By Daniel Wallis
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan troops fighting rebels in aremote area are killing and torturing civilians in a conflictthat has worsened sharply this year but has barely been noticedby the outside world, a medical charity said on Tuesday.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said an offensive againstrebels in the remote Mount Elgon region that began in March hadbeen accompanied by a steep rise in violence against civiliansalready traumatised by months of fighting.
"In particular, indiscriminate violence is being usedagainst local men, including systematic torture andextra-judicial killings, which has reinforced their fear andterror," it said in a report.
"MSF's medical teams in Mount Elgon have witnessed andtreated the injuries," it added.
Local activists have also accused soldiers of torturingthousands of people as they hunt the illegal Sabaot DefenceLand Force (SDLF) in caves, forests and hamlets across thelong-troubled area bordering Uganda.
The security forces have denied any wrongdoing. Last week,the defence minister and top military officials met aparliamentary committee to deny the allegations in private.
The violence predates the turmoil that followed December'sdisputed election, but shares many of its root causes -- landdisputes, ethnic rivalries and the neglect of outlying areas.
About 600 people have died and 60,000 have been displacedsince the SDLF took up arms in mid-2006 to fight for territoryit says was stolen from the local Soy community.
CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE
During operations, MSF said, the army sealed off wholevillages before taking men to screening camps, where manyreported being humiliated and tortured.
"Most men tell how their testicles were pulled or beaten,and how they now fear infertility," the report said. "In someplaces, up to 50 percent say they can no longer haveerections."
Women reported being gang-raped by soldiers.
But locals also accused the SDLF -- locally dubbed theJanjaweed after Darfur's rebels -- of widespread abuses.
One woman told MSF the militiamen began demanding taxes andextracting "fines" from her village in April 2006. "Graduallythey were more brutal. They took five or more people a day andkilled them in the mountains, even young children," she said.
"If they saw a man drunk in the street, that meant the manhad money so he had to pay an immediate fine. If you didn'thave the money, your ear was chopped off. If you resisted, itwas your neck."
When her brother-in-law fought back, he was decapitated andhis body dumped in a pit latrine, she said.
"Both Kenyan authorities and the international communityremain in denial or have chosen to ignore the crisis," MSFsaid. "The sole response given by the Kenyan authorities up tonow has been more violence."
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
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