By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, May 17 2000 (IPS)

Murder, rape, and pillage have been committed against non-combatants in eastern Congo by the major forces in conflict there, according to a new report released here Tuesday by the Africa division of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The 35-page report, much of it based on a HRW mission to the region in March, found that both the Rwandan army and the Goma-based Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) were guilty of massacres and sexual violence against women.

The two forces are allied against the government of Congolese President Laurent Kabila who came to power with Rwanda’s help just three years ago.

Likewise, local militias backed by Kabila have targeted civilians in massacres and executions and have engaged in “widespread pillage and rape,” according to the report, titled, “Eastern Congo Ravaged: Killing Civilians and Silencing Protest.”

“One thing must be clear: the human rights situation in Eastern Congo is disastrous,” according to Peter Takirambudde, HRW’s Africa director. “And civilians are bearing the brunt of the fighting.”

The report comes at a critical moment. The UN Security Council has approved a force of 5,500 troops to monitor the most recent cease-fire signed by all the major parties to the conflict just last month in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. In addition to Rwanda and the RCD,the parties include the Kabila government, Burundi, Angola, Namibia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

But deployment of the mission is now in doubt, largely because of the sudden near-collapse last week of the UN mission in Sierra Leone where one faction disarmed and took hundreds of peacekeepers hostage. This has raised questions about the viability of the proposed UN operation in Congo, where even fewer peacekeepers would be monitoring a much vaster territory.

In addition, Ugandan and Rwandan troops, while formally allied against Kabila, have clashed in Kisangani which has also unsettled prospects for peace in eastern Congo.

Members of the Security Council last week toured the region in order to prepare the ground for the deployment and gain commitments from all the parties that they would indeed abide by the cease-fire accord. The foreign powers, including Rwanda, agreed that they were prepared to withdraw from Congo altogether so long as a larger peace agreement would also be fully implemented.

The eastern Congo, particularly the area around Goma, has suffered the spill-over effects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when the Hutu- dominated government, backed by Hutu militias, killed as many as one million people, most of them members of the Tutsi ethnic group.

When Tutsi-led rebels swept through Rwanda in the wake of the genocide, former Rwandan soldiers and militias, such as the Interahamwe, fled into eastern Congo where they set up campswhich they used as bases to infiltrate back into their homeland.

In 1997, however, the new, Tutsi-led government ordered its troops into the area to push the Hutu fighters further away from the border. Rwanda and its local allies have occupied a wide swath of Congolese territory around Goma since that time. Its invasion, which was co-ordinated with Congolese rebel groups led by Kabila, eventually resulted in the ouster of long- time Zairean dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.

The Rwandan government and Kabila fell out in 1998, and Kigali sponsored a new rebel force, the RCD, which, however, split after troops fromAngola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia,intervening on Kabila’s behalf,halted its early advances.

One faction became the Movement for the Liberation of Congo under Jean-Pierre Bemba whose main foreign sponsor has been Uganda and which controls much of Equateur province.

The main RCD faction is supported by Rwanda and, to a lesser extent, Burundi. Its leader is Emile Ilunga who is based in Goma. A third faction, led by former RCD president Wamba-dia-Wamba, is supported by Uganda and controls a small area in the north.

The new report deals with the situation under the control of the Rwanda and the Goma-based RCD. “The RCD-Goma and its Rwandese allies have regularly slaughtered civilian in massacres and extrajudicial executions,” according to the report.

“In cases where the RCD or its allies admit that the killings took place, they often seek to justify them as unintended consequences of combat with armed groups, but they seem in many cases to have committed the abuses deliberately to punish civilians for their supposed support of enemies of the RCD,” it said.

In addition, the same forces have illegally detained hundreds of people, often ill-treating or torturing them, according to the report.

During the delegation’s visit, HRW interviewed survivors of several massacres, as well as victims of rape, the report said. It found, for example, that in early February, RCD and Rwandan troops attacked civilians in the village of Kilambo in North Kivu. They tied up men, raped their wives in front of them, and then killed them.

So far, HRW has been able to compile the names of 30 victims. It said the attack took place in apparent revenge for earlier attacks by armed Hutu groups.

In addition, the US group found evidence supporting reports by a local human-rights organisation, Heritiers de la Justice, that RCD soldiers sexually tortured and buried alive several women in Mwenga.

While the RCD has strongly denied these reports, HRW said it had spoken with two women from the town who testified that they saw five women stripped, raped, and tortured with hot pepper in their vaginas. They were then placed in several holes in the ground that were filled with salt water, according to the witnesses.

