Congo: LRA Conducts Massive Abduction Campaign

New Regional Strategy Needed to Protect Civilians and Rescue Children

This ten-year-old boy was abducted by the LRA in Bamudanga, northern Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 27, 2010. Some weeks later he managed to escape.

 

DR Congo: New Round of LRA Killing Campaign

 

Trail of Death

The Christmas Massacres

The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight. The evidence points to Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, as the author of this atrocious campaign.

Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher

(Washington, DC) - The Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted more than 697 adults and children in a largely unreported campaign in the Central African Republic and the neighboring Bas Uele district of northern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past 18 months, Human Rights Watch said today. Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group's fighters.
During the abduction campaign, the LRA has brutally killed adults and children who tried to escape, walked too slowly, or were unable to bear the heavy loads they were forced to carry, Human Rights Watch found in its investigations in the region. The LRA has killed at least 255 adults and children, often by crushing their skulls with clubs. In dozens of cases, the LRA forced captive children to kill other children and adults.

"The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The evidence points to Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, as the author of this atrocious campaign."
Human Rights Watch called on the affected governments and their allies to strengthen their protection of civilians and to put greater emphasis on efforts to rescue the abducted children and others.

A month-long Human Rights Watch research mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Bas Uele district of northern Congo from July 12 to August 11, 2010, in which over 520 civilians were interviewed, including 90 former abductees, in individual and focus group interviews, found that the LRA's abduction campaign was similar in both countries and is having a devastating impact on affected communities.

In southeastern CAR, the LRA began large-scale abductions on July 21, 2009, and to date has abducted 304 people, including many children. The LRA first attacked the villages surrounding Obo, before moving west toward Rafai, Guérékindo, Gouyanga, Kitessa and Mboki, along the Congolese border, and north toward Djema, Baroua, and Derbissaka. Most recently, on June 12 and 13, 2010, the LRA abducted 16 people in farms surrounding the town of Rafai, including a mother and her 2-year-old daughter, both of whom the rebels later killed.

A similar LRA abduction campaign is under way in the remote Bas Uele district of Congo. On March 15, 2009, the LRA attacked the town of Banda, abducting some 80 people. In the months that followed, the LRA progressed westward, conducting raids on the towns and villages of Dakwa, Bayule, Disolo, Esse, and further north in Digba, Sukadi, and Gwane, among others.

On May 27, 2010, the LRA attacked numerous villages near Ango, the territorial capital, abducting 23 people, including 16 children. Some abductees who later escaped told Human Rigths Watch that the LRA questioned them about the location of schools in Ango, indicating the rebels may have been seeking specifically to abduct children. The LRA advance was halted when they encountered Congolese soldiers less than 15 kilometers from Ango, forcing them to change direction.

During the LRA's campaign in Bas Uele between March 2009 and June 2010, the rebels abducted at least 375 people, at least 127 of them children, most ages 10 to 15. More recent information indicates that there have been more LRA attacks.
There has been very little reporting of the LRA's numerous abuses in the region because it is so remote and communications are so poor. Few humanitarian agencies are working there, and there is only a small United Nations presence.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the area. In southeastern CAR an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people have sought refuge in the main towns, leaving entire villages abandoned. In the last few months, the government has deployed about 200 troops to the area to help protect civilians, too few to provide adequate protection. The Ugandan army has made some troops available to help protect civilians in the area.

Civilian protection concerns in Bas Uele district are even greater. An estimated 54,000 civilians have been displaced in the district or have sought refuge across the border in CAR. The Congolese army has deployed an army battalion to the area, but it is ill-equipped and has little or no transportation and communications equipment.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, with 19,000 peacekeepers across the country, has only 1,000 in the LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo - far too few for the scale and geographical breadth of the problem. No peacekeepers are based in Bas Uele district. In the past two months, the MONUSCO base in Dingila, Bas Uele district, was closed and new MONUSCO bases expected to open in Dakwa and Digba have not yet been established.

"The protection of civilians under LRA attack across central Africa is woefully inadequate, with some communities receiving no protection or humanitarian aid at all," Van Woudenberg said. "National governments, the Ugandan army, and the UN need to take urgent steps to protect people from these LRA attacks."

