Amnesty International Report 2003 - Democratic Republic of The Congo

Covering events from January - December 2002

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Head of state and government: Joseph Kabila
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: ratified

Fighting continued to afflict parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) despite peace agreements involving many of the protagonists. Neighbouring countries withdrew many of their troops in the second half of the year, but there was an upsurge in fighting by armed groups and militias in the east and northeast. The population continued to suffer enormous hardships, with widespread hunger and frequent human rights abuses by government forces, armed opposition factions and foreign troops. Abuses included killings of unarmed civilians, torture, including rape, and repression of political dissent.

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Background

The Kinshasa-based government led by Joseph Kabila and backed by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe faced armed opposition on several fronts. The Ugandan-supported Mouvement de la libération du Congo (MLC), Movement for the Liberation of Congo, and its allies controlled the north while various factions of the Ugandan and Rwandese-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD), Rally for Congolese Democracy, controlled large swathes of the east. There was fighting between different RCD factions and with armed groups including the mayi-mayi, local armed groups generally opposed to RCD and Rwandese control.

In February a rebellion against RCD-Goma and Rwandese rule was launched in the Minembwe area by South-Kivu Tutsi known as Banyamulenge. Large numbers of Banyamulenge civilians were killed in the fighting and up to 50,000 were displaced. In previous years the Rwandese and RCD-Goma authorities had claimed that they were fighting to protect DRC Tutsi from the DRC government. In October mayi-mayi captured the town of Uvira from RCD-Goma, who retook it with the help of Rwandese troops. Fighting for control of South-Kivu was continuing at the end of 2002.

Peace initiatives led to significant withdrawals of foreign troops and the emergence of a plan in which Joseph Kabila would remain President in a coalition government, with the main rebel and unarmed opposition groups sharing vice-presidential posts. Talks in Sun City, South Africa, ended in stalemate and a power-sharing formula agreed between President Kabila and the MLC leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, remained unimplemented. In October further power-sharing talks between the government and its major opponents resumed in Pretoria, South Africa.

In July, after talks in Pretoria, Rwanda agreed to withdraw its troops from the east in return for the Kinshasa government disarming predominantly Rwandese Hutu rebels and sending their leaders for trial. In October and November several dozen Hutu were returned to Rwanda by officials of the DRC, South Africa and the UN's military cease-fire monitors, MONUC. At least one returnee was detained. The returns sparked a mutiny among Hutu former combatants at Kamina military base; both mutineers and DRC soldiers were killed.

The withdrawal of pro-government forces from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe accelerated. Uganda agreed to withdraw its troops after talks with the DRC government in Luanda, Angola, in August although several battalions of the Ugandan army remained in the country.

Conflict between various armed groups and factions in the east and north escalated after the withdrawal of foreign troops. Massive human rights abuses were committed (see below), leading to yet more people being internally displaced or becoming refugees.

MONUC personnel increased to more than 4,200 during the year and in December the UN Security Council authorized an increase to 8,700. MONUC oversaw the disengagement of DRC government forces and armed opponents from frontline positions. In October a UN Panel of Experts reported that both allies and opponents of the government, including military commanders and political leaders from Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, were taking advantage of the conflict to loot the country's natural resources and to prolong the war. In November President Kabila suspended government and security officials implicated in the report. The UN also announced inquiries into a massacre in Kisangani in May and ethnic conflict between the Hema and Lendu in the northeast (see below). The UN Special Rapporteur on the DRC called for support for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, designed to put in place new institutions.

In July the International Court of Justice decided it did not have jurisdiction to hear a case brought by the DRC against Rwanda for alleged aggression on its territory.

Impact of the conflict

More than three million people were estimated to have been killed or to have died as a result of the war to overthrow the DRC government which started in 1998. Up to two million people were internally displaced. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that in North-Kivu province, four out of five rural residents had been forcibly displaced at one time or another since 1998. The devastation of agricultural production resulted in malnutrition and high mortality rates for both the displaced and host populations. The years of armed conflict also produced an environment in which abuse of women by men, including rape, was widespread and children were forced to work in mines or to serve as combatants.