Soldiers and police act with impunity, and the judicial authorities are reluctant to act on complaints, involving the RCD or Rwandan soldiers, the report said. In one case, a man was attacked and killed by soldiers against whom he had lodged a complaint for armed robbery.

Human rights and church groups are also regularly threatened and sometimes arrested and beaten by the RCD authorities who have branded any opposition activity as “ethnic incitement.”

Bruno Bahati, a leader of the Coordination of Civil Society in South Kivu, was arrested by Rwandese security forces in April and remains under detention in Kigali where he is accused of carrying newspapers from Kinshasa with him, according to the report.

Bukavu’s Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko was declared persona non grata by local authorities in February 2000 and forced to return to his native village. He was accused of fomenting ethnic hatred after criticising the authorities in his Christmas prayer. But the abuses are by no means confined tothe RCD or its Rwandan sponsors, according to the report.

Both Hutu armed groups and their local allies, especiallyMai Mai, irregular forces from a range of different ethnic groupswho use traditional rituals and charms which are supposed to protect them in battle, have committed terrible abuses against civilian populations.

Both groups regularly attack villages, forcing people to hand over all their belongings and killing them if they fail to do so. Hutu groups in particular use rape as a weapon, taking women as sexual slaves or committing gang rape against victims.

While all groups involved in the conflict have engaged in such abuses, Hutu armed groups are reported to have perpetrated rapes more often than others. “They use sexual violence to terrorise civilians, especially those thought to be RCD supporters and most especially those who participate in civil self-defence forces,” the report said.

Excerpt:

By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, May 17 2000 (IPS)

Murder, rape, and pillage have been committed against non-combatants in eastern Congo by the major forces in conflict there, according to a new report released here Tuesday by the Africa division of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The 35-page report, much of it based on a HRW mission to the region in March, found that both the Rwandan army and the Goma-based Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) were guilty of massacres and sexual violence against women.

The two forces are allied against the government of Congolese President Laurent Kabila who came to power with Rwanda’s help just three years ago.

Likewise, local militias backed by Kabila have targeted civilians in massacres and executions and have engaged in “widespread pillage and rape,” according to the report, titled, “Eastern Congo Ravaged: Killing Civilians and Silencing Protest.”

“One thing must be clear: the human rights situation in Eastern Congo is disastrous,” according to Peter Takirambudde, HRW’s Africa director. “And civilians are bearing the brunt of the fighting.”

The report comes at a critical moment. The UN Security Council has approved a force of 5,500 troops to monitor the most recent cease-fire signed by all the major parties to the conflict just last month in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. In addition to Rwanda and the RCD,the parties include the Kabila government, Burundi, Angola, Namibia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

But deployment of the mission is now in doubt, largely because of the sudden near-collapse last week of the UN mission in Sierra Leone where one faction disarmed and took hundreds of peacekeepers hostage. This has raised questions about the viability of the proposed UN operation in Congo, where even fewer peacekeepers would be monitoring a much vaster territory.

In addition, Ugandan and Rwandan troops, while formally allied against Kabila, have clashed in Kisangani which has also unsettled prospects for peace in eastern Congo.

Members of the Security Council last week toured the region in order to prepare the ground for the deployment and gain commitments from all the parties that they would indeed abide by the cease-fire accord. The foreign powers, including Rwanda, agreed that they were prepared to withdraw from Congo altogether so long as a larger peace agreement would also be fully implemented.

The eastern Congo, particularly the area around Goma, has suffered the spill-over effects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when the Hutu- dominated government, backed by Hutu militias, killed as many as one million people, most of them members of the Tutsi ethnic group.

When Tutsi-led rebels swept through Rwanda in the wake of the genocide, former Rwandan soldiers and militias, such as the Interahamwe, fled into eastern Congo where they set up campswhich they used as bases to infiltrate back into their homeland.

In 1997, however, the new, Tutsi-led government ordered its troops into the area to push the Hutu fighters further away from the border. Rwanda and its local allies have occupied a wide swath of Congolese territory around Goma since that time. Its invasion, which was co-ordinated with Congolese rebel groups led by Kabila, eventually resulted in the ouster of long- time Zairean dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.

The Rwandan government and Kabila fell out in 1998, and Kigali sponsored a new rebel force, the RCD, which, however, split after troops fromAngola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia,intervening on Kabila’s behalf,halted its early advances.

One faction became the Movement for the Liberation of Congo under Jean-Pierre Bemba whose main foreign sponsor has been Uganda and which controls much of Equateur province.

