CRS PROVIDES RELIEF TO CONGOLESE REFUGEES AFTER MASSACRE;

COUNT OF DEAD, MISSING RISES

"I attended the funeral yesterday. A huge mass grave had been prepared where the coffins were laid," said Luc Picard, Burundi Country Representive of Catholic Relief Services, referring to a burial of more than 150 people in a mass grave outside Gatumba. "Three CRS trucks used for transport of relief items carried the coffins from the sight of the massacre to the burial sight. The site of such a grave was ... out of this world."

CRS responded with immediate assistance for more than 1,000 Congolese refugees who took shelter at a nearby school in Gatumba city, roughly 5 km. from the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After conducting a humanitarian assessment, CRS began distributions of non-food items including mats, blankets, soap, cooking sets and water cans. CRS distributed similar items to more than 8,500 families of Congolese refugees (roughly 30,000 persons) in the area in June of this year when they crossed the border due to an eruption of violence in Bukavu of the DRC, where insurgent factions of the Congolese army took over the city.

According to CRS, roughly 1,500 refugees were at the camp at the time of the attack, which took place at night and with the use of machetes and guns among the mostly women and children of the camp. Gatumba is just 20 km. from the Burundian capital of Bujumbura and only 3 km. from the Congolese border.

The refugees are known as the Banyamulenge, who share ethnic origin with Rwandan and Burundi Tutsis, and are from the eastern region of the DRC. News reports state that Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) claimed responsibility for the killings.

>From January to June 2004, CRS and its local partners have provided assistance to nearly 260,000 Burundians in 10 of the 16 national provinces, helping 51,309 families of internally displaced or returnees and 2,381 individuals (orphans especially). CRS has provided relief and development assistance in Burundi since 1961. More information is available at www.crs.org.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic community. The agency provides assistance to people in 94 countries and territories on the basis of need, regardless of race, creed or nationality.