UN Urges DR Congo to Exhume Mass Grave

The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has asked the government, on Wednesday, to exhume more than 400 bodies buried last month in a mass grave, the head of the organisation’s human rights office said.
Local authorities in the capital, Kinshasa, have said they buried 421 corpses overnight on March 19 in the rural commune of Maluku. The government says the bodies were unclaimed foetuses, stillborn babies and homeless people from the city morgue.
However, rights groups suspect that some might be people killed in anti-government protests in January or an earlier crackdown on criminals in Kinshasa.
“We recommended doing the exhumation but it is up to the authorities to take all measures to reassure the population and to combat rumours,” José Maria Aranaz, director of the UN’s DRC-based Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO), said at a news conference.