Rape in Kivu

The Belgian priest's white cassock was soaked with sweat, and his head was heavily bandaged. "Even in my worst visions of hell, I could not imagine tortures like this," he said wearily. He was one of a tattered band of missionaries who arrived in Leopoldville last week after fleeing from Gizenga-held Kivu province. Their story proved that however statesmanlike the conduct of some Congolese politicians, there were other Congolese still capable of savage and primitive brutality.

Five weeks ago, the pro-Lumumba troops and goon squads in Kivu went on a drunken rampage, seeking revenge for Lumumba's death. One 75-year-old nun was thrown from a truck, and while she lay in the dust, with both arms and her pelvis broken, was' raped by eleven soldiers. An American missionary girl was held prisoner for days and raped four times. One of the biggest laughs was to rip the clothes off white women and force them to dance about on sharp gravel, chanting such phrases as "I murdered Lumumba, the Christ of the Congo." After one dance nine nuns lay naked on a floor all night, locked in with Congolese soldiers. Said one: "They did not rape us, but did with our poor bodies things so disgusting we dare not say them and even less write them down."

After the brutalities had gone on for weeks, U.N. Malayan troops finally got moving. They shepherded 35 missionaries into a hotel in the town of Kindu, got 20 out to Leopoldville. No one died, though a nun whose breasts were badly burned with lighted cigarettes wakes up at night screaming at the memory. The U.S. last week protested the "outrages" and demanded that the culprits be brought to justice. But 250 missionaries were still trapped in Kivu.

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