At least 100 bodies of people killed by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been discovered in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN mission said Wednesday. The victims are believed to have been killed in an attack by LRA rebels on a village in the north-eastern Orientale province on January 16.
"In Orientale province, there are reports that at least 100 bodies have been found by a local self defence group in Tora, where the rebels attacked on January 16," MONUC spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said. Dietrich said the attack is believed to have been carried out by just 13 rebels. LRA rebels subsequently killed four other people in two separate incidents in the region on January 17 and 19, he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, described human rights violations committed by the LRA as "grotesque" in a statement on Tuesday. Congolese forces have mounted a joint operation with Ugandan and south Sudanese forces to flush out the LRA, which has been based in northern DR Congo's Garamba National Park for several years.
Pillay expressed concern however "that the joint military counter-operations, unless properly planned and executed, could lead to further human rights abuses being perpetrated against the civilian population who are, in effect, caught between the conflicting parties."
The joint operation began on December 14. But Human Rights Watch said the LRA had massacred at least 620 civilians, and abducted more than 160 children, between December 24 and January 13. The joint operation has so far failed to capture LRA leader Joseph Kony.