A Vicious Abduction CampaignHuman Rights Watch's field investigations have found that LRA combatants often attack villages early in the morning or late in the day, when residents are likely to be home. The LRA fighters grab their victims and tie them to one another at the waist in long human chains. The abductions are usually followed by extensive looting of food, clothing, salt, and other items, which are loaded in heavy bundles onto the captives' heads, backs, and shoulders before they are marched off into the forest.

A 40-year-old woman from Guerekindo in southeastern CAR told Human Rights Watch how on March 29, 2010, she watched in horror as the LRA tied up her husband and five young children in a human chain, loaded them with the household's goods, and dragged them out of their home. She was left on her own with twin infants and has had no news of her missing family members.

According to former abductees, once away from a main road, the LRA force their captives to work for hours or days shelling peanuts, a staple crop in the area, or pounding rice or manioc to prepare for cooking. Those who work too slowly are beaten. The LRA rebels prohibit captives from speaking to one another and from eating, drinking water, or going to the toilet without permission.

Once the work is completed, some adults may be released, though they are usually viciously beaten or otherwise humiliated first. In Digba, Bas Uele, on September 27, 2009, the LRA whipped each of the 12 Congolese adult abductees with branches, then with a machete after they had worked all night shelling peanuts, before releasing them. A 41-year-old teacher in the group was punished more severely because he spoke English.

In another case, following large-scale abductions in Banda, the LRA forced their Congolese captives to dance for their freedom, releasing some adults only after they had danced for several hours. A woman who was released told Human Rights Watch: "I still remember the horrors of that night and being forced to look happy while I danced for my life. I am terrified that the LRA will come back."

Adults who are not released may be kept as porters, forced to march at a rapid pace to the LRA's next location, heavily loaded with pillaged goods. Those who cannot keep up are killed. On May 6, the LRA killed a 42-year-old Central African man named Bungu near Meskine, in CAR, who was loaded down with basins of peanuts and bags of rice. When he fell in a swamp area and was unable to get up, an LRA combatant beat him on the head with a heavy wooden club, crushing his skull.

Adults who make it to an LRA camp are often killed instead of released. One 12-year-old Congolese girl told Human Rights Watch that she was forced to participate in killing dozens of adults who had reached an LRA camp to prevent them from revealing its location to government soldiers or the Ugandan army.

"The LRA tied the hands of the victims behind their back, a cord around their legs, and placed the victims face down on the ground," she said. "Then the LRA would give us children a heavy wooden stick and force us to beat them on the head till they died."

Brutalization of Children
Human Rights Watch found that abducted children are usually separated from the adults and kept close to the LRA commanders. They are rarely released. They quickly learn to obey the LRA's rules and to speak Acholi, the commanders' language, and are exposed to immense brutality to integrate them into the group. The LRA forces many children, as part of their indoctrination, to kill other children who try to escape or fail to obey the rules.

Of the 45 children interviewed by Human Rights Watch, most of those who had been with the LRA a month or more had been forced to kill other children. Human Rights Watch received information of at least 42 children killed by other child abductees in 2009 and 2010, though the figure is probably much higher.

Military training begins within months of captivity. Many children as young as 10 or 11, abducted in Congo, CAR, and Southern Sudan in 2008 and 2009, are now armed with guns and participate in LRA attacks. LRA combatants use mind control methods to get children to forget their lives back home and to view other human beings as animals. Witnesses to LRA attacks and those who were abducted told Human Rights Watch that the young LRA combatants are usually the most vicious and are ordered to carry out the beatings and killings.

The LRA assigns abducted girls to commanders for sex or as servants. Refusing sexual relations often results in death. A 17-year old Congolese girl, Osanna, abducted in Banda in March 2009, protested when a commander tried to rape her. The LRA tied her up and forced other children abducted from Banda to kill her by taking turns hitting her on the head with a heavy wooden stick. Her 12-year-old sister was forced to participate.

Children who escape are deeply traumatized by what they have experienced. One 15-year-old boy who had spent eight months with the LRA before he escaped told Human Rights Watch: "I am no longer the same. I often think about how many people I killed and then I can't sleep. I will never forget what they made me do."

