UN finds 38 bodies in mass grave in Kisangani

A UN team has found 38 human corpses buried in a mass grave in Kisangani, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a senior UN official told IRIN on Friday. "The remains of another body were found in a separate area, but the other 38 were found in a mass grave," said Amos Namanga Ngongi, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General to the DRC. Ngongi also head the UN peacekeeping mission to the country, known as MONUC. He added that preliminary tests had shown that the corpses were buried between 1994 and 2001. Experts would release further details to UN headquarters in Geneva, as they obtained additional information. Since 1992 Kisangani - previously a seat of government - has passed through the hands of many different armies, including those of the late President Mobutu Sese Seko, of Rwanda, those of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie and Mayi-Mayi militia.