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Twisted Avatar | 02-14-2009 01:08 PM
Congo town mounts own defense against rebels 1 Attachment(s) BANGADI, Congo – Rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army sent torture victims — including a man whose back was sliced with a machete — to warn the people of this Congolese town they would be next. The town's three policemen fled and there was no response from the military and U.N. peacekeepers to the increasingly panicked pleas for help. That's when residents realized they were on their own. "We were sending warnings and begging for help practically every day for two weeks. And nothing happened," said community leader Nicolas Akoyo Efudha. "We finally understood that we were abandoned — in danger and without protection." So Akoyo called a town meeting and told everyone to bring whatever weapons they had: pre-World War II rifles, homemade shotguns, lances, swords, machetes, hunting knives, bows with sheaths of poisoned arrows. The women came armed with kitchen knives and log-sized wooden pestles used to pound yams into flour. Since then, the residents of Bangadi have successfully driven off two attacks by the Ugandan rebels, who have killed at least 900 people in this remote northeastern corner of Congo over the past seven weeks. News of Bangadi's success — and the lack of military protection — have spurred hundreds of villages to form self-defense groups, according to Avril Benoit, a spokeswoman for Medecins Sans Frontieres. The ragtag groups are filling a security vacuum as Congo tries to recover from back-to-back civil wars that devastated the Central African nation over nearly a decade. Aid workers and human rights activists are watching the phenomenon with trepidation. In a part of Congo with dozens of militias and rebels, they fear these self-defense groups could transform into a menacing force. (NOW ISNT THAT SOME @#$%^&* ?!!) Congo's army, cobbled together from various rebel groups and the defeated troops of ousted dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, has never been cohesive and has suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the rebels. The United Nations has 17,000 peacekeepers in Congo, but it has been largely ineffective in a country more than twice the size of California and Texas combined. The Lord's Resistance Army has been waging an insurgency in northern Uganda for more than 20 years, and the conflict spilled over into Congo about five years ago. Before dawn on Oct. 19, Bangadi became the rebels' target. They descended first on the former abbey on the outskirts of town, killing its residents. But as the fighters tried to advance, they were surprised by more than a half-dozen ambushes by residents armed with makeshift weapons, some hiding in ditches. Before the rebels reached the central market, they had been defeated and took flight. Akoyo said residents counted 43 rebels who came into town. Seven got away and the rest were killed, he said. The civilian toll was 16 dead. Today, the abbey is abandoned. Survivors, along with thousands of people from surrounding villages, are camped in Bangadi; its population has exploded from 15,000 to 35,000. About 20 miles outside Bangadi, lies evidence of what happens when there is no one to resist an attack by the Lord's Resistance Army: More than a mile of huts along a dirt track have been burned to the ground. For months after the October attack, the rebels steered clear of Bangadi. Then, after a combined military operation by forces from Congo, Uganda and Sudan began in December, aid groups say the rebels began massacring civilians in retaliation. In coordinated attacks on three towns, the rebels killed hundreds of people in just three days, according to aid workers and the U.N. More than 900 have been killed since Christmas in the region of Haut-Uele, in northeast Congo. Bangadi residents were particularly alarmed by the story told by the sole survivor of a massacre in a village where rebels locked people into the church, Akoyo said. The rebels saved their bullets and brought the victims out two by two. Some were bludgeoned to death while others had their throats slit with machetes, said the man, who escaped death because he was busy in his field and arrived at the church service late. Last month, maimed victims of rebel attacks began arriving again in Bangadi. Again, residents sent out urgent calls for help, using the town's sole satellite phone and its high-frequency radio. There had been no response by Jan. 22, when the rebels struck Bangadi for a second time. By then, the self-defense group had swelled to 350, including Teke Mbanga, a 20-year-old refugee from Kana village whose parents, 13 siblings and other family members were slaughtered by the rebels. The townspeople chased the rebels out, pursuing them for more than a half-mile until they disappeared into the savannah. There were no civilian casualties and the group even managed to rescue six abducted people. One man bragged of skinning one of the rebels. Asked if he was alive at the time, he looked sheepishly away. "It was the people's anger that led to this revenge. We had the bodies of our families scattered about us," said the man, who didn't want his name used for fear of rebel reprisals. The rebel's body was burned in a public ceremony in the middle of the main road; the site has been marked with a pile of stones topped by a red cross. On Jan. 24, the army finally sent troops: 175 soldiers came to Bangadi. Their presence is more of a worry than a reassurance, said Akoyo: The soldiers' rations have run out and they haven't been paid. There's little food at the market because people fear going to their fields. Nearly every day, there are reports of rebel attacks on surrounding villages from refugees who continue to stream in. "This is a dangerous situation," Akoyo said. "They haven't started yet, but soon, if they don't get provisioned, they'll start requisitioning the little food we have." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090212/...ngo_brave_town Moral of the story: When the time comes no matter the odds. STAND AND FIGHT

Silver Shield | 02-14-2009 02:04 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Stand and Fight.... Mass graves are full of those who did not.

