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HAL9000 BUNIA, Congo - For six days, two terrified United Nations military observers phoned their superiors - as many as four times a day - begging to be evacuated from their remote outpost in northeastern Congo. They were alone and unarmed in Mongbwalu, a former gold-mining town ruled by the cannibalistic Lendu tribal militias. But the United Nations, handcuffed by its own rules and bureaucracy, never sent a chopper. On May 18, 10 days after the two peacekeepers made their first distress call, the United Nations finally flew some armed peacekeepers to Mongbwalu. Their decomposed corpses had been tossed into a canal and covered with dirt, according to those who saw the bodies. Their stomachs were split open and their hearts and livers were missing. The murders laid bare the challenge of bringing peace to one of the world's complex and resilient wars and exposed the limits of the United Nation's efforts to do so. Now, its critics charge, it's also partly responsible for the deaths of the two observers. After the killings, the United Nations pulled out all its military observers and sent them to Bunia, Ituri's largest town. Now little is known about what happens even a few miles outside Bunia. Aid workers and human rights observers fear that vast human rights abuses are taking place across Ituri province. MONUC is "a long, bad story," said Francois Grignon, the Central Africa director for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research agency. In fact, they said, only luck prevented tribal fighters from butchering more helpless military observers trapped in other remote areas. All five spoke on condition of anonymity because they worried about the repercussions they could face from the United Nations and their own countries. The Russian and Ukrainian pilots were afraid to fly there, and the United Nations didn't want to put their lives at risk, Vollot said. It also was unclear which Lendu militia was in charge of the town, he said. So his soldiers had to wait for clearance from the Lendu chief, and only MONUC headquarters in Kinshasa, the capital, could authorize a rescue operation. The question in many minds is this: Why were the observers sent in the first place? For years, Mongbwalu was a volatile, violent place in the most volatile, violent province of Congo. Six Red Cross workers were brutally murdered in Ituri in 2001. Neither Oran nor Banda spoke French, Swahili or any local language. He had little experience in Africa, let alone in a complex conflict such as Congo where military allegiances often switch day to day, said those who knew him. It was not prudent for two milobs (military observers) to be sent with no force protection to a place which was known to be violent for years," said Nigel Pearson, the medical coordinator in Bunia for Medair, a relief agency. Several were sent in teams of four to other remote parts of Ituri at the same time as Oran and Banda in April. They were urged to go quickly with little preparation, they said. And after they arrived they received little attention from MONUC officials, they said. The Ugandan army, which occupied the province, was leaving in accordance with a multinational peace pact. With the Ugandans gone, clashes between Hema and Lendu militias had broken out all over the province. But it was unclear who was responsible for the observers. For the next four days, phone calls were exchanged among Kisangani, Bunia and Kinshasa about getting clearance to evacuate Oran and Banda. Some ended up escaping on their own across the Ugandan border. Lendu militias intimidated other observers for days and accused them of spying for the Hemas. In one instance, an observer had a gun pointed at his head. Armed fighters surrounded other observers, threatening to kill them. The last telephone call from Oran and Banda was on May 13. That was the day the United Nations believes they were killed. On Wednesday, MONUC held a memorial service for Oran and Banda in Kinshasa. Security Council, who are here on a fact-finding mission, attended the ceremony.
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