Pygmy
By Kalitan Jagvonjeul
The word Pigmy is
a Greek measure of length corresponding to the distance between the
elbow and knuckles of a man of average size), a term for a
diminutive human being. We owe the word to Homer, who in the Iliad
(iii. 6) uses it to describe a race of dwarf like folk dwelling in a far
southern land, whither the cranes fly when inclement winters and
piercing frosts visit the northern shores.
The
pygmies are rarely tillers of the soil. These African forest dwarfs live mainly
on the flesh of deer, monkys, birds and other animals, which they shoot with
bows and arrows. They eat white ants, bee grubs and the larvae of
beetles, also honey, wild beans and mushrooms. They are fond of
fruits, particularly bananas, which they obtain from their bigger
neighbors by barter or by plunder. They eat the vegetables raw,
while the meat is broiled in the ashes of the fire until quite dry.
Their utensils consist solely of a few clay cooking-pots and gourds
for water. There is no record of cannibalism among the pygmy races.
The
Mambute pygmies are the most daring hunters, and marvellously skilful archers. Though of small size they are well
made and agile, and are able to dart in and out with the greatest of
ease amongst the tall tangled vegetation of the tropical woodlands.
The Batwa, from the south of the Congo, successfully attack
elephants, shooting them with their tiny poisoned arrows. The poison
is obtained from the juice of certain plants, and also from decaying
animal matter derived from the putrefaction of ants. The Andaman
pygmies live exclusively by hunting and fishing
Their clothing
is chiefly conspicuous by its absence. The African pygmies go about,
for the most part, quite naked, except for the occasional presence
of a small covering over the pudenda, the men wearing a small piece
of deer-skin, and the women one or two bunches of green leaves,
which they renew daily. The resemblance to the traditional fig-leaf
covering is obvious. The Negrilloes seldom, if ever, tattoo
their body. They are fond of beads and other articles of adornment;
the upper lips are often pierced with holes, through which quills
are thrust. They cut their short curly hair into all sorts of
fantastic patterns, and often twist some of it into peaks into which
they plait feathers.
Pygmy dwellings are extremely
primitive structures. In Africa they are simply arbours constructed
of bent interlaced branches and plantain leaves, with a small hole
near the bottom, through which the pygmy crawls on all fours. Ten or
twelve of these arbours constitute a village. These arbours are only
temporary habitations, as the pygmies are always moving on to
different portions of the forest in pursuit of game.
Extermination of the
pygmies
Deep in the Congolese
jungle, rebel groups are united only in their desire to wipe out the
Bambuti. Their weapons include murder, mass rape and cannibalism,
reports Anne Penketh
Source: Copyright 2004, Independent
Date: July 7, 2004
Byline: Anne Penketh
The attackers come after darkness falls, making their way through
thick jungle in search of the pygmy settlements. Then the horror begins.
"They started killing people and eating them ... I saw them cutting up
human flesh, then they were putting it on a fire to grill it. I got
scared and ran away, not knowing what else happened behind me."
Those are the words of Amuzati N., a Bambuti pygmy who escaped a
massacre by a rebel group in Democratic Republic of Congo, the scene of
the conflict known as Africa's "first world war" because of the number
of parties involved in the struggle for the mineral-rich country.
His testimony, and that of other members of the Bambuti in eastern and
northern Congo, prompted a human rights group in Britain to submit
evidence yesterday to the International Criminal Court accusing the
rebel groups of a "campaign of extermination" of the Bambuti pygmies.
Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebels are accused of mass killings,
cannibalism and systematic rape in the pygmy communities, who are
believed to be the original inhabitants of the equatorial forests.
Such crimes against humanity, which have been recorded since 1998,
"continue up to the present", said Mark Lattimer, the director of
Minority Rights Group International, whose group formally filed a report
to the court based in The Hague. Eyewitness accounts contained in his
30-page report say that the rebels have deliberately targeted the
Bambuti pygmies, who are considered "subhuman" or dismissed as beggars
and thieves by other ethnic groups.
One of the groups accused of the atrocities, the Ugandan-backed Movement
for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), is part of the transitional
government that emerged as the result of a 2003 peace accord.
Reports of cannibalism in the Democratic Republic of Congo first
surfaced in May last year. Eyewitness testimonies were rare. But the
horrific accounts in the latest report leave no doubt as to the scale of
the problem - and crucially, explain why such atrocities are happening.
Mr Lattimer said: "The pygmies are threatened with being eaten as a
weapon of war to get them to leave the area." Also, their attackers
believe that by consuming the flesh of a pygmy they are conferring
magical powers on themselves, while they are also targeted because they
are suspected of collaborating with the Mai-Mai, who have fought on
different sides in the long-running war. In some cases too, the Bambuti
have been abducted and forced to act as trailfinders by armed groups,
leading to retaliation by rival forces.
Mr Lattimer, working with the Réseau des Associations Autochtones
Pygmées du Congo, led a month-long research mission to the area in
January, during which more than 80 interviews were taped with the
victims or witnesses of atrocities against the pygmies.
