Former captives tell of Mayi-Mayi ordeal

Chomphoo Sanjan is a skilled woodcutter, with over 25 years’ experience in his native Kalasin Province in Thailand. Last year, he found himself selling those skills in war-torn eastern DRC, hopeful that he would be able to improve life for his wife and four children in Thailand by working as an expatriate with the Thai-owned Dara Forest Company in Butembo, North Kivu. On 16 May, Sanjan was among 26 foreign nationals - 24 Thais, a Kenyan and a Swede - captured by Congolese Mayi-Mayi tribal militia at Mangina in eastern DRC. The Swede and seven of the Thais were released in June. Sanjan and the others captives were not released until 29 July, and then only after the intervention of Francois Lumumba (eldest son of the late Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the first Congolese government after independence), facilitated by local mediators from the Christian Relief Network. In the Ugandan capital, Kampala, they told IRIN of their capture and confinement by the Mayi-Mayi. They described how the militiamen made them walk long distances from camp to militia camp, sometimes without food and water, and occasionally beat them severely. They were often threatened with death in the event of their captors’ demands not being met, they added. The Mayi-Mayi were armed with guns, bows and arrows when they raided the loggers’ camp, said Arnold Paencsri, one of the former captives. They told all the Congolese workers at the company’s factory to remain behind, while ordering the foreigners to board two trucks. “Their first demand was that our company pay US $1 million for each of us, but this was not possible. They then demanded the whereabouts and telephone contacts of Francois Lumumba,” said Boonmee Boadok, one of the Thais. They said they were seeking international recognition as a legitimate rebel group, and wanted Francois Lumumba as their leader - although there was no indication that he had any contact with them. “We don’t think his intervention was because he is leader of the Mayi-Mayi. He acted on humanitarian grounds, because the Mayi-Mayi demanded [his involvement]... He had to consult with other governments as well,” said one of the former captives. “They said they had come for us because they had read the UN report [by an expert panel on the illegal exploitation of the DRC’s resources], which says our company was looting Congo resources,” said Aman, 52, the Kenyan, who has been a driver for different companies on the Congo-Mombasa trade route since 1961. According to the managing director of Dara Forest Company, John Supit Kotiram, and its general manager, Jaek Chatchai Chanyuttasart, the company is legally registered to export timber from the Congo. Kotiram told IRIN that his company had become operational in Butembo in August 1998, under a concession for about 35,000 hectares of forest issued by rebel leaders in control of North Kivu Province. The loggers said the Mayi-Mayi transferred them to several different camps (at Mangina, Bulongo, Mahalako and the militia’s headquarters at Vurondo (in Butembo), among other places) to avert any attempt to rescue them. “We kept sending messages through the priests at Vurondo that we would be killed if the FLC [Front pour la liberation du Congo] or Ugandan forces tried to use force,” said Srienchai Lukboa. The Mayi-Mayi were furious at not having been recognised under the Lusaka Peace Agreement on the DRC as a genuine Congolese grouping, and also because Ugandan and Rwandan forces continued to occupy eastern Congo, the workers said. In most of the camps, there were child soldiers as young as seven, known as “kadogos” (little ones), they said, adding that the Mayi-Mayi were equipped with satellite phones, and that there were doctors working in the camps, which were well supplied with medicines. Six of the Thais said they had received treatment at a well-equipped medical centre in Vurondo. Each Mayi-Mayi militiaman - who was usually armed with spears, bows and arrows - was taken through a traditional ritual to ensure he was “protected” from bullet wounds, the Thais said. The ritual involved slashing foreheads, ankles and wrists with razors, then rubbing traditional herbs believed to have special powers into the incisions. The Mayi-Mayi told their captives that constant power wrangles within the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) and subsequently within the FLC [led by Jean-Pierre Bemba since the contentious merger of the RCD-Kisangani and his Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC] had shown that neither of them were concerned for the liberation of Congo. “They think that it is Uganda and Rwanda fuelling confusion in eastern Congo,” one of the loggers said. They told of young Mayi-Mayi recruits - reported to have joined in droves over the last four months, accusing the FLC of betrayal of a reconciliation agreement with the Mayi-Mayi - being taken for military drills every evening. They sang revolutionary songs against foreign aggression and the “politics of exclusion” practised by fellow Congolese rebels, the workers said. “They said if [FLC leader Jean-Pierre] Bemba tried to fight them again, they would transfer us deep into the forest or kill us. They said they decided to go back to the bush because the FLC forces attacked them after signing an agreement to work together for peace in the region,” according to Aman. The agreement referred to, between the FLC and Forces d’Autodefense Populaire (FAP/Mayi-Mayi), was signed on 21 March and endorsed by Brigade Raisonneur Lafontaine for the FAP/Mayi-Mayi, according to military sources. The deal was supposed to cover Brigade Karisimbi represented by Kambale Maghulu, Brigade Rwenzori by Kiyungu, Brigade Vurondo by Kambale Tsongo, Brigade Rwenzori/Lubwe by Lakule Vulendi and Brigade Mabanga by Sadamu Mindule, they said. The Ugandan army, religious leaders, traditional chiefs and civil society representatives witnessed the signing of the agreement. It provided for an extension of Bemba’s powers extended to cover North Kivu areas occupied by the Mayi-Mayi, where some sections of the armed militias had been battling against the presence of the Ugandan army. The March agreement also pointed out that, since it was difficult to know who was genuinely Mayi-Mayi (the militias have loose structures and alliances), it was a collective responsibility of all signatories to help in sorting out the confusion in the region. At the meetings leading up to the agreement, it was agreed that the Mayi-Mayi “special division” was to comprise no member under 17 years of age, with those below that age to be handed over to UNICEF for counselling, and reintegration into civilian life. However, since the March agreement has collapsed, and the FLC is embroiled in a power struggle between Bemba and Mbusa Nyamwisi of the RCD-Kisangani (nominally a constituent element of the FLC), the Mayi-Mayi have become disillusioned and gone back to the bush, according to Ugandan military sources.