Men in Red Cross bibs and surgical gloves collected thebodies over the weekend, lifting them onto already blood-stained stretchers,and carrying them to hastily dug graves. Outside the eastern Congolese town ofSake, the gravediggers removed ID cards in the hope that whatever relatives thedead men might have would eventually be told of their son’s, or theirbrother’s, or their father’s death.
The corpses were left on the side of the road for two daysafter M23 rebels repulsed an attack by the Congo army in a firefight thatforced tens of thousands of Sake residents to flee. Since that attack, thefront lines have been relatively stable, as regional governments meet to try tostop eastern Congo’s crisis from again exploding into a larger conflict.
Under pressure from his fellow heads of state, CongolesePresident Joseph Kabila signaled his willingness to negotiate with the M23, arebel group led by renegade army officers who mutinied in April and who arebelieved to have the backing of Rwanda. As negotiations make their stutteringstart, the horrors triggered by this latest outbreak of violence in the easternCongo are not abating. And the humanitarian crisis is growing.
In Shasha, a village south of Sake where M23 rebels haveestablished their forward-most position, the calm is deceptive. The governmentposition ” manned by members of a loyalist Mai Mai militia ” is just a fewhundred yards away, beyond a government tank with its track blown off by arocket. Mornings start with sporadic shooting. In Kirotshe, a few miles beforethe last rebel position, people sleep in the hospital at night hoping it mightoffer more safety than their flimsy huts if the fighting restarts or if themarauding Congolese army, fearful in its retreat, returns to rape and pillage.“It’s not the first time that this thing happens,” said Dieumerce Salukombo, 25.“People are just crying and crying, it’s just unbelievable.”
Congo’s army has long been considered a corrupt, predatoryforce. Its human rights abuses are legion and catalogued. Just last week thehead of the Congo army, Maj. Gen. Amisi, was sacked for corruption, accused ofselling government weapons to the very rebel groups his soldiers were fighting.But just because Congo’s army is murderous, abusive and next to useless, thatdoes not mean the rebels are much better. The rebels might be more organized and,based on recent clashes, a more proficient fighting force. But M23’s godfather,Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, is a former warlord wanted by the International CriminalCourt in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Some of M23’s top commanders have long histories of humanrights abuses as well, recruiting child fighters for a succession of conflictsin eastern Congo. Human rights groups have detailed evidence of summaryexecutions, forced enlistment of children and adults, rape and other abuse inareas under M23 control. There are no good guys in this conflict.
Meanwhile, the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission failedto prevent the M23 from overrunning Goma, the provincial capital, and hasotherwise been incapable of ending the fighting or protecting the civilianscaught up in it. For the Congolese, at least the ones without guns or power,there’s only one thing that matters: “Everyone’s praying for peace, we don’tcare who takes over, people just want peace,” said Salukombo as he prepared to spendyet another night camped out with his family at Kirotshe’s hospital.