His investigation found that from October 2002 to January 2003, combined
rebel forces ran an operation in Ituri province code-named "Effacer le
tableau" (wiping the slate clean). The aim, according to survivors, was
to rid the jungle of the Congolese pygmy population, estimated to total
about 90,000 in the eastern region.
"It was in the night around 8pm, when people began to fall asleep," said
Sumbula R., who survived a massacre by armed men in military clothes in
the village of Mbuluku. "Once they were sure the village was asleep,
they attacked and started to shoot and kill.
"They started shooting at all those who tried to escape. One ran this
way, they shot him. Another ran that way, they shot her - even the
women.
"They captured the young children, gathered them and held them until
daylight. Then they put some of them in a mortar and pounded them to
death. They destroyed the huts and set them on fire. The people were
also burned."
Pindjaone B., from the same village, was already hiding in the forest
with her husband and mother when four soldiers came across them. "They
started to push us around and to intimidate us, asking for goat meat. We
said we were not able to find that sort of thing. They said that was
good because we were people with powers, people who could heal
illnesses. That if we didn't have meat they could eat us and they would
get the power.
"Then they asked my husband several times to sleep with my mother in
order that they could see our power. They beat him but he refused to do
it. Then they raped my mother and me, one after the other, each by two
of them.
"Afterwards they asked my husband to sleep with me in front of them to
see how we make love. After strong threats and blows my husband finally
accepted and we did it in front of my mother and in front of them. It
was horrible."
Some Congolese believe that back pain or other ailments can be cured by
sleeping with Bambuti women, which has been given as an explanation for
rape, but the report charges that the high incidence of rape and the
systematic use of mass rape constitute a crime against humanity.
Cecile N. from the region of North Kivu, was one of nine Bambuti women
chopping firewood when about 20 rebel soldiers from the Rwandan-backed
RCD-Goma appeared, armed with rifles and knives. She said that after
orders from their commander: "The soldiers raped us in turn; at least
two or three soldiers for one woman."
Minority Rights Group International is calling for a full investigation
by the International Criminal Court into "persecution, extermination and
other crimes against humanity" against the Bambuti population, with a
view to prosecuting those responsible.
The prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, announced last month that he
intended to investigate crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, focusing on the Ituri war, in which an estimated 60,000 people
have been killed. Mr Lattimer's group wants him to include the fate of
the Bambuti in his investigation. The groups identified by the report
include the MLC of the Vice-President, Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was one of
four vice-presidents sworn in as a result of the peace accords intended
to end the five-year war - the second to tear the country apart since
the overthrow of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
Mr Lattimer said yesterday: "The perpetrators of these crimes should be
pursued and punished, no matter how high their office." But the report
makes it clear that various rebel groups in the eastern region can be
blamed for the attacks on the Bambuti, who are vulnerable because of the
location of their villages in the jungle and their knowledge of forest
paths and hunting skills.
"Institutional disregard for the rights of the Bambuti and the lack of
seriousness with which complaints of abuse are treated, have meant that
all armed groups in the eastern DRC have been able to prey on Bambuti
villages with impunity, looting and raping at will," the report says.
"Where the Bambuti have been forcibly displaced from their villages,
they have frequently had to live for prolonged periods unprotected in
the forest, exposed to wild animals, disease and starvation."
Until now, attempts to seek redress from Congolese authorities have been
in vain. "The Bambuti victims or witnesses of human rights abuses
committed by the RCD-Goma universally report that redress was
unobtainable," the report continues. "Complaints were never taken
seriously. Reports of abuses were either dismissed out of hand, were
never investigated, or the complainant was never informed of any
outcome."
In addition, many victims were too afraid to report the abuses, or held
back because the local authorities were themselves responsible for the
attacks.
An MLC representative now serving in the transitional parliament in
Kinshasa yesterday defended the group against the accusations of
atrocities in Ituri province, which have occurred since the
International Criminal Court came into effect on 1 July 2002. "Those who
were accused of taking part in cannibalism or massacres were transported
to Gbadolite where they were judged before a court and the media,"
Thomas Luhaka told Reuters, without giving details of any convictions or
sentences.
He added: "If there are individuals who committed crimes and are called
to appear before the ICC, the MLC will not protect them. What we don't
want, however, is for foreign or national actors to use this as a
political card against the MLC."
It remains to be seen whether the international court will take up the
petition from the human rights campaigners, although Mr Ocampo has
privately indicated that he would favour broadening his investigation to
include the Bambuti. Because of the continuing unrest in the eastern
region, which has gone on despite the peace accords, the prosecutor has,
however, indicated that it would be difficult to start his investigation
until October.
In the meantime, there are other tools that governments could use to
stop the atrocities, particularly by exerting financial pressure on the
recipients of development aid from western countries. "Uganda and Rwanda
are strategic allies of the UK Government. The British Government writes
very, very large cheques for them and should make sure that it obtains
absolute assurances that none of that money is used to fund intervention
in Congo," Mr Lattimer said.
Originally posted at:
http://news.independent.co.uk
PANORAMA