Mantokir | 02-14-2009 07:11 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Quote:
In a part of Congo with dozens of militias and rebels, they fear these self-defense groups could transform into a menacing force. (NOW ISNT THAT SOME @#$%^&* ?!!)
Wouldn't it be a good idea for a self defense group to be a menacing force?

Twisted Avatar | 02-14-2009 08:28 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantokir (Post 1570550) Wouldn't it be a good idea for a self defense group to be a menacing force?
No because when they become 'menacing" it really means that they have the abilty to determine their own DESTINY free of the yoke of any governing body (after all THEY LEFT THEM TO DIE DID THEY NOT??) Something like that can be touch stone and it was (as many locals started to rally around the one village that stood there ground) You also notice what happened...... The invaders got MASSACRED. Why? Because they did not expect a fight....... it was expected to be the same here as it was in other villages: Rape,muder and pillage run amok But instead they came face to face with there worst nightmare. PEOPLE THAT UNDERSTOOD THAT THEY HAD NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE. They fought like the Devil had possesed them. Indeed he had. You Mark my words : THE VERY SAME WILL HAPPEN HERE AND I PRAY TO GOD THAT I LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE THE DAY WHEN THE FEARMONGER BECOMES THE FEARFUL. T

phideaux | 02-14-2009 08:36 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Coming soon to a neighborhood (hopefully not) near you, soon. The part about the cops getting out of Dodge and leaving the citizens to fend for themselves.

Twisted Avatar | 02-14-2009 08:41 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Quote:
Originally Posted by phideaux (Post 1570639) Coming soon to a neighborhood (hopefully not) near you, soon. The part about the cops getting out of Dodge and leaving the citizens to fend for themselves.
Note the last line: Their presence is more of a worry than a reassurance. When they were needed to "protect and serve" they all made the choice to haul @$$ now that all the blood and guts are finished and the people have stablished themselves they show like bunch of Jonny come latelys. I swear if was at the Village I would have turned them away at the gates (not before I stripped them of there guns and supplies) and set them back into the jungle. Good for nothing scallywags. T

Ag_man | 02-14-2009 09:12 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Quote:
One man bragged of skinning one of the rebels. Asked if he was alive at the time, he looked sheepishly away.
And this little gem is from one of the "good guys". Prima facie evidence why the West needs to get the hell out of Africa. Let them eat/skin/butcher each other.

aybesee123 | 02-15-2009 05:14 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Quote:
Originally Posted by Ag_man (Post 1570681) And this little gem is from one of the "good guys". Prima facie evidence why the West needs to get the hell out of Africa. Let them eat/skin/butcher each other.
In all fairness you should include the mans response: One man bragged of skinning one of the rebels. Asked if he was alive at the time, he looked sheepishly away. "It was the people's anger that led to this revenge. We had the bodies of our families scattered about us," said the man, who didn't want his name used for fear of rebel reprisals. When your family is lying around you dead I think civility towards the culprits goes out the window.

UncaScrooge | 02-15-2009 05:25 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels I've never skinned anyone alive yet, but can understand the above fellow's motivation if he did it. Who knows? In a similar circumstance, I might be inspired to "learn" how to do the same and more... like let him live and get back to his buddies so they can see what to expect next time they come by.

Twisted Avatar | 02-16-2009 10:24 PM
Re: Congo town mounts own defense against rebels Quote:
Originally Posted by UncaScrooge (Post 1571812) I've never skinned anyone alive yet, but can understand the above fellow's motivation if he did it. Who knows? In a similar circumstance, I might be inspired to "learn" how to do the same and more... like let him live and get back to his buddies so they can see what to expect next time they come by.
Yep, Slaughter the platoon but let one go back to tell tale make sure they have a nice "calling card' on them. T

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