Text:
Refugees in Tanzania back Congo massacre
reportBy Wambui Chege
DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Congolese refugees fleeing to Tanzania on
Thursday supported
reports by a Catholic news agency that hundreds of civilians had been killed by
Congolese rebels in a New Year massacre.
Ernest Misozi, Executive Secretary of the Kigoma branch of the Catholic aid organisation Caritas, said refugees arriving in western Tanzania reported around 500 people were killed at two viilages south of Uvira, eastern Congo.
He said refugees spoke in interviews of rebels setting fire to village huts and shooting residents as they fled.
The Roman Catholic missionary news service MISNA said in Rome on Tuesday that Congolese rebels had shot or hacked to death at least 500 civilians between December 30 and January 1 in retaliation for an attack by Mai Mai tribesmen in the area.
It was not immediately clear if Caritas was the original source of the MISNA report.
The rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (CRD) movement has denied massacring civilians, but said they had killed hundreds of Burundian Hutu guerrillas in a battle where the alleged slaughter took place.
Misozi said around 620 refugees from Makobole and Kabimba -- where the masscare was supposed to have occurred -- arrived in Kigoma, western Tanzania, earlier this week having crossed Lake Tanganyika in small boats and canoes.
They were interviewed by a Caritas field officer immediately after they arrived to seek refugee status.
Congolese rebels -- backed by Rwanda and Uganda -- launched an offensive last August to try to topple President Laurent Kabila and now control much of the eastern half of Congo.
The rebels draw support from ethnic Banyamulenge Tutsis, who migrated from Rwanda over 200 years ago, but have found it harder to win over other local populations, particularly the Mai Mai.
The Mai Mai, together with Rwandan and Burundian militia, have staged numerous ambushes against civilians and rebels in eastern Congo over the last several months. They believe that covering themselves with water or wearing water -related objects like shower caps or bath plugs protect them from bullets.
Kabila's army is bolstered by troops from Angola, Zimbabwe, Chad and Namibia and in recent days has claimed significant advances in the east.