Charlotte Ntibatekereza, who lost her son, daughter in law and grandson in the fighting in Kiwanja July 25 2012, stands in her house Sunday Aug. 5, 2012. Ntibatekereza's son, his wife and her 4-year-old grandson were sleeping on the floor when a heavy-calibre bullet smashed through three walls of their home. her son and grandson died instantly. Her daughter-in-law is in the hospital recuperating from a bullet wound to the arm in fighting last week that pitted M23 rebels against the army. The rebels have the upper hand, holding a string of eastern town as regional leaders gather Monday in Kinshasa to try to resolve a rebellion that has forced more than a quarter million people from their homes. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Charlotte Ntibatekereza, who lost her son, daughter in law and grandson in the fighting in Kiwanja July 25 2012, stands in her house Sunday Aug. 5, 2012. Ntibatekereza's son, his wife and her 4-year-old grandson were sleeping on the floor when a heavy-calibre bullet smashed through three walls of their home. her son and grandson died instantly. Her daughter-in-law is in the hospital recuperating from a bullet wound to the arm in fighting last week that pitted M23 rebels against the army. The rebels have the upper hand, holding a string of eastern town as regional leaders gather Monday in Kinshasa to try to resolve a rebellion that has forced more than a quarter million people from their homes. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Light streets through a bullet hole in the home of Charlotte Ntibatekereza, who lost her son, daughter in law and grandson in the fighting in Kiwanja July 25 2012, stands in her house Sunday Aug. 5, 2012. Ntibatekereza's son, his wife and her 4-year-old grandson were sleeping on the floor when a heavy-calibre bullet smashed through three walls of their home. her son and grandson died instantly. Her daughter-in-law is in the hospital recuperating from a bullet wound to the arm in fighting last week that pitted M23 rebels against the army. The rebels have the upper hand, holding a string of eastern town as regional leaders gather Monday in Kinshasa to try to resolve a rebellion that has forced more than a quarter million people from their homes. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A Congolese girl rides her wooden bicycle through Kiwanja, as an M23 rebel patrols the area 80 km (50 miles) North of Goma, Congo, Sunday Aug. 5, 2012. 2012. Congo's army now controls only the city of Goma and the village of Kibumba, 10 kilometers (six miles) outside Goma. Now the rebels hold all towns going north as far as Rutshuru and are threatening to besiege Goma. The U.N. Security Council on Thursday demanded that the M23 rebel group halt any advances toward Goma. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
An M23 rebel walks the streets of the North Kivu town of Rubare near Rutshuru, 75 km (48 miles) North of Goma, Congo, Sunday Aug. 5, 2012. 2012. Congo's army now controls only the city of Goma and the village of Kibumba, 10 kilometers (six miles) outside Goma. Now the rebels hold all towns going north as far as Rutshuru and are threatening to besiege Goma. The U.N. Security Council on Thursday demanded that the M23 rebel group halt any advances toward Goma. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A Congolese woman prays in the Kiwanja catholic church, North of Rutshuru, 75 km (48 miles) North of Goma, Congo, Sunday Aug. 5, 2012. 2012. Congo's army now controls only the city of Goma and the village of Kibumba, 10 kilometers (six miles) outside Goma. Now the rebels hold all towns going north as far as Rutshuru and are threatening to besiege Goma. The U.N. Security Council on Thursday demanded that the M23 rebel group halt any advances toward Goma. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
KIWANJA, Congo (AP) ? It was before dawn when the bullets started flying. One of heavy caliber smashed into and through the front bedroom of the Ntibatekereza family's home, slammed through a utility room and exited out a third wall, leaving a hole so large that the sun floods in.
When family matriarch Charlotte Ntibatekereza went to investigate, she found her 4-year-old grandson and 29-year-old son dead, and her daughter-in-law nursing a mangled arm.
They are the latest victims of a 3-month-old rebellion of the M23 Movement in eastern Congo that has killed an unknown number of people, wounded more than 500 and forced some 280,000 people from their homes, including tens of thousands across borders into Rwanda and Uganda.
Numerous diplomatic initiatives are under way to try to contain the latest mayhem to hit the Central African country whose vast mineral riches have proved a curse that attracts a plethora of foreign rebels and local militias.
On Monday, leaders from 11 countries forming the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region gather in neighboring Kampala, Uganda, to discuss a new plan calling for a neutral international force to deploy in eastern Congo to get rid of all the fighters. They have suggested forming the army in collaboration with the African Union and the United Nations, which already has the world's largest peacekeeping force of nearly 20,000 soldiers and police in Congo.
At the conference are Rwanda and Uganda, which both have been implicated in the rebellion. Rwanda has denied charges made in a damning U.N. report that it helped create, arm and support the M23 rebels and sent its own troops to fight alongside them. Uganda has denied that its troops also are fighting with the rebels, saying last week that it is investigating reports that some rebels are wearing Ugandan army uniforms and one rebel commander is driving a vehicle associated with the Ugandan armed forces.
On Sunday, AP reporters counted four vehicles with Ugandan license plates, including two minivans filled with heavily armed rebels, between Kiwanja and Rutshuru, a key trading town near the borders with Uganda and Rwanda.
Also Monday, U.N. humanitarian chief Baroness Valerie Amos starts a three-day trip to Congo to assess the deteriorating humanitarian situation.
It is to include a visit to the Rutshuru district of the Ntibatekereza family, whose loss occurred during a July 25 battle between M23 rebels allied with a local militia and Congolese troops backed by U.N. peacekeepers, and allegedly fighting alongside rebels of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda.
The M23 rebellion has brought some of the fiercest fighting in years to eastern Congo. In the battle that engulfed the Ntibatekereza home, the rebels also took a string of towns leading north from the commercial capital of Goma to Rutshuru. They also hold the border town of Bunagana, an important mineral transit point on the frontier with Uganda.
Ntibatekereza recounted her woes Sunday as she stood inside her home pocked by bullet holes in the Mabungo neighborhood of Kiwanja, an area that that has suffered more than most. In a 2008 rebellion led by some of the same players now leading the M23, some 70 people were massacred in Mabungo. Nobody has ever been held to account.
Ntibatekereza on Sunday asked if those responsible for the deaths of her son and grandson would pay ever for their crimes, but the question was asked rhetorically, as if she never expects an answer, let alone justice in this country where impunity reigns.
As she spoke, one arthritic hand grasped a home-hewed wooden cane, the other played with rosary prayer beads hanging from her neck.
"My son was a motorcyle-taximan and the sole breadwinner in our home. My daughter won't be able to work the fields for months. I am crippled with arthritis. What is to become of us and the children?" she said.
Associated Presscurrent time a thousand words my sisters keeper kirby sarah palin cbi the shins
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