Ordered From LRA's Central Command
The available information strongly indicates that the LRA's central command has been ordering these abductions, which have been conducted in a manner consistent with the LRA's well-established practices. Abductees who spent months with the LRA before managing to escape said the abduction campaign was carried out on orders from Kony that LRA commanders should replenish their ranks.

At least four former abductees who spent months or years with the LRA and had learned to speak Acholi told Human Rights Watch that there was a clear order from Kony to his commanders to abduct children. Some indicated that the abduction campaign was to enable the LRA to return to Uganda. Human Rights Watch has also seen transcripts of two oral messages from Kony in May in CAR, indicating that he continues to communicate with a number of his commanders.

Human Rights Watch research found that the campaign in CAR is led by Gen. Okot Odhiambo, the LRA's second in command, and by LRA groups acting under the direct command of Kony. In Bas Uele, the campaign is led by Lt. Col. Kidega, a senior LRA commander who has a number of smaller LRA groups under his command. Human Rights Watch also received reports of abductions and killings by Gen. Caesar Acelam in the areas around Yalinga and Bria in the Haut-Kotto prefecture of CAR.

Three of the LRA's leaders, including Kony and Odhiambo, are sought by the International Criminal Court under arrest warrants issued in July 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda. All three remain at large and continue to commit atrocities.

Long History of LRA AtrocitiesThe recent LRA abductions and killings are part of the rebel force's longstanding practice of atrocities and abuse. Pushed out of northern Uganda by the Ugandan military in 2005, the LRA now operates in the remote border area between southern Sudan, Congo, and CAR.

In December 2008, the governments of the region, led by the Ugandan armed forces and with intelligence and logistical support from the United States, opened a military campaign against the LRA in northeastern Congo, known as Operation Lightning Thunder. The military campaign failed to end the violence or to apprehend the LRA's leaders. Instead, the LRA spread out across the central African region and have continued their campaign against civilians.

Human Rights Watch has previously reported on widespread and horrific killings in the Haut Uele district in northern Congo, including two deadly LRA rampages: one over the 2008 Christmas period, when 865 were killed, and a massacre in the Makombo area in December 2009, which resulted in the deaths of at least 345 civilians.

Human Rights Watch has urged the US government to swiftly carry out the legislation signed by President Barack Obama on May 26 to develop a comprehensive strategy to protect civilians in central Africa from LRA attacks, bring LRA leaders implicated in atrocities to justice, and, together with regional governments, end violence by the rebel group.

Le parlement de Catalogne donne l'estocade aux corridas

par Vanessa Romeo

Le parlement de Barcelone a voté mercredi l'interdiction des corridas en Catalogne à partir de 2012, une première en Espagne exception faite des îles Canaries.

Soixante-huit députés ont voté l'interdiction, 55 s'y sont opposés et neuf se sont abstenus.

Ce résultat était attendu depuis qu'en décembre dernier le parlement catalan avait décidé de prendre en considération une pétition du groupe anti-corrida Prou! (Assez!), qui avait recueilli 180.000 signatures.

L'interdiction entrera en vigueur en 2012. Les dernières arènes actives de Barcelone, la capitale catalane, fermeront alors, de même que les rares autres encore en service dans le reste de la région.

Le groupe Prou! compte étendre sa campagne à d'autres régions d'Espagne.

Selon l'organisation Humane Society International, 250.000 taureaux meurent chaque année dans les arènes.
Au cours du débat, les députés ont invoqué, outre le traitement cruel infligé aux animaux, la défaveur que connaissent les corridas en Espagne où les arènes sont de moins en moins fréquentées.

"Il y a certaines traditions qui ne peuvent plus être maintenues alors que la société change. Il ne faut pas tout interdire mais certaines pratiques avilissantes doivent disparaître", a dit Josep Rull, député du parti nationaliste catalan CiU.

Mais pour Rafael Luna, élu du Parti populaire (conservateur), "interdire la corrida en cette période de crise économique est une folie". Les ventes de billets en Espagne et en France représenteraient chaque année environ 100 millions d'euros.

