By Robert Waweru
Bunia - Ordinary Congolese are outraged at the killing of dozens of their compatriots by United Nations troops, saying the world body's new get-tough policy on militias takes no account of civilian suffering.
Many people in the troubled north-eastern town of Bunia saw the killings as misplaced revenge for the deaths of nine Bangladeshi UN soldiers murdered by unidentified gunmen in the surrounding Ituri district in the past week.
An estimated 50 people were killed in Tuesday's battle in nearby Loga town between armed men from the Lendu ethnic group and UN troops hunting militiamen suspected of murdering Congolese civilians.
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| 'There are those who bleed milk and those who bleed blood' |
The Congolese citizens said the clash showed the lives of peacekeepers counted for more than those of the Africans they were meant to protect in Ituri, where ethnic warfare marked by atrocities including cannibalism has killed 50 000 people since 1999.
"Nine people die and it triggers a huge bombardment, but how many thousands of people died here?" said Christophe, a businessman sitting astride his parked motorbike on a rutted pavement in this ramshackle mining town.
"How many people were eaten? How many people were burned and had their intestines cut out? And now nine people die and it becomes an issue where the whole world shakes."
"There are those who bleed milk and those who bleed blood," he said, using a proverb to signal the incident showed African lives were worth less to the United Nations than those of foreigners.
An upsurge in fighting between militias from the Hema and Lendu since December has displaced 70 000 people, damaging efforts by the former Belgian colony to recover from a wider 1998-2003 war that at one point sucked in six countries.
The violence hit the headlines last week when militiamen shot dead the nine Bangladeshi UN troops near Kakwa village, the largest single loss suffered by the world body's peace mission here since it deployed in 1999.
Jean-Pierre said the Bangladeshi deaths left him unmoved. They were insignificant compared to the suffering in Ituri, a remote mineral-rich region where people often feel neglected by the government in Kinshasa, on the other side of Africa.
"For me as a Congolese it (the deaths of the Bangladeshis) was okay, because we are dying in millions since the war started here in Ituri and they were only nine," he said.
"It was only nine who died and we hear they have killed 50 and they are still killing," he said.
The top UN peacekeeper in Congo, William Swing, said the battle at Loga showed the UN was becoming more proactive in its mission to protect civilians from marauding armed gangs.
Lendu leaders said they were not impressed.
"Vengeance is not our intention, but we need someone to shine a light on why this battle happened on Tuesday," said Larry Batsi Thewi, a Lendu community leader.
"We will not incite people to take revenge for what the UN has done, but people should know that we have been working with the government to try to restore order in Ituri."
Not everyone dismissed the deaths of the Bangladeshis.
"I'm so saddened that these things happened, because these people who came to help us win peace, and now they end up being killed," said stallholder Matthieu Kassereku.
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