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Title: Ugandan army says rebels kill 45 people in Congo church
Source:
Yahoo - AFP
URL Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2008122 ... ugandaunrestrebelsdrcongosudan
Published: Dec 28, 2008
Author: afp
Post Date: 2008-12-28 17:02:15 by Rotara
Keywords: None
Views: 426
Comments: 17
KAMPALA (AFP) – The Ugandan army on Sunday accused Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels of hacking to death 45 people in a church in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. An aid official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed Friday's massacre, saying the killings took place in a Catholic church in the Doruma area, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Sudanese border. "There are body parts everywhere. Inside the church, the entrance and in the church compound," the aid official said. "We got information the rebels cut 45 people into pieces," added army spokesman Captain Chris Magezi. "They were cut with pangas (machetes) and hit with clubs but some luckily managed to escape. Our forces came to know about the killings while pursuing the LRA yesterday (Saturday) and the pursuit is on for the killers." Magezi said the victims, mostly women, children and the elderly, were mutilated in the style used by Hutu extremists during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Magezi later said 13 of the insurgents were shot dead by the forces. "We came in contact with the group that killed the civilians in the church near Doruma. We put 13 of them out action and we recovered from them nine sub-machine guns," he said. "We are pursuing the rest of the group." Forces from Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and south Sudan launched a joint operation against the Ugandan LRA rebels in northeastern DR Congo earlier this month. The vice-governor of Orientale province, Joseph Bangakya Angaze, told AFP by telephone that "fighting has broken out around Doruma since Friday, between elements of the LRA and local groups" set up to defend their communities. Magezi had also accused the rebels of killing 35 civilians in attacks on Wednesday and Thursday in areas in south Sudan and northeastern DR Congo. But LRA spokesman David Nyekorach Matsanga denied the rebels were behind any of the killings. "Reports about the LRA killing innocent civilians is another propaganda campaign by the Uganda army," Matsanga told AFP. "I am not a military spokesman for the LRA but I have it on good authority from the field commanders that the LRA is not in those areas where the killings are reported to have taken place. "We need an independent verification to know who is responsible for these killings in Doruma because LRA has stated before we want peace not war because fighting won't help," he said. The two sides have been engaged in peace talks led by the government of South Sudan for more than two years. On Saturday Matsanga said the LRA chief Joseph Kony was still open to talks but preferred Tanzanian or South African mediation because south Sudan was involved in the military offensive. Kony has repeatedly refused to sign a peace deal with Kampala because of International Criminal Court arrest warrants against him and his lieutenants for war crimes. But Magezi insisted the killings of civilians will not deter the joint forces from hunting the rebels. He also condemned "these heinous acts by the LRA terrorists." "They (LRA) think by killing innocent civilians the allied forces will be intimidated to back off from the operation. They are misleading themselves," said Magezi, who is also the spokesman of the regional forces. "We will continue to pursue them and they will pay with their blood." Uganda has already signed the final peace agreement concluded in April to end the civil conflict that has ravaged the country's northern region. Kony's rebels are accused of having raped and mutilated civilians, forcibly enlisting child soldiers and of massacring thousands during two decades of conflict. Kony, a semi-literate former altar boy, took charge in 1988 of a regional rebellion among northern Uganda's ethnic Acholi minority.
Poster Comment: 
Fighters from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army are pictured in southern Sudan in 2006. The Ugandan army on Sunday accused Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels of hacking to death 45 people in a church in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. (AFP/File/Stuart Price)
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#2. To: Rotara (#0)
An aid official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed Friday's massacre, saying the killings took place in a Catholic church in the Doruma area, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Sudanese border. "There are body parts everywhere. Inside the church, the entrance and in the church compound," the aid official said. "We got information the rebels cut 45 people into pieces," added army spokesman Captain Chris Magezi. The world is truly in darkness.
Thank you sir for noticing. I realize they weren't beloved muzzies or jews that were barbarically destroyed, but thanks nonetheless good man. And Happy survive the new year Day tomorrow !
I realize they weren't beloved muzzies or jews that were barbarically destroyed, but thanks nonetheless good man. And Happy survive the new year Day tomorrow ! The Palestinians are being barbarically and methodically destroyed by the ISRAELI GOVERNMENT'S ARMY. That is, the genocide of Palestinians is ISRAEL'S GOVERNMENT POLICY. The Congelese civilians in the article you refer to were murdered by LRA rebels, not by a nation-state's military, not as a routine policy of a First World government. Do you get the difference now and why the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people by the GOVERNMENT of Israel provokes such international outrage?
IF the palis were next door to me, lobbing indiscriminate rockets on me and my neighbors - I'd give them 3 days to make it stop permanently and then if and when another one flies my way I'm coming over there and wiping you out, your family, any and all that have a connection to you then I would bulldoze and salt the land you lived on. Just to be clear.
#9. To: Rotara (#8)
Just to be clear. According to the Israeli foreign ministry, 28 Israelis have been killed by rocket fire in the past 8 years. In the past 4 days the Israeli military has killed 398 Palestinians, the majority of which were civilians including women and children. If Hamas has been "terrorizing" Israelis 24/7 all this time, how come only 28 Israelis have been killed by rockets in the past 8 years? Huh? As for your faux analogy of you and your neighbor next door with the Palestinians and the Israelis - presumably you and your neighbor own your respective properties, whereas Israel was created out of thin air in 1948 and super-imposed on the indigenous peoples living in the region ie the Palestinians. And since 1948, the Israelis have been stealing and poaching on more and more Palestinian owned land. What would you do if thieving outsiders came into your house and stole your property and killed your wife and maimed your children?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThe Ugandan army on Sunday accused Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels of hacking to death 45 people in a church in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
#3. To: IndieTX (#2)
#6. To: Rotara (#3)
Thank you sir for noticing.
#8. To: scrapper2 (#6)
(Edited)
Replies to Comment # 8. IF the palis were next door to me, lobbing indiscriminate rockets on me and my neighbors - I'd give them 3 days to make it stops permanently and the next one that flies my way I'm coming over there and wiping you out, your family, any and all that have a connection to you then I would bulldoze and salt the land you lived on.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 8.