DÉSAFFECTION
Si les corridas connaissent une certaine désaffection en Espagne, elles sont pratiquées aussi au Portugal, dans le sud de la France et dans certains pays latino-américains: Colombie, Venezuela, Pérou, Equateur et Mexique. Dans certains pays, il est illégal de tuer le taureau dans l'arène.

Dans l'arène, le torero principal, le picador et les "peones" se servent de capes, de lances et de banderilles pour fatiguer le taureau. Le matador utilise une épée pour la rituelle mise à mort.

Les îles Canaries ont été la première région espagnole à interdire la corrida, en 1991.

Aux yeux de ses adversaires, la tauromachie impose aux animaux des souffrances gratuites qui n'ont pas leur place dans une société moderne.

Pour ses partisans, le face-à-face du torero et du taureau furieux magnifie une forme d'émotion qui plonge au coeur du caractère espagnol et qu'ont célébrée des artistes et des poètes de l'envergure de Pablo Picasso ou de Federico Garcia Lorca.

Ceux qui défendent la tradition font aussi valoir qu'elle crée des milliers d'emplois et constitue un élément central de l'attrait touristique du pays.

José Tomas devait toréer cet été à Barcelone dans le cadre d'une contre-campagne mais il a dû y renoncer après avoir été grièvement blessé d'un coup de corne en avril au Mexique.

Une interdiction serait une "terrible perte", a-t-il déclaré récemment au journal La Razon. "L'idée qu'ils puissent voler une partie de ce que vous admirez le plus, et qui a une telle importance dans votre vie, c'est très dur."

Commentateurs et parlementaires assurent que le mouvement anti-corrida n'est pas lié au séparatisme en Catalogne.
Mais pour Carlos Nunez, président de la fédération des éleveurs taurins, il est intégralement politique. "Les dirigeants politiques catalans en font un prétexte pour créer une identité artificielle", a-t-il dit.

Avec Alice Tozer, Guy Kerivel pour le service français, édité par Gilles Trequesser

Catalonia bullfight ban divides Spaniards

Barcelona - When prosperous Catalonia became the first part of mainland Spain to ban bullfighting on Wednesday, it sent a powerful signal to the rest of the country.

Namely, that bullfights are not an intrinsic and untouchable part of Spanish identity, but a form of animal abuse which can be abolished.

That was the message sent out by the 135-member regional parliament when it voted to approve a ban proposed by animal rights activists.

Spain's Canary Islands had already outlawed bullfights back in 1991, as part of a more general animal protection law, but that decision had gone largely unnoticed - the Catalan move, however, has ignited discussion and divided opinion across the rest of the country.

Movie director Agustin Diaz Yanes described it as a 'cultural tragedy' whilst anti-bullfighting activists hailed it as sending 'a message of progress to humanity.'

The Catalan decision takes place against a background of increased separatist feelings in the region of 7.5 million people, after Spain's Constitutional Court trimmed its autonomy rights.

Bullfighting opponents were forced to reject claims by conservatives that Catalonia wanted to abolish corridas - the Spanish word for bullfights - because it was a symbol of Spanishness.

'We are not talking about identities here, but about very serious ethical arguments against the ill-treatment of animals,' said Jordi Portabella from the leftist separatist party ERC.

Bullfights have traditionally been regarded as an important part of Spanish culture, and more than 11,000 bulls are killed annually.

Fans say the spectacle pits the intelligence of the human being against the brute force of the beast.

Bullfighting also has an economic side to consider, with an annual turnover of nearly 1.5 billion euros (1.9 billion dollars) and gives direct or indirect employment to around 200,000 people.

However, less than 27 per cent of Spaniards were interested in bullfighting in 2006, according to one poll - down from 38 per cent in 1999.

Bullfighting had long been on the decline in Catalonia, where the capital Barcelona declared itself an 'anti-bullfight' city in 2004, and dozens of other municipalities followed suit.

Two of Barcelona's three bullrings were closed down, leaving the Monumental as Catalonia's only bullring to still stage corridas on a regular basis.

