Unburied remains a reminder of massacre in the Congo

Jacques Kahorha | The Institute for War & Peace Reporting

last updated: August 21, 2009 02:51:59 PM

BOGORO, Congo — For six years, the bones and skulls lay unburied in a field just outside the village. For six years, they have been a reminder of the appalling atrocities that occurred here in February 2003, when militiamen killed and raped a number of civilians. Those not killed were sometimes locked in rooms filled with corpses.

For six years, the villagers have preserved the evidence of that terrible day, believing the remains would somehow help the living achieve justice. Now, it appears that day has finally come and they can bury their dead.

Two rebel leaders — Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo — have been charged in connection with the attacks and are due to go on trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Sept. 24. Each faces six counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against humanity. Charges include murder, sexual slavery, the use of child soldiers and inhumane acts.

"The court has no more investigations," said Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court's chief prosecutor, during a visit to the region in July.

In fact, court officials say they never told the villagers not to bury the dead in order to preserve evidence. But the villagers apparently presumed the court would need the actual bodies of the victims in order to bring the suspects to justice.

This summer, court officials finally resolved the misunderstanding.

"During the investigation, the population of Bogoro called our attention to the presence of sites where bones were in the open," according to a court statement. "We are immensely grateful for their support and their dignity. Our investigation is finished. All remains may now be laid to rest." Samuel Mugeni Bahemuka, the chief of Bogoro, expressed relief that the dead can finally be buried.

"There are skulls and human bones of villagers spread throughout the fields," he said. "People have to see them every day and this is not really a good thing."

"We always feel very bad when we see those bones," said Amos Tibantura, a Bogoro resident. "Once we see them, we automatically remember our parents, brothers and sisters who were massacred here."

Kezia Mugeni, a mother of nine, added that seeing the bones every day is not good for the psychological health of the survivors.

"Survivors sometimes cry and remember the better life they lived when their relatives were alive," she said. "When a person dies, he must be buried so that people can move on. This is not the case here. Bones are out under the sun and rain all the time and we imagine that those who are not buried are our relatives who have been abandoned. It touches us a lot."

The conflict in Congo's northeastern Ituri province is the result of historical rivalries between tribal groups, most notably the Lendu and the Hema.

The fighting was particularly brutal between 1999 and 2003, when an estimated 50,000 were killed, according to the United Nations.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Jacques Kahorha is a reporter in the Democratic Republic of Congo who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Readers may write to the author at the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, 48 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, U.K.; Web site: www.iwpr.net. For information about IWPR's funding, please go to http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?top-supporters.html.

This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or its editors.

© 2009, The Institute for War & Peace Reporting