UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The killings of Rwandan refugees in Congo were apparently so massive and systematic that they can be considered crimes against humanity and possibly genocide, U.N. investigators said in a report Friday.
That means those held responsible for the killings could be tried before international tribunals, like those set up in the cases of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the report said.
The report blamed the alleged massacres mainly on the forces of Laurent Kabila, whose rebel army swept to power in the former Zaire. Kabila and his regime have denied involvement in any massacres.
Investigators conceded that their report, to be presented to the General Assembly, is incomplete because Kabila's forces have denied them access to sites of the alleged massacres.
But they said the number of massacres reported to investigators has increased dramatically since March, when a preliminary investigation was conducted.
Investigators said they received reports on 134 alleged massacres committed by Kabila's army and allied Banyamulenge militias -- made up of ethnic Tutsis who have long lived in Congo. The March report put the figure at 50.
They also received reports of 33 human rights violations by the Zairian armed forces and its allies, and 19 violations by former Rwandan soldiers and ethnic Hutu militiamen.
Retaliation against the Hutu fighters was a driving force in the alleged massacres. Hutu extremists killed at least 500,000 Tutsis in Rwanda, before fleeing into Zaire and hiding among the refugees. Kabila's army includes many ethnic Tutsis.
``One cannot ignore the presence of persons guilty of genocide, soldiers and militia members, among the refugees,'' the U.N. report said. ``It is nevertheless unacceptable to claim that more than 1 million people, including large numbers of children, should be collectively designated as persons guilty of genocide and liable to execution without trial.''
``Savage'' attacks of camps housing Rwandan and Burundi refugees occurred in October and November in Uvira, Bukavu and Goma, the report said.
``According to witnesses, the clashes and attacks were followed by massacres of refugees and murders of non-combatant civilians, almost all of whom were Hutus,'' it said.
Some of the most recent attacks occurred at Mbandaka on May 13, it said. Refugees fleeing west were killed and their bodies were thrown into the Congo river. Another 140 refugees were buried by humanitarian organizations and peasants in communal graves.
Witnesses also reported the killings of more than 30 civilians by Kabila's forces at Uvira on May 26.
Refugees also died from disease, exhaustion and undernourishment as they were forced to travel hundreds of miles from camp to camp -- often to areas that humanitarian groups couldn't reach. In other cases, humanitarian access had been blocked.
In some cases, Kabila's fighters would announce that humanitarian agencies were distributing aid. When refugees emerged from hiding, they were killed, the report said.
The report provided no figure of how many people were killed in massacres in Congo. Human rights experts have estimated that tens of thousands of refugees had died. About 140,000 refugees of the 1.2 million who entered Zaire are unaccounted for.
It called on Congo to publicly condemn the atrocities, stop blocking humanitarian assistance, guarantee security to anyone in its territory and cooperate with investigators.
Congo government blocked the start of the full-scale investigation because it objected to a member of the investigating team, Roberto Garreton of Chile, whom they accuse of being biased.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced this week he would form a new team to send to Congo. Karaha Bizima, Congo's foreign minister, assured him Thursday that the government would cooperate.