The anti-bullfighting group Prou ('Enough' in Catalan) collected 180,000 signatures to request the ban which parliament then agreed to consider.

The Catalonia debate then spread to Madrid, where in response conservative regional Prime Minister Esperanza Aguirre announced that her region would declare corridas a part of its cultural heritage.

Animal rights activists retaliated by asking the Madrid regional parliament to discuss a Catalan-style ban.

But the bullfighting question has turned out to be complex, with intellectuals and artists taking sides both for and against.

Corridas 'represent a form of spiritual and emotional nourishment as intense and enriching as a concert by Beethoven, (or) a comedy by Shakespeare,' Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa wrote.

Bullfighting inspired the likes of painter Pablo Picasso and poet Federico Garcia Lorca, he argued, describing it as a 'sign of identity' for much of the Spanish-speaking world.

Bullfighting fans also stress the healthy life of the Iberian fighting bulls, which are raised in environmentally-friendly sanctuaries measuring a total of 400,000 hectares, and which would be closed if corridas were abolished.

Animal rights campaigners, on the other hand, stress the suffering of the bull, which gets long darts pushed into its body before the matador finally kills it with a sword - often after several failed attempts.

Bulls are herbivores which prefer to flee rather than fight, philosopher Jesus Mosterin wrote.

Critics also condemn bullfights as a cowardly bloodsport which leaves the animal no chance to defend itself. Matadors do get gored, but it is very rare for them to get killed by bulls.

The controversy is expected to continue even in Catalonia, where Spain's main opposition conservative People's Party (PP) has announced possible parliamentary or legal initiatives in order to overturn the ban.

Trying to prohibit bullfights was like prohibiting football , conservative representative Juan Manuel Albendea quipped - an ominous joke in a country which has just won the football World Cup.

Wikileaks plans to release files about deadly U.S. airstrike on Afghan civilians

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer

Wikileaks.org plans to release as soon as this week documents related to a U.S. airstrike that killed Afghan civilians last year and plans to release combat footage of the incident this summer, the founder of the whistleblower site said in an interview Monday.

Julian Assange said the documents pertain to an attack near the Afghan village of Garani, which killed scores of civilians in May 2009

In April, Wikileaks released video footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that killed several civilians, including two employees of the Reuters news service. The release catapulted Wikileaks into global headlines and sparked debate over a site that aims to uncover government and corporate secrets.

Assange said Wikileaks does not try to identify sources. He also said he did not know whether Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, was the source. Manning reportedly claimed to have given the Garani and the Iraq videos to Wikileaks.

"We don't verify sources," Assange said. "We verify documents."

Wikileaks has nonetheless secured three American lawyers, pro bono, to help Manning, 22, who is being held in Kuwait for allegedly leaking classified videos and documents to the whistleblower site. Daniel Schmitt, a spokesman for the group, said those lawyers have not had access to Manning.

"We seem to be stuck at a very early stage, which is that only lawyers representing Mr. Manning are allowed to contact him, but only Mr. Manning could tell what lawyers do represent him," Schmitt said, calling the situation "a bit like a catch-22."

Manning has been assigned a lawyer with the Judge Advocate General Corps, Capt. Paul Bouchard. An Army spokesman said he was unaware whether Manning had retained civilian counsel.

Under law, a service member's detention must be upheld by a military magistrate. The service member may be held as long as an investigation is pending but must be charged within a "reasonable" time, depending on the complexity of the investigation, according to Lt. Col. Chris Carrier, an attorney for the Army Judge Advocate General Corps in Washington

Assange, in his first public appearance since Manning's arrest, voiced concern about Manning's detention without charge and without access to a private lawyer. At a European Parliament panel in Brussels, the Wikileaks founder also took questions about his own security.

His whereabouts had been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks -- he canceled two appearances in the United States -- amid reports suggesting that U.S. authorities were seeking his arrest. Assange said that there had been "uncertainty for a period" but that intermediaries have indicated he is not the target of any manhunt.
The Army has said it is investigating Manning but has not detailed the files that might have been leaked. A former hacker who struck up an online correspondence with Manning has said he turned Manning in to authorities after the 22-year-old confided in him that he had shared sensitive videos and hundreds of thousands of State Department cables with Wikileaks.

