Both sides accused of killing civilians in Congolese town

KIWANJA, CONGO — Villagers who had fled fighting in this rebel-held town trickled home Thursday to find the bodies of more than a dozen men in civilian clothes in and around mud huts, and they accused rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's forces in the slayings.

New York-based Human Rights Watch accused a pro-government militia called the Mai Mai as well as the rebels of deliberately killing civilians in Kiwanja and said U.N. peacekeepers nearby had been unable to protect them.

The villagers said rebels had killed unarmed civilians suspected of supporting the Mai Mai, but the rebels said the dead were militia fighters who had been armed.

A United Nations official said Kiwanja was subjected to two rounds of terror: First the Mai Mai killed those it said supported Nkunda's rebels, then Nkunda's rebels stormed in, killing men they claimed were loyal to the Mai Mai.