Nov. 27, 1964 - Twenty‐eight white hostages, including four Spanish nuns, were found massacred by rebels today on the left bank of the Congo River in Stanleyville.
Word of these new slayings provoked anger over the sudden withdrawal of rescue forces of Belgian paratroopers and their American aircraft, which began today on orders from Washington and Brussels.
A high‐ranking Red Cross official said that the number of hostages slain in Stanleyville might exceed 45.
The only survivors brought back across the river to the main city were a Belgian woman and four Belgian men. Their account of the murder of the nuns and an undisclosed number of Dutch priests appeared to confirm fears that the rebels had decided to slaughter all whites still in their hands.
A sixth survivor — identified as Father Schuster, a missionary from Luxembourg — was evacuated to Kamina airbase in North Katanga Province. A bullet was lodged in his lung.
Late at night, reliable but unconfirmed reports said 12 Europeans and an American missionary had been executed in Wamba, about 150 miles north of Stanleyville.
A Stanleyville survivor, Camille Borry, said one victim was an unidentified planter from Argentina.
“We were the only ones to get out alive,” he said at Leopoldville Airport tonight. “We paid for our lives with money and beer, but the priests and nuns had nothing to give.”
Mr. Borry said the priests’ throats were cut Wednesday, one by one, with machetes. After their deaths, the nuns were made to lie nearby and were hacked to death.
Congolese troops and mercenaries of the Fifth Brigade under Maj. Michael Hoare, a Briton, found the bodies mutilated, with strong evidence of cannibalism.
The latest deaths disclosed in Stanleyville raised to at least 103 the toll of foreigners killed since the rebellion began. Five of those known dead have been Americans.
Twenty‐three were slain during the months of violence leading up to this week’s paratroop drops. Eighty were murdered in Stanleyville and Paulis and 44 were wounded.
Since the first American C‐130 landed with 89 survivors from Stanleyville on Tuesday, Leopoldville Airport has resembled a front‐line battle station. Each plane is met by ambulances, physicians, and nurses. A company of Congolese soldiers and American airmen cordon off the runway area to hold back the anxious friends and relatives.
The sick and wounded are rushed to Danish Red Cross hospital or to the teaching hospital at the University of Louvanium. The walking wounded are assisted to an emergency dressing room in what used to be a garage for the field’s four fire trucks.
The rest, many hysterical and weeping, are led to the airport lounge, where diplomats and Red Cross officials wait with checklists and gently try to record the survivors’ personal experience and to obtain word on the whereabouts of others.
Boy Scouts give out hot rolls and orange juice, and airline hostesses look after the children.
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