Assange said that "as far as we can determine," Wikileaks does not have those cables. "We have tried hard to understand whether we have that material," he said.

According to U.S. officials, the cables Manning purportedly leaked would amount to about half a year's worth. The cables would include political reporting, much of which would probably be fairly innocuous. But State Department officials have expressed concerned about the disclosure of sources, which could be embarrassing or could chill normal diplomatic relations.

Manning's case is but the latest instance in which the government has investigated alleged leakers or whistleblowers. Still, prosecutions in leaking cases are rare.

Schmitt, the Wikileaks spokesman, referred to a challenge for leakers: the difficulty of remaining anonymous. Manning, for instance, was said to have been detained after detailing his actions to a relative stranger, Adrian Lamo, whom he met online.

Said Schmitt: "From a human perspective, it is very difficult for any of our potential sources, if you're contributing to exposing something that is unjust or corrupt . . . you're the only one who is taking any risk in the whole story and you're not paid by anyone, not getting covered, not getting famous for breaking the scoop."

Staff writer Glenn Kessler contributed to this report.

New autopsy for Egypt 'police beating victim'

Activists marched in Egyptian cities to demand a new probe into the death

A second autopsy has been ordered for a young man who human rights activists claim was killed by police in Egypt.

Khaled Said, 28, died on 6 June after plainclothes policemen reportedly tried to search him in an Alexandria cafe.

His family and campaigners claim he was dragged out and beaten to death on a busy street in full view of passersby. His death led to angry demonstrations.

Egypt's interior ministry said Mr Said died after swallowing a bag of drugs when police tried to arrest him.

Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud transferred the case to Egypt's most senior coroners on Tuesday.

 

Street protests

The United States expressed concern over the death in the northern port city, and Washington welcomed Cairo's decision to launch an investigation.

"We urge the Egyptian authorities to hold accountable whoever is responsible," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Campaigners took to the streets of Alexandria and Cairo to demand a fresh investigation after the interior ministry said Mr Said died after swallowing drugs.

Photos of Mr Said's battered face have been circulated in Egypt by human rights activists.

They say his death is evidence that Egypt's emergency law has created a culture of police impunity.

The law, which has been in place for nearly 30 years since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat by an Islamic militant, was recently renewed for a further two years.

Egypt's parliament has said that new legal limits would be introduced, guaranteeing that the law would be used only to counter terrorism and trade in illegal drugs.

But the government's political opponents also claim the legislation is used to target them in the name of national security.

India police say Maoists sabotage train, 65 killed

Maoist rebels sabotaged a high-speed train in eastern India on Friday that killed at least 65 people after it derailed and smashed into the path of a goods train, a top Indian police official said.

At least 200 people were injured and the death toll could rise as rescuers continue to free passengers trapped in the wreckage.

"This has been done by the Maoists," Bhupinder Singh, police chief of West Bengal state where the incident occurred, told reporters. Singh said the Maoists had claimed responsibility.

The incident will put further pressure on the Congress party-led government to bring in the military to tackle a four-decade-long Maoists insurgency that has spread across much of rural swathes of eastern and central India.

The crash occurred in an area known to be a stronghold of the rebels. Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of the poor and landless and want to overthrow the government, have stepped up attacks in recent months.
"It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear," Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in a statement.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said a bomb had hit the passenger train, derailing it.

"As of now we have got information that 65 dead bodies have been recovered. There may be many more," Samar Ghosh, Home Secretary of West Bengal state, told NDTV news channel.

The Gyaneshwari Express, which was going to Mumbai from the eastern metropolis of Kolkata in West Bengal state, was derailed in the state's Jhargram area at around 1:30 a.m. (9 p.m. British time on Thursday).

"The cries of women and children from inside the compartments have died down. They (railway staff) are still struggling to cut through metal and bring out those trapped inside," Amitava Rath, a local journalist at the scene of the crash, told Reuters.

The incident comes days after a passenger airliner crashed in southern India, killing 158 people.

The Maoists have increased attacks this year. In April, 76 police were killed in an ambush in one of the heaviest tolls in years. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the insurgency as India's biggest internal security challenge.