The main RCD faction is supported by Rwanda and, to a lesser extent, Burundi. Its leader is Emile Ilunga who is based in Goma. A third faction, led by former RCD president Wamba-dia-Wamba, is supported by Uganda and controls a small area in the north.

The new report deals with the situation under the control of the Rwanda and the Goma-based RCD. “The RCD-Goma and its Rwandese allies have regularly slaughtered civilian in massacres and extrajudicial executions,” according to the report.

“In cases where the RCD or its allies admit that the killings took place, they often seek to justify them as unintended consequences of combat with armed groups, but they seem in many cases to have committed the abuses deliberately to punish civilians for their supposed support of enemies of the RCD,” it said.

In addition, the same forces have illegally detained hundreds of people, often ill-treating or torturing them, according to the report.

During the delegation’s visit, HRW interviewed survivors of several massacres, as well as victims of rape, the report said. It found, for example, that in early February, RCD and Rwandan troops attacked civilians in the village of Kilambo in North Kivu. They tied up men, raped their wives in front of them, and then killed them.

So far, HRW has been able to compile the names of 30 victims. It said the attack took place in apparent revenge for earlier attacks by armed Hutu groups.

In addition, the US group found evidence supporting reports by a local human-rights organisation, Heritiers de la Justice, that RCD soldiers sexually tortured and buried alive several women in Mwenga.

While the RCD has strongly denied these reports, HRW said it had spoken with two women from the town who testified that they saw five women stripped, raped, and tortured with hot pepper in their vaginas. They were then placed in several holes in the ground that were filled with salt water, according to the witnesses.

Soldiers and police act with impunity, and the judicial authorities are reluctant to act on complaints, involving the RCD or Rwandan soldiers, the report said. In one case, a man was attacked and killed by soldiers against whom he had lodged a complaint for armed robbery.

Human rights and church groups are also regularly threatened and sometimes arrested and beaten by the RCD authorities who have branded any opposition activity as “ethnic incitement.”

Bruno Bahati, a leader of the Coordination of Civil Society in South Kivu, was arrested by Rwandese security forces in April and remains under detention in Kigali where he is accused of carrying newspapers from Kinshasa with him, according to the report.

Bukavu’s Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko was declared persona non grata by local authorities in February 2000 and forced to return to his native village. He was accused of fomenting ethnic hatred after criticising the authorities in his Christmas prayer. But the abuses are by no means confined tothe RCD or its Rwandan sponsors, according to the report.

Both Hutu armed groups and their local allies, especiallyMai Mai, irregular forces from a range of different ethnic groupswho use traditional rituals and charms which are supposed to protect them in battle, have committed terrible abuses against civilian populations.

Both groups regularly attack villages, forcing people to hand over all their belongings and killing them if they fail to do so. Hutu groups in particular use rape as a weapon, taking women as sexual slaves or committing gang rape against victims.

While all groups involved in the conflict have engaged in such abuses, Hutu armed groups are reported to have perpetrated rapes more often than others. “They use sexual violence to terrorise civilians, especially those thought to be RCD supporters and most especially those who participate in civil self-defence forces,” the report said.

Excerpt:

By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, May 16 2000 (IPS)

Murder, rape, and pillage have been committed against non-combatants in eastern Congo by the major forces in conflict there, according to a new report released here Tuesday by the Africa division of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The 35-page report, much of it based on a HRW mission to the region in March, found that both the Rwandan army and the Goma- based Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) were guilty of massacres and sexual violence against women.

The two forces are allied against the government of Congolese President Laurent Kabila who came to power with Rwanda’s help just three years ago.

Likewise, local militias backed by Kabila have targeted civilians in massacres and executions and have engaged in “widespread pillage and rape,” according to the report, titled, “Eastern Congo Ravaged: Killing Civilians and Silencing Protest.”

“One thing must be clear: the human rights situation in Eastern Congo is disastrous,” according to Peter Takirambudde, HRW’s Africa director. “And civilians are bearing the brunt of the fighting.”

The report comes at a critical moment. The UN Security Council has approved a force of 5,500 troops to monitor the most recent cease- fire signed by all the major parties to the conflict just last month in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. In addition to Rwanda and the RCD,the parties include the Kabila government, Burundi, Angola, Namibia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

But deployment of the mission is now in doubt, largely because of the sudden near-collapse last week of the UN mission in Sierra Leone where one faction disarmed and took hundreds of peacekeepers hostage. This has raised questions about the viability of the proposed UN operation in Congo, where even fewer peacekeepers would be monitoring a much vaster territory.

In addition, Ugandan and Rwandan troops, while formally allied against Kabila, have clashed in Kisangani which has also unsettled prospects for peace in eastern Congo.

