A wave of anguish that ended yesterday with the conviction of an army colonel for crimes against humanity — a landmark verdict in this Central African country where thousands are believed to be raped each year by soldiers and militia groups who often go unpunished....
As the defendants were being led away in handcuffs, hundreds of people jeered at them, booed, and shook their fists....
If true they deserve much worse.
Lieutenant Colonel Mutuare Daniel Kibibi, denied all the charges and said the testimony by his bodyguards was part of a plot to denigrate him. Defense lawyer Alfred Maisha described his client as a “valiant hero’’ who had served in the army since 1984 and had risked his life many times in the defense of the country.
Maisha said many of the troops under Kibibi’s command were poorly trained and included former members of rebel and militia groups.
Witnesses said the soldiers descended in a fury upon the village, where residents had stoned a soldier to death who had been involved in an altercation with a local shop owner.
The soldiers smashed down doors and went house to house, pillaging, beating, and raping from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m., witnesses said....
Okay if you are an empire occupying Iraq or Afghanistan or a Zionist army in Palestine.
Rape has long been used as a brutal weapon of war in eastern Congo....
Even the biggest UN peacekeeping force in the world of 18,000 troops has been unable to end the violence....
Maybe they are not trying very hard:
The Quietest Holocaust You Never Heard Of
So what did they do, double-cross this guy?
The United Nations is Racist
It sure does seem that way.
The mobile court was paid for by George Soros’s Open Society Initiative and aided by several other agencies, including the American Bar Association, Lawyers Without Borders, and the UN Mission to Congo.
So what did Kibibi do to piss off the New World Order, huh? Or were they just making an example of him to say they prosecute war crimes while ignoring the massive war crimes committed by western and Israeli leaders?
Also see: UN Gets a Piece
Boy, they sure have balls to holler kettle.
But enough about the rapes:
9 killed in attack on Congo president’s home
Men wielding guns and machetes attacked the presidential residence here yesterday, and at least nine people were killed during nearly an hour of gunfire, a witness said. The president and his wife were not home at the time of the assault.
President Joseph Kabila, who first inherited the job after his father’s assassination, blamed opponents ahead of the elections set for November.
“It is these people who fear facing me in the elections who did this,’’ Kabila said, according to an adviser. “I am handling the situation wisely.’’
Communications Minister Lambert Mende later appeared on national television and said the matter was under control. He said some assailants had been killed or wounded, and others were arrested. “These people wanted to physically harm the president, but the country and all its institutions are functioning normally,’’ Mende said.
A witness near the presidential residence reported seeing the bodies of seven attackers and two bodyguards.
Although eastern Congo is highly volatile with a myriad of rebel groups and militias who terrorize civilians, such violence in the capital of Kinshasa is more rare.
Related: Cutting Through the African Bush
Turns out they mostly benefit corporations. How odd.
Kabila first took office after his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated in 2001. The younger Kabila was elected in 2006 in the country’s first democratic election.
The vast Central African nation was ravaged by years of dictatorship and civil war, keeping its people from profiting from vast reserves of diamonds, gold, and other resources.
See: Around Africa: Calling the Congo
Who benefits?
UN plane crash in Congo kills 32
Only one person survived among the 33 United Nations personnel and crew members aboard a plane that crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday, UN officials said.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said he had no detailed information about the sole survivor, who he said was hospitalized after the crash in the Congolese city of Kinshasa.
Le Roy said that investigators were looking at the possibility that windy weather had caused the plane to miss the airstrip. The craft came down next to the airstrip and broke up upon landing, he said.
I no longer believe anything the authorities say about plane crashes; wonder why it broke up upon landing when Flight 93 allegedly disintegrated in a field in Pennsylvania; and why so little information about what they were doing.
The UN peacekeeping mission in New York described the craft as a small passenger plane and said it was ferrying a mix of mostly UN personnel, including peacekeepers. Le Roy said the group was composed of four crew members and 29 passengers who included a few workers for aid organizations.
Time for me to fly, readers.
