Christmas massacres ‘killed 400′

The LRA are notorious for abducting children and mutilating victims

BBCW NEWS

30/12/08

More than 400 people have been killed by Ugandan rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo in attacks since Christmas day, aid agency Caritas says.

The head of Caritas in DR Congo told the BBC some 20,000 people had fled to the mountains from the rebels, who have denied carrying out the attacks.

An eyewitness told the BBC that five people in Faradje had their lips cut off by Lord’s Resistance Army fighters.

They were told that it was a warning not to speak ill of the rebels.

The armies of Uganda, South Sudan and DR Congo carried out a joint offensive against the rebels in mid-December after LRA leader Joseph Kony again refused to sign a peace deal.

The LRA leader, who has lived in a jungle hideout in north-eastern DR Congo for the last few years, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Uganda’s government had been involved in lengthy peace negotiations with the LRA, hosted by the South Sudanese government.

But Mr Kony has demanded that arrest warrants for him and his associates be dropped before any agreement can be struck.

‘Hacked to death’

News of the attacks in north-eastern DR Congo began to come out after the weekend when the Ugandan army accused the LRA of hacking to death 45 civilians in a Catholic church near Doruma.

All villages were burned by rebels Caritas’s Bruno Mitewo Congo terror after LRA rebel raids

Bruno Mitewo, head of the Catholic aid agency, says that from information they have collated from their parishes on the ground, more than 400 civilians have died in the attacks.

He said that in Faradje 150 civilians had died, almost 75 people in Duru and 215 in Doruma.

The victims had been hacked to death and forced into fires, he said.

“All villages were burned by rebels… we don’t know where exactly the population is because all the villages are empty,” he told the BBC.

“We have almost 6,500 displaced who are refugees in the parishes of the Catholic Church around the city of Dungu, more than 20,000 people displaced are running to the mountains,” he said.

Those who were hiding in the bush and forest were mainly the young, as the LRA tends to kidnap children and recruit them as fighters, he said.

An eyewitness in Faradje said the people who had their lips cut off were being treated for their injuries.

Earlier, LRA spokesman David Nekorach Matsanga told the BBC that the allegations that the massacres had been perpetrated by LRA fighters were untrue.

He said rebel units were not in the areas concerned and said a group of LRA defectors who joined the Ugandan army may have been responsible.

Many thousands of Congolese villagers fled their homes after LRA attacks near Dungu in October.

Countries from Uganda to the Central African Republic have suffered 20 years of terror inflicted by the LRA.

Tens of thousands of children have been abducted to be fighters and sex slaves.

Uganda’s government said the joint offensive had destroyed some 70% of the LRA camps in DR Congo.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says that Mr Kony’s force is relatively small – about 650 strong – but the difficulty is that when it is hit, it scatters and then regroups.

Humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate in Gaza: UNRWA

UN NEWS

30/12/2008

In the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate radically with the continuation of the Israeli air bombardment of what is one of the most densely populated parts of the planet.

UNRWA logo

More than 1.5 million people occupy an area 147 square miles.
Christopher Gunness is the spokesman for the UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees-UNRWA.
He tells UN radio from Jerusalem that the situation for civilians is getting worse by the hour.

“I’m pleased to say that we were able at UNRWA to get 32 trucks in to Gaza today of food and medicine. The medicine is being taken straight to hospitals which are overwhelmed to breaking point, and the food will go to our warehouses. We hope to have news about resuming food distributions, but I can say nothing really about that. So things are getting bad-but there was some hope in the form of some aid getting through today.”

Gunness says “the aerial bombardment is intense”, making it “very dangerous” to try and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

Governor picks Obama replacement

Mr Burris (L) ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in 1984

BBCE NEWS

30/12/08

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has picked the state’s former attorney general, Roland Burris, to fill Barack Obama’s now-vacant Senate seat.

Mr Blagojevich is the subject of a criminal inquiry and has been charged with attempting to “sell” the seat.

Under state law, it is Mr Blagojevich’s responsibility to appoint a new senator when a seat becomes vacant.

Democratic Party leaders in the Senate have said they will refuse to seat anyone appointed by Mr Blagojevich.

Mr Burris, 71, became the first African-American to be elected to statewide office in Illinois when he won the 1978 election to be state comptroller.

He was state attorney general from 1991 to 1995 and made unsuccessful bids for the US Senate in 1984 and Illinois governor in 1994.

“It is truly regrettable that… Governor Blagojevich would take the imprudent step of appointing someone to the United States Senate who would serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“Anyone appointed by Governor Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and … will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.”

‘Pay-to-play’ deals

An internal review conducted by the Obama team concluded last week that neither the president-elect, nor his staff, had had any “inappropriate discussions” with Mr Blagojevich about who should fill the seat.

Mr Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to “fight the false accusations” made by what he has termed a “political lynch mob”.

CHARGES AGAINST BLAGOJEVICH Federal agents say Mr Blagojevich Tried to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions Tried to use state funds for the private purpose of inducing the Tribune Company to fire Chicago Tribune editorial board members critical of him Tried to obtain personal financial benefits for himself in return for his appointment of a US senator Profile: Rod Blagojevich

The Illinois state legislature has formed a committee to investigate the possibility of impeaching Mr Blagojevich.

There have been calls from many politicians, including Mr Obama, for the governor to step down.

Mr Blagojevich was charged on 9 December with a number of offences including soliciting a bribe.

The charges relate to a variety of corruption schemes in which the governor was allegedly involved, including so-called “pay to play” deals – the doling out of jobs, contracts and appointments in return for campaign contributions.

On the day of his arrest, investigators released transcripts of conversations between Mr Blagojevich and others intercepted by court-authorised wiretaps.

In the conversations, the Democratic governor allegedly discussed offering Mr Obama’s Senate seat in return for a well-paid position at a non-profit organisation or a group affiliated with trades unions, according to the affidavit.

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