U.N. staff in Congo hurt in "hate speech" attack

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Four U.N. military observers in Democratic Republic of the Congo were wounded and 21 staff were evacuated after a mob incensed by "hate speech" sacked a U.N. regional office, the world body said on Friday.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said people in the southeastern town of Moba attacked the office after a local radio station aired false rumors that the United Nations was to resettle Congolese ethnic Tutsis in the region.

None of the observers was seriously hurt in what Haq described as a well-orchestrated, early morning assault on Wednesday in Moba, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. There are 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, the world's largest such force.

Congolese Tutsis, known as Banyamulenge, have taken refuge in neighboring countries because of fighting in Congo in recent years.

A statement issued by U.N. mission headquarters in Kinshasa expressed alarm at what it said was the rising incidence of hate speech at political rallies, in the press and in TV and radio commentaries, especially in Kinshasa and eastern Congo.

"Incitement to hatred, xenophobia and repeated references to ethnic or tribal differences threaten to tear apart communities already struggling with the harsh realities of recurrent armed conflict," the U.N. said.

"Those who try to manipulate the population to serve their own designs ... should not forget the tragic consequences of such acts in the history of the DRC and many other countries," the statement said.

In neighboring Rwanda, media were widely blamed for their role in a 1994 genocide carried out mainly by ethnic Hutus, in which about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

The U.N. mission called on Congolese authorities to "investigate those responsible for the rise in hate speech and tribal hatreds and hold them accountable for their acts."