KINSHASA: DR Congo must identify both senior army personnel and politicians behind the massacres in the volatile Kasai region, a top UN human rights official told AFP Thursday.
Jose-Maria Aranaz, the UN human rights director in the country, was speaking just a day the UN said another 38 suspected mass graves had been discovered in this central part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“With more than 80 mass graves identified ... it is essential that the inquiry goes beyond those who physically did it and identifies command responsibilities at the military and political level,” said Aranaz.
Aranaz dismissed as “unconvincing” the suggestion that rogue elements of the security forces were responsible for the violence.
“We have to stop the killing,” he said.
The international community has voiced alarm over the violence, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, according to statistics compiled by the Roman Catholic church.
The UN’s MONUSCO peacekeeping mission in the country had previously spoken of “more than 400 dead” while about 1.3 million people are thought to have fled their homes.
An investigative mission this month found the latest mass graves in the Diboko and Sumbula areas of the Kamonia territory, the UN said.
The violence began last year when a tribal chieftain known as the Kamwina Nsapu openly challenged the authority of President Joseph Kabila’s government.
That provoked a crackdown by security forces and the Kamwina Nsapu was killed in a police operation in August 2016.
His armed followers fight on and some believe that their leader is still alive because authorities failed to give his body appropriate funeral rites.
In February MONUSCO accused the Kamwina Nsapu militia of “atrocities ... including the recruiting and use of child soldiers,” but also condemned “a disproportionate use of force” by government troops.
Two western experts sent to investigate the conflict by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres went missing in March. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave by peacekeepers a fortnight later.
The government blamed the tribal militia for their murders.
On Tuesday, the US urged the UN Security Council to punish those responsible for the flareup of violence. It also threatened sanctions against the Democratic Republic of Congo if elections are not held this year.
President Joseph Kabila’s mandate is due to end in December.
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DR Congo must identify those behind Kasai massacres: UN official
DR Congo must identify those behind Kasai massacres: UN official
Fire ravages Amsterdam church on ‘unsettled’ Dutch New Year
The Hague: A huge inferno gutted a 19th century Amsterdam church Thursday, as the Netherlands endured an unsettled New Year’s Eve with two dead from fireworks and “unprecedented” violence against police.
The blaze broke out in the early hours at the Vondelkerk, a tourist attraction that has overlooked one of the city’s top parks since 1872.
The 50-meter-high (164-foot) tower collapsed and the roof was badly damaged but the structure was expected to remain intact, Amsterdam authorities said.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.
The head of the Dutch Police Union, Nine Kooiman, reported an “unprecedented amount of violence against police and emergency services” over New Year’s Eve.
She said she herself had been pelted three times by fireworks and other explosives as she worked a shift in Amsterdam.
Shortly after midnight, authorities released a rare country-wide alert on mobile phones warning people not to call overwhelmed emergency services unless lives were at risk.
Reports of attacks against police and firefighters were widespread across the country. In the southern city of Breda, people threw petrol bombs at police.
Two people, a 17-year-old boy and a 38-year-old man, were killed in fireworks accidents. Three others were seriously injured.
The eye hospital in Rotterdam said it had treated 14 patients, including 10 minors, for eye injuries. Two received surgery.
It was the last year before an expected ban on unofficial fireworks, so the Dutch bought them in massive quantities.
According to the Dutch Pyrotechnics Association, revellers splashed out a record 129 million euros ($151 million) on fireworks.
Some areas had been designated firework-free zones, but this appeared to have little effect.
An AFP journalist in such a zone in The Hague reported loud bangs until around 3am.
In Germany, two 18-year-olds died in the western city of Bielefeld when they set off home-made fireworks that produced “deadly facial injuries,” local police said in a statement.
The blaze broke out in the early hours at the Vondelkerk, a tourist attraction that has overlooked one of the city’s top parks since 1872.
The 50-meter-high (164-foot) tower collapsed and the roof was badly damaged but the structure was expected to remain intact, Amsterdam authorities said.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.
The head of the Dutch Police Union, Nine Kooiman, reported an “unprecedented amount of violence against police and emergency services” over New Year’s Eve.
She said she herself had been pelted three times by fireworks and other explosives as she worked a shift in Amsterdam.
Shortly after midnight, authorities released a rare country-wide alert on mobile phones warning people not to call overwhelmed emergency services unless lives were at risk.
Reports of attacks against police and firefighters were widespread across the country. In the southern city of Breda, people threw petrol bombs at police.
Two people, a 17-year-old boy and a 38-year-old man, were killed in fireworks accidents. Three others were seriously injured.
The eye hospital in Rotterdam said it had treated 14 patients, including 10 minors, for eye injuries. Two received surgery.
It was the last year before an expected ban on unofficial fireworks, so the Dutch bought them in massive quantities.
According to the Dutch Pyrotechnics Association, revellers splashed out a record 129 million euros ($151 million) on fireworks.
Some areas had been designated firework-free zones, but this appeared to have little effect.
An AFP journalist in such a zone in The Hague reported loud bangs until around 3am.
In Germany, two 18-year-olds died in the western city of Bielefeld when they set off home-made fireworks that produced “deadly facial injuries,” local police said in a statement.
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