidency appear to have cleared the hurdlesblocking the implementation of a 1999 peace agreement signed by theCongolese government, the rebels and Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe,Angola and Namibia, who are all involved in the conflict.

Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia have poured in thousands of troopsand material in support of the Congolese government.