New Videos Appear to Show Congolese Soldiers Shooting Civilians
By STEVE WEMBIMARCH 23, 2017
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The emergence on Monday of several videos
that appear to show uniformed soldiers shooting Congolese civilians has added urgency to calls for an international investigation of recently discovered mass graves in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Last week, the Congolese military’s auditor general announced
that seven officers had been arrested and charged with war crimes after a video surfaced last month depicting soldiers shooting a group of civilians in Kasai-Central Province, a massacre that left at least 13 dead.
In response to that statement, the government angrily criticized the United Nations mission on Tuesday for making "imprecise allegations"
that hampered "the discovery of the truth." But Mr. Lubaya, the lawmaker from Kasai-Central Province, said the inaction of provincial and national officials regarding the mass graves amounted to contempt for the victims, their families and the nation.
Amid mounting accusations of violence against civilians,
and the discovery of 10 mass graves dug in January and February in Kasai-Central, the chief of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo urged the United Nations Security Council this week to press the government to open an investigation into possible rights violations.
The chief of the mission, Maman Sambo Sidikou, urged Congo’s government on Tuesday to investigate the recent reports "to ensure
that the perpetrators of these acts are held fully accountable and that justice is done," according to Charles Bambara, Mr. Sidikou’s spokesman.
A government spokesman, Lambert Mende, told Reuters this week
that the bodies in the mass graves were those of militia fighters, and that the group’s fighters, not the army, had buried them.