Missionaries denounce UN report on Congo war

December 02, 2009

The Xaverian Missionaries have denounced a UN report that alleges that missionaries have provided aid to the FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda), one of the armies taking place in the fighting that has ravaged the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The priority is to look to the large number of civilian refugees, a roaming people that has spent 15 years wandering and lives in the forests,” according to an editorial in an Italian Xaverian Missionaries publication. “Beset by war and neglected by international humanitarian organizations, including the UN, didn't those civilian refugees have a right to aid? The report refers to a payment of $2,000 for the purchase of plastic sheeting for makeshift roofs of huts, medicines, and educational materials. According to the logic of the report, then, these people should be left to die of hunger, cold and disease just because they are on the losers' side?”

 

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Further information:

• Xaverian Missionaries say: “Do not blame missionaries and small charities for the scandalous involvement of well-known mining companies and Western governments in the war in eastern Congo." (Fides)
• Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Wikipedia)
• Missionaries warn of new Congo war, say minerals at root of Congo’s ‘silent genocide’ (CWN, 11/10/09)