The Congo: When they came for Joseph Nzeloy and his family, the Congolese militiamen had an argument. Should they stab them in the stomach, slit their throats or cut off their heads? After a while, they decided.
Mr Nzeloy watched helplessly as the soldiers bound his wife, eight children and two brothers. Then they sliced their throats.
The 62-year-old farmer was last, but miraculously, after being left for dead, survived.
"I heard everything but could do nothing. I was powerless," he said, a blood-soaked bandage around his neck. He lay quietly in a makeshift hospital in Bunia, the heart of a genocidal killing spree that has jolted the oft-ignored Congo war to the UN centre stage.
The battle for Bunia between armed groups from the rival Hema and Lendu ethnic groups resulted in the massacre of over 400 people earlier this month. Drugged fighters armed with machetes, spears and arrow went on a killing spree, leaving a litter of mutilated corpses on the deserted streets. Some butchered bodies bore evidence of cannibalism.
However, a 700-strong contingent of mainly Uruguayan UN troops obeyed orders and refused to intervene, cowering inside the protection of their razor-wire compound.
Today the UN is considering an emergency proposal to prevent further massacres. France wants to lead a 1,000-strong peacekeeping force, with orders to protect civilians by force if necessary. If approved, France says troops will be in place by next week.
For now, though, Bunia is tense but calm. A Hema militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), controls the town. Almost all the Lendu have fled.
A handful of vendors have emerged into the half-deserted streets. Child soldiers swagger in oversized uniforms, some barely big enough to grip their guns. Among the few businesses open was a video theatre showing a film entitled Killer Instinct.
Thousands of terrified civilians huddled tightly under plastic shelters inside the two UN compounds, although some are cautiously returning home.
In the makeshift hospital, a former coffee warehouse, one woman awaiting evacuation had part of her brain exposed. A neighbour, 25-year-old fisherman Kabagambe Lokana, wore a ring of machete wounds from chin to neck. He had little confidence in the French-led mission.
"I am pessimistic. People have been coming here, white and black, from all over the world, but they never bring peace," he said.
The Congo war, started by Rwanda and Uganda in 1998, has given full and bloody vent to latent rivalries between the Hema and Lendu. Up to now the regular atrocities have received little international attention.
Yesterday Amnesty International said it believed dozens of people were being imprisoned by an armed Lendu group near Bunia. Many were believed to have been tortured and at least four have been killed, it said.
Criticism of the under-resourced Congo UN mission has increased. "It is a long, bad story", said Francois Grignon of the International Crisis Group. But the UN pleads that is patrolling an area bigger than Sierra Leone or Kosovo, peacekeeping missions that had deployments of tens of thousands.
"Every day I receive new tasks from New York but I cannot perform miracles. My people are doing their best under very difficult circumstances," said Lieut Col Daniel Vollon.
If the French-led force is approved, the key question is the strength of its mandate. Analysts say the peacekeepers must be allowed to intervene with force, even in the perilous countryside. "The force needs to be able to stop massacres taking place in the rural areas," said Mr Grignon.
Last year 1,200 people died in a massacre at nearby Nyakunde village. Similar atrocities could be taking place. But for now, nobody knows.