By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo hasbanned a shadowy separatist sect following a three-week policeoffensive against its western strongholds which United Nationsinvestigators say killed dozens of people.
President Joseph Kabila's government revoked authorisationfor the ethnic-based religious and political sect Bundu diaKongo (BDK) late on Friday following a special cabinet meetingheld in Matadi, capital of western Bas-Congo province.
From spiritual bases in Bas-Congo, BDK has waged a campaignfor reestablishment of the pre-colonial Kongo kingdom in partsof Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Angola andGabon. Authorities accuse its members of violent protests andexecutions carried out in the name of popular justice.
The government revoked a ministry of social affairs permitallowing BDK to operate as a social and cultural organisation.
"Taking into account their behaviour, that they have notbuilt schools, that they don't have a social activity, it wastime to repeal this authorisation," Godefroid Mayobo, specialminister at the prime minister's office, said.
Since late February, heavily armed police have sweptthrough the Congo River port of Matadi and other Bas-Congotowns and villages, destroying BDK bases and hunting down itsmilitants.
The government is sticking by a death toll of 22 killedgiven by authorities. It denies allegations by local witnessesof indiscriminate killings, abuses and torching of homes.
Preliminary internal reports by United Nationsinvestigators, seen by Reuters but not yet officially madepublic, say at least 68 people were killed in the governmentcrackdown and indicate the final toll could be higher.
The investigators said at least 215 people, families whofled when their homes were burned, were still unaccounted for.
President Kabila's government has justified the latestanti-BDK offensive as helping to restore state authority acrossthe vast, mineral-rich former Belgian colony, which stillsuffers from the depredations of eastern rebels and militias.
WOUNDED HIDING IN THE BUSH
But the latest crackdown in Bas-Congo comes a year after asimilar anti-BDK offensive that killed over 100 people. It hasembarrassed the stretched U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congowhich took nearly a week to send peacekeepers to the province.
The U.N. mission and the European Union have urged thegovernment not to use excessive and unnecessary force againstthe BDK, whose militants possess few firearms, but rather usemachetes and believe magical powers will protect them.
The BDK's leader, Ne Muanda Nsemi, is a deputy in Congo'sNational Assembly and as such has immunity from prosecution.
But Mayobo said the parliament was likely to considerlifting that immunity. "He will surely be under examination asa result of these recently committed acts," he added.
Reached by telephone on Saturday, Nsemi declined to commenton the ban against his organisation.
Medical workers in Bas-Congo said many of those wounded inthe government anti-BDK offensive fled from hospitals fearingthey would be arrested by police as suspected sympathisers.
The Belgian chapter of medical charity Medecins SansFrontieres (MSF) said it feared many injured people were hidingout in the bush. "It's very difficult to give figures for thenumber of victims, because they are today out of reach," saidMSF's coordinator in Bas-Congo, Philippe Havet.
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(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Philippa Fletcher)
