by Kambale Musavuli on Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 3:21am
In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, told the UN's Indigenous People's Forum that during the Congo Civil War, his people were hunted down and eaten as though they were game animals. In neighbouring North Kivu province there has been cannibalism by a group known as Les Effaceurs ("the erasers") who wanted to clear the land of people to open it up for mineral exploitation. Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman" and some say their flesh can confer magical powers. Makelo asked the UN Security Council to recognise cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide. According to Minority Rights Group International there is extensive evidence of mass killings, cannibalism and rape of Pygmies and have urged the International Criminal Court to investigate a campaign of extermination against pygmies. Although they have been targeted by virtually all the armed groups, much of the violence against Pygmies is attributed to the rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, which is part of the transitional government and still controls much of the north, and their allies (RCD-Goma - Rwandan backed rebel groups, and Ugandan soldiers).
Pygmies struggle to survive in war zone where abuse is routine
A threatened people are taken advantage of by everyone
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece
DR Congo pygmies 'exterminated'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm
DR Congo pygmies appeal to UN
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