arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Atrocities in Congo : Belgian minister meets militia-leader Bemba
by Raf Custers Friday January 17, 2003 at 01:44 PM
raf.custers@euronet.be 32-476-954290

Gbadolite, DR Congo - On Wednesday January 15, 2003, Belgian Defence-minister Andre Flahaut shook hands with Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the MLC-militia, which has been accused of atrocities against the population in the North-East of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Atrocities in Congo ...
bemba1.jpg, image/jpeg, 600x450


Bemba - known as the Congo's Savimbi, after the boss of the Angolese terror-militia UNITA that, supported by the West, sustained a civil war for decades - is the MLC's sole boss. His authority is absolute. The allegations that his troops undertook systematic violation of women in the Ituri-region and made local people to eat human flesh of roasted bodies and intestines, have been proven. It is almost impossible that Bemba did not know in advance of what was going to happen in Ituri.
On Wednesday Jan. 15, the UN-Securiy Council severely condemned Bemba's MLC-movement for the atrocities in Ituri. But the UN's Human-Right's envoyé Di Melo said on Radio France International that it was up to the prime suspect to investigate the allegations. And that same day, Belgian Defence-minister Andre Flahaut travelled all the way from Congo's capital Kinshasa to Bemba's stronghold Gbadolite to talk about the ongoing "peace process" that should end the war staged against Congo by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi and their collaborators (a.o. Bemba's MLC).
After a meeting behind closed doors, Bemba declared that an investigation by the MLC is underway and that his men have arrested one MLC-officer and four MLC-soldiers for their part in the Ituri-atrocities. Minister Flahaut seemed to be pleased with this declaration that offered him an excuse against claims that he met with the prime responsable of the acts of cannibalism in Ituri.
The pictures show Jean-Pierre Bemba at the steeringwheel of a jeep at Gabodlite's airporrt, with minister Flahaut next to him in the passenger-seat. Because the Belgian delegation had to wait for a Belgian C-130-airplane to pick them up, Flahaut spend some 30 minutes in the jeep and even accompanied Bemba to his house. From a diplomatic point of view, during all this time Flahaut was Bemba's hostage. Then the two men shake hands before the Belgian delegation flies to Goma, where it shall meet with the RCD-Goma (that also maintains a terror-regime in the parts of the Congo that it controls alongside the Rwanda-troops).


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