Members of the Security Council last week toured the region in order to prepare the ground for the deployment and gain commitments from all the parties that they would indeed abide by the cease-fire accord. The foreign powers, including Rwanda, agreed that they were prepared to withdraw from Congo altogether so long as a larger peace agreement would also be fully implemented.

The eastern Congo, particularly the area around Goma, has suffered the spill-over effects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when the Hutu-dominated government, backed by Hutu militias, killed as many as one million people, most of them members of the Tutsi ethnic group.

When Tutsi-led rebels swept through Rwanda in the wake of the genocide, former Rwandan soldiers and militias, such as the Interahamwe, fled into eastern Congo where they set up campswhich they used as bases to infiltrate back into their homeland.

In 1997, however, the new, Tutsi-led government ordered its troops into the area to push the Hutu fighters further away from the border. Rwanda and its local allies have occupied a wide swath of Congolese territory around Goma since that time. Its invasion, which was co-ordinated with Congolese rebel groups led by Kabila, eventually resulted in the ouster of long-time Zairean dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.

The Rwandan government and Kabila fell out in 1998, and Kigali sponsored a new rebel force, the RCD, which, however, split after troops fromAngola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia,intervening on Kabila’s behalf,halted its early advances.

One faction became the Movement for the Liberation of Congo under Jean-Pierre Bemba whose main foreign sponsor has been Uganda and which controls much of Equateur province.

The main RCD faction is supported by Rwanda and, to a lesser extent, Burundi. Its leader is Emile Ilunga who is based in Goma. A third faction, led by former RCD president Wamba-dia-Wamba, is supported by Uganda and controls a small area in the north.

The new report deals with the situation under the control of the Rwanda and the Goma-based RCD. “The RCD-Goma and its Rwandese allies have regularly slaughtered civilian in massacres and extrajudicial executions,” according to the report.

“In cases where the RCD or its allies admit that the killings took place, they often seek to justify them as unintended consequences of combat with armed groups, but they seem in many cases to have committed the abuses deliberately to punish civilians for their supposed support of enemies of the RCD,” it said.

In addition, the same forces have illegally detained hundreds of people, often ill-treating or torturing them, according to the report.

During the delegation’s visit, HRW interviewed survivors of several massacres, as well as victims of rape, the report said. It found, for example, that in early February, RCD and Rwandan troops attacked civilians in the village of Kilambo in North Kivu. They tied up men, raped their wives in front of them, and then killed them.

So far, HRW has been able to compile the names of 30 victims. It said the attack took place in apparent revenge for earlier attacks by armed Hutu groups.

In addition, the US group found evidence supporting reports by a local human-rights organisation, Heritiers de la Justice, that RCD soldiers sexually tortured and buried alive several women in Mwenga.

While the RCD has strongly denied these reports, HRW said it had spoken with two women from the town who testified that they saw five women stripped, raped, and tortured with hot pepper in their vaginas. They were then placed in several holes in the ground that were filled with salt water, according to the witnesses.

Soldiers and police act with impunity, and the judicial authorities are reluctant to act on complaints, involving the RCD or Rwandan soldiers, the report said. In one case, a man was attacked and killed by soldiers against whom he had lodged a complaint for armed robbery.

Human rights and church groups are also regularly threatened and sometimes arrested and beaten by the RCD authorities who have branded any opposition activity as “ethnic incitement.”

Bruno Bahati, a leader of the Coordination of Civil Society in South Kivu, was arrested by Rwandese security forces in April and remains under detention in Kigali where he is accused of carrying newspapers from Kinshasa with him, according to the report.

Bukavu’s Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko was declared persona non grata by local authorities in February 2000 and forced to return to his native village. He was accused of fomenting ethnic hatred after criticising the authorities in his Christmas prayer. But the abuses are by no means confined tothe RCD or its Rwandan sponsors, according to the report.

Both Hutu armed groups and their local allies, especiallyMai Mai, irregular forces from a range of different ethnic groupswho use traditional rituals and charms which are supposed to protect them in battle, have committed terrible abuses against civilian populations.

Both groups regularly attack villages, forcing people to hand over all their belongings and killing them if they fail to do so. Hutu groups in particular use rape as a weapon, taking women as sexual slaves or committing gang rape against victims.

While all groups involved in the conflict have engaged in such abuses, Hutu armed groups are reported to have perpetrated rapes more often than others. “They use sexual violence to terrorise civilians, especially those thought to be RCD supporters and most especially those who participate in civil self-defence forces,” the report said.

Excerpt: