The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (known as MONUC) confirmed in a January 15 report accusations that rebel soldiers in the northeast have been murdering and cannibalizing the indigenous Mbuti, or Pygmies, and other civilians in the region. MONUC documented witness accounts of Mbuti being killed and eaten, or forced to cook remains of their neighbors and relatives near the town of Beni. This week a delegation of five Mbuti from the Ituri region demanded that the government establish a tribunal to hear charges against and hold accountable those responsible for the atrocities. DRC officials responded by announcing that they have opened a “judicial inquiry”, led by the interim state prosecutor, into the alleged rebel crimes. The delegation was in the capital Kinshasa to participate in a week-long human rights seminar organized by the Fondation Ikpala and the International Center for the Defense of the Rights of the Batwa. “It is inconceivable that there is a policy of protection for animals of the forest and not for Pygmies, who are as much human beings as we are," said Prosper Nobirabo, one of the organizers of the seminar.The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs has issued a call for UN intervention to help protect the Pygmies of the war-torn northeast DRC.
