CONGO MILITIAMEN RAPE 15 IN VILLAGE ATTACK – U.N.

June 6, 2005 - (Reuters) Pro-government militiamen raped 15 women and girls in an attack on a remote Congolese village last month, stealing their clothes so they were forced to flee naked, the United Nations said on Monday.

The attack by Mai Mai militiamen and policemen took place in the village of Sonsa -- some 250 km (156 miles) southwest of the lakeside town of Kalemie, which separates Congo and Tanzania.

Anne Edgerton, head of the U.N. Office for Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs in Kalemie, said the women had fled for six days to seek assistance, but had only been able to move at night because they had no clothes on.

She said the raid on Sonsa appeared to be a revenge attack after the village's residents turned away a village chief dispatched to their village by local authorities.

"It seems the villagers (of Sonsa) rejected the chief that was sent to their village late last month and, in revenge, the head of police sent some of his men and 30 Mai Mai soldiers to the village," Edgerton told Reuters by phone.

"They burned 11 of the 30 houses there and they raped seven women and eight girls," she said.

"So far it is not clear if the police participated in the raping with the Mai Mai, but the women who spoke to aid workers confirmed that they had been raped by the Mai Mai."

Although Congo's war officially ended in 2003 and a transitional government has been installed in Kinshasa, the east of the vast African nation is still plagued by a plethora of armed groups who rape, loot and steal.

Civilians are regularly targeted by gunmen such as the Mai Mai, militiamen who fight with spears, arrows and guns and were allied to the Kinshasa government during the war.

Six of the women who were raped and two local leaders had arrived in Manono, the nearest town, and told aid workers about the rapes, but it was unclear where the rest of the estimated 100 inhabitants of Sonsa were, Edgerton said.

"We hope to help bring medical assistance to those that were raped and justice to the people. But there are problems -- even those convicted of rape in Kalemie have not stayed in prison very long -- they have escaped," she said.

Congo's five year war sucked in six neighbouring countries and killed nearly 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.

From: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LEW652700.htm