Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Ugandan-backed...

Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), accused government troops of executing 51 civilians in a northeastern town before rebel troops captured it last week. He said the killings took place in Dongo, a small town on the Ubangui river near Congo's northern border with the Central African Republic. "They (government troops) told them they were going to execute them because they were supporting the MLC," Bemba told Reuters by satellite phone from his base in Gbadolite. "They locked them all together in a house and they shot them. They executed 47 men and four women. It's incredible," Bemba said, adding that two civilians had escaped the slaughter.