More than 1,000 attacks were recorded in 2009 and 600 people were killed. The Maoists regularly attack railway lines and factories, aiming to cripple economic activity.

The insurgency has created a sense that India is not fully in control of its territories and increased the risks for mining firms that operate mineral-rich areas controlled by rebels.

Work on a $7-billion steel plant by India's third largest steel producer, JSW Steel Ltd, has been delayed. Frequent rebel strikes have hit production and shipment at firms such as India's largest miner of iron ore, NMDC Ltd's and state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd.

The Maoists have won some support by siding with villagers battling land seizures by large companies and their attacks are a major distraction for a government wanting to get on with its economic agenda, including fighting high food prices.

"The government will have to react strongly and there has to be a well thought-out strategy, but I don't see that happening now. It will be usual posturing and if that happens the situation can get worse," said security analyst Uday Bhaskar.

The Maoists started their struggle in 1967 with a peasant revolt, armed with bows and arrows and some stolen rifles, but have since grown to a militant insurgency armed with automatic weapons, shoulder rocket launchers, mines and explosives.

The rebels, with an estimated 20,000 combatants, including 6,000-8,000 hardcore fighters, aim to overthrow the government by 2050, say Indian officials.

In March, police suspected their hand in the derailment of India's most prestigious high-speed Rajdhani Express. Maoists have also taken over trains in past years in a show of strength, holding them for hours.

The decades-old movement is now present in a third of the country. They are mostly spread in rural pockets of 20 of India's 28 states and hurt potential business worth billions of dollars.

DR Congo: Lord’s Resistance Army Rampage Kills 321

Regional Strategy Needed to End Rebel Group’s Atrocities and Apprehend Leaders

This 37-year-old man from Bangadi was attacked by the LRA on January 24, 2010, when he risked going to his banana and sugarcane farm 2km outside of town. A group of LRA found him there and shot him twice – both bullets grazed his back and neck. An LRA then grabbed him by the ankles, shook him to see if he was really dead, and cut him by machete just below the neck and lower down on his back, leaving him unconscious. When he came to, he eventually found his brother who had also been shot by the LRA. Covered in blood, they made it to a Congolese army position and found soldiers who took them by bicycle to a health center.

© 2010 Human Rights Watch

Women mutilated by the LRA near Bangadi in December 2009. An LRA combatant cut each victim’s lips and an ear with a razor and sent the victim’s back to their villages with a chilling warning to others that anyone who heard or spoke about the LRA would be similarly punished.

© 2010 Béatrice Petit

Trail of Death

The Makombo massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA in its bloody 23-year history, yet it has gone unreported for months. The four-day rampage demonstrates that the LRA remains a serious threat to civilians and is not a spent force, as the Ugandan and Congolese governments claim.

Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher

(Kampala) - The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) killed at least 321 civilians and abducted 250 others, including at least 80 children, during a previously unreported four-day rampage in the Makombo area of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo in December, 2009, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

"The Makombo massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA in its bloody 23-year history, yet it has gone unreported for months," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The four-day rampage demonstrates that the LRA remains a serious threat to civilians and is not a spent force, as the Ugandan and Congolese governments claim."

The 67-page report, "Trail of Death: LRA Atrocities in Northeastern Congo," is the first detailed documentation of the Makombo massacre and other atrocities by the LRA in Congo in 2009 and early 2010. The report, based on a Human Rights Watch fact-finding mission to the massacre area in February, documents the brutal killings during the well-planned LRA attack from December 14 to 17 in the remote Makombo area of Haute Uele district.

LRA forces attacked at least 10 villages, capturing, killing, and abducting hundreds of civilians, including women and children. The vast majority of those killed were adult men, whom LRA combatants first tied up and then hacked to death with machetes or crushed their skulls with axes and heavy wooden sticks. The dead include at least 13 women and 23 children, the youngest a 3-year-old girl who was burned to death. LRA combatants tied some of the victims to trees before crushing their skulls with axes.

