‘I’ve raped 53 women, some as young as five’: Terrifying confession of soldier, 22, who went on rampage through town after losing battle with rebels

• He and his comrades descended on Minova in the Democratic Republic of Congo where they spent two days raping, looting and murdering
• They had just been routed in a battle with the M23 rebel group and were embarrassed, angry and out of control
• But the soldier says he didn’t commit his crimes out of anger, but rather for the pleasure they brought him
• Testimony comes the day after Britain pledges £10million to G8 initiative to fight rapes in war zones

A Congolese soldier has admitted raping 53 women including children as young as five as he and his comrades ransacked a town during the brutal civil war.

The soldier was one of thousands who descended on Minova, near Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and spent two days raping, looting and killing before officers regained control.

The terrifying testimony comes as Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday pledged to spend £10million on tackling violence and harm to women in war zones.

Civil war: Soldiers of the DRC army in Minova last November. One has admitted raping 53 women as he and comrades rampaged through the town. There is no suggestion that any of these soldiers were involved

The 22-year-old soldier, speaking near where he committed his crimes, told The Guardian how he and two dozen of his comrades gathered and decided to rape ten women each before carrying out the atrocities.

‘I’ve raped 53 women,’ he said, ‘and children of five or six-years-old.’

He and his fellow soldiers just lost a battle with rebel M23 fighters in nearby Goma. Regimental structures had disintegrated and they were embarrassed, angry and out of control.

They arrived in Minova drunk, hungry and violent, and subjected the town to a two-day bloody nightmare before the army managed to restore discipline.

One doctor said his hospital had treated more than 100 women for injuries caused by rape.

However, the soldier who spoke out about his crimes said he and his comrades didn’t commit their crimes for anger, but for pleasure.

‘We could do anything we wanted,’ he said.

Misery: Residents of the area around Minova seek sanctuary from the fighting in a church. Soldiers from DRC’s army subjected the town to a two-day nightmare of looting, rapes and murders

An M23 fighter with local children: The soldiers had just lost a battle with fighters from the M23 rebel group. Regimental structures had disintegrated and they arrived in Minova drunk, hungry and violent

The revelations will add a fresh urgency to efforts by the G8 group of developed nations to fight sex attacks in war zones, which has been backed by Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.

Jolie, who is a special envoy for the UN Human Rights Council, joined Mr Hague at a meeting of the G8 foreign ministers in London yesterday afternoon as the Foreign Secretary announced the UK’s £10million commitment.

The UK’s pledge will make up part of an overall £23million package pledged by the G8 nations.

#timetoact: Angelina Jolie talking in London yesterday at the launch of a new initiative to stamp out war rape to which the UK pledged £10million

Mr Hague said some funding will go toward training military personnel on how to respond to sexual violence, since they are often the first to encounter survivors.

But in the case highlighted by the Guardian today, it was the DRC’s own soldiers who were guilty of horrendous sexual crimes when they launched their frenzied attack on Minova on November 22 last year.

Many of their victims have had to turn to rape refuge centres as – since rejected by their families and husbands – they have nowhere else left to go.

Speaking from one refuge, Nzigire Chibalonza, 60, said she was first beaten severely by soldiers who turned up at her shop, before three of them raped her.

‘Now my husband mocks me,’ she said. ‘He calls me the wife of a soldier. He has rejected me.’

The Congolese army says it is taking action to deal with the rapists in its ranks. If the victims are unable to identify their attackers, prosecutors have threatened to arrest the officers who failed to control their troops.

The UN says that the DRC has suspended a dozen senior officers and is interrogating suspects and observers hope that successful prosecutions might make Minova a watershed moment in tackling war rape in Congo.

But there have been few concrete developments and the women of the town remain sceptical.

‘They may arrest some, but then later they will just set them free again,’ the head of the rape refuge centre said.

Minova is in the far east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where large areas are controlled by M23 rebels

– dailymail.co.uk

Teens hurt in Benowa drive-by shooting

One of the shooting victims is taken away. Pic: Glenn Hampson

POLICE say two teenagers hit by shrapnel during a drive-by shooting on the Gold Coast are lucky to be alive.

The pair, 17 and 19, were with another person in the garage of a house in Benowa around 7.20pm last night when up to five shots were fired from a car.

Both were hit in the back by shrapnel, taken to Gold Coast Hospital with minor injuries and later released.

Detective Acting Inspector Toby Wilkinson says they could easily have been seriously hurt or even killed.

“I think in any situation where victims sustain any gunshot wound they can consider themselves lucky (to be alive), most definitely,” Det Insp Wilkinson told reporters.

“We’re not certain or sure, at this stage, who the offenders are.

“We can’t draw any link between who may have been responsible and the actual victims.”

It’s believed a small calibre gun was used in the attack.

Det Insp Wilkinson said it was likely the shots were fired from the passenger seat of the vehicle, believed to be a white Holden sedan.

A neighbour, who declined to be named,  said he saw a white car driving down the street after the shooting.

“I heard something like fireworks. I certainly didn’t think they were gunshots at the time,” he said.

He said he heard four shots in 30 seconds before the car drove away.

The man said he heard four shots over a 30-second period before seeing a white car drive off down the road.

A third teenager inside the garage was not hurt during the shooting.

Investigations by detectives are continuing.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit crimestoppers.com.au.

Two men dead in Canadian daycare shooting

Reuters

SAFE: A policewoman speaks to a mother near the scene of a daycare shooting in Quebec. No children were hurt but two men died.

 

 

Police evacuated children from a daycare centre just outside Canada’s capital on Friday after two men died in a shooting.

