The Jungle Massacre: Tourists raped and butchered in horrific act of revenge on Britain

EIGHT WESTERN tourists, including four Britons, were raped, tortured, and butchered by their Hutu kidnappers yesterday in an horrific act of revenge against Britain and America.

Survivors of the Ugandan safari kidnapping said that the Hutus deliberately selected the British and Amercians tourists, releasing French and some other nationalities.

"The rebels were looking for Americans and British," said Hussein Kivumbi, manager of one of five camps raided by the Hutu rebels.

"They killed four women and four men with knives, machetes and axes. There were no gunshots. They wanted them to move fast, but some couldn't. So they killed with machetes one man and one woman who couldn't walk. Then they killed another three.

"There was no rescue. The soldiers found the bodies inside Congo, and then they found the six who were released and came down the mountain."

Captives who escaped said the execution-style killings came after the women had been raped.

Mr Kivumbi said the rebels left written messages on the massacred bodies, reading: "Americans and British, we don't want you on our land. You support our enemy Museveni."

The French deputy Ambassador to Uganda, Anne Peltier, was told by the kidnappers: "[We] are not happy with the Americans and British because they have preferred to support the Tutsi ethnic minority against the Hutu majority."

Last night Tony Blair, on a trip to Italy, called the killing "an act of wickedness simply beyond belief".

He pledged to do "everything in Britain's power to pursue justice".

Hours after Mme Peltier and the other freed tourists fled the Hutus murdered eight of their hostages. One American survivor, Mark Ross, said: "The ones I saw had their heads crushed and deep slashes with machetes."

They were killed the same way as most of the 800,000 Tutsis massacred by the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994.

Six tourists escaped, believed to be two Britons, an American, a Swiss woman, a New Zealander and a Canadian. They are in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

Last night one of dead Britons was named as Mark Lindgren, 23, a former university gradute from St Albans, Hertfordshire, on holiday in Uganda before starting his first job. A friend at the family home said: "We are absolutely devastated, the grief is enormous."

The High Commissioner in Kampala, Michael Cook, said: "Reports of clashes between the army and the rebels are still unconfirmed. Our concern now is with these survivors to see that they are physically well, as most of them are in a very traumatised state."

Last night the bodies of the victims lay in the Mulago hospital morgue in Kampala. Officials, assisted by the survivors, will positively identify them today. Relatives have been kept informed.

It is thought 31 tourists were initially abducted in co-ordinated raids at three camp sites at the Impenetrable Forest in the Bwindi National Park in south-western Uganda in the early hours on Monday. Four Ugandans - a game warden and three of his rangers - were killed as they tried to prevent the rebels from attacking the camp sites.

Yesterday Australian diplomatic sources told The Independent the rebels split their14 remaining captives into three groups and led them into the forest. Five bodies were later found at one location and three in another.

The campsites were owned by three operators. One of the groups, Acacia Expeditions, from London, said 15 of its clients had "been involved". Spokeswoman Sue Ockland said four clients were "safe".

Last August four tourists, including a Briton, were kidnapped by Rwandan Hutu rebels. Three are still missing