The LRA also killed those they abducted who walked too slowly or tried to escape. Family members and local authorities later found bodies all along the LRA's 105-kilometer journey through the Makombo area and the small town of Tapili. Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that for days and weeks after the attack, this vast area was filled with the "stench of death."

Children and adults who managed to escape provided similar accounts of the group's extreme brutality. Many of the children captured by the LRA were forced to kill other children who had disobeyed the LRA's rules. In numerous cases documented by Human Rights Watch, children were ordered to surround the victim in a circle and take turns beating the child on the head with a large wooden stick until the child died.

The United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Congo (MONUC) has some 1,000 peacekeeping troops in the LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo - far too few to protect the population adequately, given the area's size.  Yet instead of sending more troops, the peacekeeping force, under pressure from the Congolese government to withdraw from the country by July 2011, is considering removing some troops from the northeast by June in the first phase of its drawdown.

"The people of northeastern Congo are in desperate need of more protection, not less," said Van Woudenberg. "The UN Security Council should stop any drawdown of MONUC peacekeeping troops from areas where the LRA threatens to kill and abduct civilians."

In mid-April, the Security Council is due to visit Congo to discuss the peacekeeping force's   plans for withdrawal and the protection of civilians.
The Makombo massacre is part of a longstanding history of atrocities and abuse by the LRA in Uganda, southern Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Congo. Pushed out of northern Uganda in 2005, the LRA now operates in the remote border area between southern Sudan, Congo, and CAR. In July 2005, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the senior leaders of the LRA for crimes they committed in northern Uganda, but those indicted remain at large.

The Human Rights Watch research indicated that the Makombo massacre was perpetrated by two LRA commanders - Lt. Col. Binansio Okumu (also known as Binany) and a commander known as Obol. They report to Gen. Dominic Ongwen, a senior LRA leader who is believed to command the LRA's forces in Congo and who is among those sought by the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch urged investigations of these commanders' alleged participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In December 2008, the governments of the region, led by the Ugandan armed forces, with intelligence and logistical support from the United States, began a military campaign known as Operation Lightning Thunder against the LRA in northeastern Congo. A surprise aerial strike on the main LRA camp failed to neutralize the LRA leadership, which escaped. In retaliation, the LRA attacked villages and towns in northern Congo and southern Sudan, killing more than 865 civilians during the Christmas 2008 holiday season and in the weeks thereafter.

On March 15, 2009, Operation Lightning Thunder officially ended, following pressure from the Congolese government, which found it politically difficult to support a continued Ugandan army presence on Congolese territory. But a covert joint military campaign continued, with the quiet approval of the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila. Both governments publicly maintain that the LRA is no longer a serious threat in Congo and that the bulk of the rebel group has either moved to Central African Republic or has been killed or dispersed.

These public declarations might have contributed to burying information about ongoing LRA attacks, leaving many victims feeling abandoned. An 80-year-old traditional chief, whose son was killed during the Makombo massacre, told Human Rights Watch: "We have been forgotten. It's as if we don't exist. The government says the LRA are no longer a problem, but I know that's not true. I beg of you, please talk to others about what has happened to us."

While the Makombo massacre is the most deadly documented attack by the LRA since the Christmas massacres of 2008, dozens of attacks against civilians have also been carried out in other areas in recent months - near the towns of Bangadi and Ngilima in Haut Uele district, in Ango territory in Bas Uele district, as well as in the Central African Republic.

In the December 2009 attacks near Bangadi and Ngilima, LRA combatants horribly mutilated six civilians, cutting off each victim's lips and an ear with a razor. The LRA sent the victims back to their villages with a chilling warning to others that anyone who heard or spoke about the LRA would be similarly punished.

On March 11, 2010, the US Senate unanimously passed the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. If it becomes law, it will require President Barack Obama's administration to develop a regional strategy to protect civilians in central Africa from attacks by the LRA, to work to apprehend the LRA's leadership, and to support economic recovery for northern Uganda. The bill is currently before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"The people of northeastern Congo and other LRA-affected areas have suffered for far too long," said Van Woudenberg. "The US and other concerned governments should work with the UN and regional parties to develop and carry out a comprehensive strategy to protect civilians and apprehend abusive LRA leaders."