Gatineau Police Chief Mario Haren said all 53 children were safe and unharmed.

Haren said police received a call about an armed man with a shotgun threatening people. They arrived to find the man dead with a shotgun beside him and a second, unidentified employee of the day care, also dead. He said the shooting seems to be related to a recent separation between a couple.

“We have two deceased. One of the males is responsible for this shooting. The other male works at this day care centre,” Haren said. “Right now we’re investigating that this was related to a recent separation between a couple.”

The daycare centre sits across the street from a hospital in this Quebec city, just across the river from Ottawa.

Sergeant Jean-Paul LeMay said the shooting happened at two houses that serve as a day care centre. He said police received a report of a shooting in the morning.

LeMay said the kids were safe at a nearby house. He would not release details on who was killed or if the kids witnessed the shooting.

Terror-stricken parents and guardians scrambled to retrieve their children. It wasn’t immediately clear how much of the incident might have transpired in front of the kids. One parent called it terrifying and said it was every parent’s worst nightmare.

The shooting initially raised fears of a far worse incident in Quebec, where memories are still fresh from the December massacre of 20 children and six educators in a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school.

Hundreds of surrendered guns destroyed

Hundreds of of unregistered weapons handed in across the Gold Coast are destroyed at the Nerang Police Station. April 4, 2013

HUNDREDS of unregistered weapons handed in across the Gold Coast  including more than 30 from Surfers Paradise  are now scrap metal after being destroyed as part of the Queensland firearms amnesty.

More than 200 surrendered weapons, including rifles, semi-automatic weapons, crossbows, sawn-off shotguns and handmade guns, were destroyed at the Nerang Police Station yesterday.

Every weapon was crushed in a hydraulic press, the action and barrel flattened before the twisted metal was fed through a shredder and sent for recycling.

Across the state, more than 4000 weapons  an estimated 75 a day  have been presented to authorities, with that number expected to almost double by the April 30 deadline.

With just under a month to go, Police Minister Jack Dempsey said the response to the amnesty had been ”exceptional” since it began in February.

”Queenslanders have been handing in around 500 firearms each week and we expect to see this increase towards the April 30 deadline,” Mr Dempsey said.

”This means there are already thousands of unregistered weapons off Queensland streets. Just as importantly, the response shows that people do not want to be caught in possession of weapons under the LNP Government’s new minimum mandatory prison sentences for illegal use of firearms.”

Queensland Police Service amnesty project manager Inspector Peter Assfalg said until April 30, appropriately licensed members of the public could still register previously unregistered firearms through firearms dealers, armourers, firearms sporting clubs as well as police stations.

Source: goldcoast.com.au

 

Rick Ross shot at from another car – witnesses

A new police report says witnesses saw another car pull up beside Ross’ Rolls Royce in the attempted drive-by shooting. Photo / AP

 

A new police report says two witnesses saw a car pull alongside a Rolls Royce driven by rapper Rick Ross earlier this year in South Florida and heard numerous gunshots fired before the car crashed into a nearby building.

The Fort Lauderdale police report released on Thursday says witnesses saw three or four people inside an older model, burgundy- or maroon-coloured BMW before the shots rang out. Neither Ross nor his girlfriend, fashion designer Shateria L Moragne-el, were injured in the January 28 attack. The bullets mostly struck nearby businesses.

The witnesses told police that the car’s occupants fired out of their passenger side window at Ross’s vehicle, according to the report. Police recovered 18 bullet casings.

“The witnesses ducked for cover in their vehicle due to the rapid gunfire, but were able to see the vehicle flee eastbound,” the report says.

The report also says that Ross was armed with a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun located in his waistband. Ross, whose real name is William Leonard Roberts II, did not draw the gun.

 

The police report also notes that Ross has a suspended concealed weapon permit.

Police are reviewing video from 20 surveillance cameras in the area for clues. The footage has not been made public.

Ross and Moragne-el had gone to breakfast in Fort Lauderdale after celebrating the rapper’s 37th birthday at a Miami Beach nightclub hours before. The couple lives in nearby Davie.

– AP

Guns, ammo and drugs found in search in Wellington, New Zealand

SUPPLIED

GUNS, AMMO AND DRUGS: Police staff with a haul of weapons, ammunition and illicit drugs found at a Wellington address.

 

Police have arrested a Wellington couple after finding six guns and a stun gun, as well as a cache of ammunition, cash and $135,000-worth of drugs.

Police seized more than 4000 suspected ecstasy pills, around 3000 LSD tabs, $4500 in cash, and a large amount of cannabis. The total minimum estimated street value for all of the drugs is $135,000.

Detective Senior Sergeant Donna Howard of the Wellington CIB said the arrests were a great result.

”It’s a good catch. The seizure of these drugs will place a significant dent in this organised criminal activity. Getting these weapons off the street will prevent further offending and help make our communities safer.”

Police had visited a Townsend Rd house in Miramar on Tuesday morning on an unrelated matter, and discovered the cache of illegal property.

They arrested a 25-year-old woman shortly after visiting the house.

That night, they returned to the address about 7.30pm with the Armed Offenders Squad, seeking a 32-year-old man. He was not located, but handed himself into police at Wellington central station yesterday, Ms Howard said.

The couple appeared in the Wellington District Court yesterday, facing 14 charges, including 11 weapons and ammunition charges plus three relating to the supply of drugs.

Ms Howard said one of the pair had gang connections.

Police were now looking at where the ”impressive” haul of guns came from.

”There’s a lot of enquiries [yet] to determine where the guns and stuff have come from.”