Congo bans western separatist sect after crackdown

Democratic Republic of Congo has banned a shadowy separatist sect following a three-week police offensive against its western strongholds which United Nations investigators say killed dozens of people.

President Joseph Kabila's government revoked authorisation for the ethnic-based religious and political sect Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) late on Friday following a special cabinet meeting held in Matadi, capital of western Bas-Congo province.

From spiritual bases in Bas-Congo, BDK has waged a campaign for reestablishment of the pre-colonial Kongo kingdom in parts of Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Angola and Gabon. Authorities accuse its members of violent protests and executions carried out in the name of popular justice.

The government revoked a ministry of social affairs permit allowing BDK to operate as a social and cultural organisation.

"Taking into account their behaviour, that they have not built schools, that they don't have a social activity, it was time to repeal this authorisation," Godefroid Mayobo, special minister at the prime minister's office, said. Since late February, heavily armed police have swept through the Congo River port of Matadi and other Bas-Congo towns and villages, destroying BDK bases and hunting down its militants.

The government is sticking by a death toll of 22 killed. It denies allegations by local witnesses of indiscriminate killings, abuses and torching of homes.

Preliminary internal reports by United Nations investigators, seen by Reuters but not yet officially made public, say at least 68 people were killed in the government crackdown and indicate the final toll could be higher. The investigators said at least 215 people, families who fled when their homes were burned, were still unaccounted for.

President Kabila's government has justified the latest anti-BDK offensive as helping to restore state authority across the vast, mineral-rich former Belgian colony, which still suffers from the depredations of eastern rebels and militias.

But the latest crackdown in Bas-Congo comes a year after a similar anti-BDK offensive that killed over 100 people. It has embarrassed the stretched UN peacekeeping mission in Congo which took nearly a week to send peacekeepers to the province.

The UN mission and the European Union have urged the government not to use excessive and unnecessary force against the BDK, whose militants possess few firearms, but rather use machetes and believe magical powers will protect them.

The BDK's leader, Ne Muanda Nsemi, is a deputy in Congo's National Assembly and as such has immunity from prosecution.