The Democratic Republic of Congo has dropped its objections to a United Nations inquiry into mass killings, allowing investigators in the West African nation to go ahead with their work, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.
“The foreign minister . . . Bizima Karaha informed the secretary general (Kofi Annan) by phone that the UN human rights investigative team in Congo can begin its work,” said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard.
“The objections raised in a letter (to Anan) signed by two government ministers have been dropped,” said Eckhard, adding that the UN is awaiting written confirmation but that the inquiry team is preparing for an immediate resumption of work.
The 23-member panel of human rights and forensic experts, already delayed several months by previous objections and demands by Kinshasa authorities, arrived Aug. 24 in the former Zaire to probe the alleged massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees.
The government of President Laurent Kabila then called for the suspension of the investigation and last week set new conditions. Aid officials and local human rights groups believe that thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees were massacred by Kabila’s troops and Rwandan Tutsi backers during the 1996 military campaign that deposed strongman Mobutu Sese Seko.
