He said the village in question had a population of only 50
Posted in General on 21. Aug, 2010
He said the village in question had a population of only 50.Rebel spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba insisted Saturday that there were no civilian casualties when the rebels attacked the pro-government militia in Katogota, where a rebel platoon commander had been killed in an earlier ambush.The rebels, most of them ethnic Congolese Tutsis opposed to President Laurent Kabila, are unpopular in eastern Congo, where the war-wearied population generally regard them as accomplices of their foreign backers, Rwanda and Uganda.Mulumba invited the United Nations to join the rebels’ own inquiry into the incident Petrie said a U.N. human rights worker was on his way to Bukavu to investigate.The attack apparently happened after the Burundian Hutu rebels, who have used eastern Congo as their rear base for attacks against Burundi’s Tutsi-led army, attacked the rebels in Katogota, Petrie said.The rebels apparently attacked in retaliation, killing the civilians directly or catching them in cross-fire, Petrie said.”Given the environment of hostility and an inherited violence, the incident resulted in a number of civilian casualties. But the 300 is an extremely high figure, and had that many people been killed, we would’ve known about it immediately,” Petrie said.MISNA did not describe its sources, following its practice of withholding names when it believes its sources may be in danger. The news agency says in general it draws its reports in developing countries from lay people and officials as well as missionaries.Earlier this week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the rebels and their Rwandan army allies of raping and killing civilians to punish them for allegedly supporting their enemies, Hutu militiamen from Rwanda and Burundi and pro-government forces.Mulumba has denied those accusations and invited the United Nations to investigate any human rights abuses.(hh-ek). David and Goliath had nothing on this. For today a pygmy from the West African tropical rainforest arrives in London to take on the colossus of the World Bank
David and Goliath had nothing on this.
For today a pygmy from the West African tropical rainforest arrives in London to take on the colossus of the World Bank.
Jacques Ngoun, a member of the Bakolo pygmy tribe of Cameroon, is making a last-minute attempt to stop the bank financing an oil pipeline that will go through his forest. Environmentalists and development experts say the proposed Chad-Cameroon pipeline threatens to bring about an environmental and human rights disaster.The governing body of the bank meets on Tuesday to decide on the scheme, which is being heavily promoted by Exxon, Chevron and the Malaysian state-owned oil company, Petronas. Mr Ngoun and his supporters – who include the Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu – are hoping that Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, will ensure that Britain’s vote is cast against the project, but she has yet to make up her mind.Simon Counsell, director of the Rainforest Foundation, one of the organisations hosting Mr Ngoun, believes that this is the first time that a pygmy has ever come to Britain on an international environmental mission.The £2.4bn, 650-mile long pipeline would link new oil fields in Chad to the sea, via Cameroon. The World Bank says that it presents “a big opportunity for one of the poorest countries on Earth”. Its opponents warn that it could plunge the area into a crisis comparable to the one that oil has brought to Ogoniland in Nigeria, where the black gold has brought little benefit to the people, and sparked open revolt.The scheme has been brought about by the discovery of oil in the Doba Basin of southern Chad.
The oil companies plan to sink some 300 wells, producing some 225,000 barrels a day. They aim to export it down the pipeline to the sea, where it would be pumped onto tankers from a floating artificial island off Cameroon.The companies would meet almost all of the £2.4bn cost of the project, with the World Bank providing a mere £115m. But the bank’s contribution is seen as vital to gaining acceptance for the scheme, which would be unlikely to go ahead without it.The underground pipeline would pass through the undisturbed and ecologically fragile rainforest where Mr Ngoun lives. The Washington-based Environmental Defense Fund says that it will bring a “large influx of people”, who will clear the forest and endanger the hunter-gatherer tribes. The World Bank agrees that “the risks are high”, but says that its involvement is reducing them..