ituri: “covered in blood” - Human Rights Watch

it of salt and oil on the heart and then roasted it. They had two large bowls of cassava ready near the
fire. As the heart cooked, the other Lendu combatants took the remainder of the body and placed it on hot
wood and then placed other hot pieces of wood on the top so the body was roasting as well. The Chief
and his entourage then ate the heart with the cassava while the rest of the Lendu fighters ate the body.
They even offered the crowd some of the meat. The APC soldiers at first watched but then went away as
they saw their comrade being eaten. Whatever wasn’t eaten was then burned. This whole ceremony took
over two hours.
There were many of us who witnessed this. They told us not to take any pictures and if anyone did there
would be trouble. 176
Two days later Maitre Kiza and Kung Fu, another Lendu fighter, were sent to Beni where they were reportedly
judged by military officials. They returned to Mongbwalu a few days later. They called another meeting at the
same place and told the population there would be no more such executions. Maitre Kiza became a key figure in
the Lendu political armed group, the FNI, who have links with the RCD-ML. 177 He was reportedly killed in
fighting in Ituri in early June 2003.
As with the Nyakunde case, RCD-ML authorities appeared willing to let serious human rights abuses, mob justice
and cannibalism go uninvestigated and unpunished, but sought to deter further cases of such crimes.
Abuses by the MLC and RCD-N
The MLC had been involved in Ituri during the short-lived agreement of the Front for the Liberation of Congo
(FLC), a platform of the MLC, RCD-N and the RCD-ML, sponsored by Uganda under the leadership of Jean
Pierre Bemba. But Nyamwisi refused to accept Bemba’s leadership in Ituri and his forces pushed Bemba and the
MLC troops out of Beni and Bunia. In the last months of 2002, the MLC tried to fight its way back into Ituri with
the support of Roger Lumbala’s RCD-N, claiming that Nyamwisi had violated the Lusaka Accord. In doing so,
their combatants committed violations of international humanitarian law including the deliberate killing of
civilians, numerous cases of rape, looting and some acts of cannibalism. Some of these violations may have been
directed at the Nande ethnic group, targeted for their connection with Nyamwisi, himself a Nande.
Summary Executions and Looting at Mambasa
Mambasa, a district in the western part of Ituri, was relatively untouched in the early years of the conflict between
the Hema and the Lendu. Although officially part of the former territory of Ituri, it remained in the hands of the
RCD-ML after the fall of Bunia to the UPC in August 2002. As the killings continued in eastern areas of Ituri,
many civilians fled west towards Mambasa and Komanda. By the beginning of November, a reported 5,200
displaced people from other parts of Ituri were being given assistance in Mambasa. 178
In early October, the MLC and RCD-N launched their attacks near the town of Mambasa and then attempted to
move further south towards the RCD-ML capital of Beni in the “effacer le tableau” [Wipe the Slate] campaign
which would eventually end with the ceasefire signed in Gbadolite on December 31, 2002. In the area of
Mongbwalu, UPC troops attacked jointly with the MLC forces, as described above, and the UPC was rumored to
be seeking an alliance with the MLC. 179
When the MLC and RCD-N troops arrived in Mambasa on October 12, 2002, most residents fled to the forest.
The troops sought out residents in the bush, trying to identify at least some of them by ethnic group. A witness
said:
176 Human Rights Watch interview, Bunia, February 2003.
177 Human Rights Watch interview, Kampala, February 2003.
178 Human Rights Watch interview Beni, February 2003.
179 Ibid.
Human Rights Watch
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July 2003, Vol. 15,No. 11 (A)