Massacre Season

They were awakened by "an awful din--stones and clubs began crashing through the windows." Then, recalled 58-year-old Ruth Hege, a Baptist missionary from Ohio, "the men found us. They pulled us through the house, onto the porch." Her companion, Fellow Missionary Irene Ferrel, 42, from Idaho, was killed by an arrow. "I feigned that I was dead," said Missionary Hege. "Young men kicked me or grabbed me by the hair. Once a man came up and put his hand on my chest to see if I was really dead. The Lord calmed me and let me lie still."

The Congo's most serious flare-up since Katanga's stubborn secession finally was crushed a year ago, this latest bloodbath suddenly erupted in early January in Kwilu province, 250 miles east of Leopoldville. Fortnight ago, roving gangs of youths hacked to death three Belgian Roman Catholic priests--one of them bedridden. Directed by Peking-trained Pierre Mulele, onetime Education Minister under the late, left-leaning Patrice Lumumba, the terrorists often donned war paint, loincloths and crude red helmets, cried "Moscow!" and "Russia!" as they burned and looted. Scores of black local officials have been methodically butchered. Four village policemen were burned alive, and an agricultural-school employee was decapitated.

The government initially sent in a single small infantry unit, 40 men of which were besieged by guerrillas last week in the village of Idiofa. The soldiers' only help was a light plane that flew over, lobbing grenades at the rebels. With Congo Army Commander Joseph Mobutu away on vacation, the government seemed paralyzed. Finally, at week's end, a battalion of Congolese commandos was airlifted to the provincial capital of Kikwit.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.