Areas under government control

Death penalty
More than 80 people remained on death row, and courts continued to pass death sentences. In September the government suspended a moratorium on executions which had been in place since March 2001. Since 1997 the Cour d'ordre militaire (COM), Military Order Court, had sentenced hundreds of people to death after unfair trials, of whom at least 200 were executed. Despite a government announcement in November that it had promulgated a law to abolish the COM in December, the court continued to try about 135 defendants (see below).

• On 15 March the trial began of some 135 people accused of involvement in the January 2001 assassination of former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila before the COM. The trial had not concluded by the end of 2002. The defendants included 19 former security agents from Kivu region who had sought asylum in neighbouring Republic of the Congo but were handed back to the DRC in April 2001. One of the defendants, Antoine Ngalamulume, was in custody at the time of President Kabila's death and two are the wives of an army major sought by the government. Many of the detainees were reportedly tortured, and they were not given adequate time and facilities to prepare their defence. The prosecution demanded the death penalty for 115 of the defendants and it was feared that the September suspension of the moratorium on executions was to allow them to be executed.

Unlawful killings
Members of the security forces unlawfully killed dozens of unarmed civilians. In virtually all cases the government failed to take action against the perpetrators.

• Government forces reportedly killed at least 100 unarmed civilians at Ankoro, Katanga province, after a clash with mayi-mayi combatants in November.

In Mbuji-Mayi, the hub of the DRC's diamond trade, guards employed by MIBA – the largely state-owned mining company which runs the concessions – frequently used excessive force against unauthorized miners. Dozens were shot dead by MIBA guards and many more were injured. Not a single MIBA guard was known to have been brought to justice for killing or injuring an unauthorized miner.

Torture and ill-treatment
Torture and ill-treatment continued to be widespread in unofficial detention centres run by the security services without any control by the judiciary. Detainees were almost invariably held incommunicado and were routinely refused medical care. Beatings, including whippings administered with cordelettes (military belts), were particularly common. There were numerous reports of women in custody being raped by members of the security services. Psychological torture, such as death threats and mock executions, was also frequent.

Conditions in many detention centres were appalling. At least 46 prisoners were reported to have died between March and June 2002 in Kinshasa's main prison, the Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa (CPRK), Kinshasa Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre, previously known as Makala Prison. They reportedly died as a result of ill-treatment, lack of medical care and lack of food.

Persecution of human rights defenders
Human rights defenders were harassed, threatened and detained for investigating human rights violations by government security forces.

• N'sii Luanda Shandwe, president of the Comité des observateurs des droits de l'homme (CODHO), Committee of Human Rights Observers, who was detained in 2001 then released without charge, was rearrested on 19 April 2002 and held without charge in the CPRK. He remained in custody despite a severe illness; he was a prisoner of conscience.

Persecution of journalists
Press freedom remained under threat as journalists continued to face detention as prisoners of conscience and ill-treatment.

• On 3 April José Feruzi Samwegele of the government radio and television company was detained by the military security service DEMIAP, accused of conspiring to broadcast a statement issued by the opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS). He was reportedly subjected to a mock execution before his release on 10 April.
• Dieudonné Karl Nawezi, a sports reporter with the government broadcasting company, was arrested by the Agence nationale de renseignements (ANR) security service on 7 May. He was interrogated for two days by the ANR in Lubumbashi because television footage showed Congolese football fans in South Africa wearing T-shirts bearing a photograph of Katebe Katoto, a government opponent.
• On 6 September a Kinshasa court sentenced Raymond Kabala and Delly Bonsange of Alerte Plus to 12 and six months' imprisonment respectively, and a large fine. They were arrested in July after their newspaper published an article claiming that a government minister had been poisoned. While in custody, Raymond Kabala was reportedly tortured and in October their lawyer, Sebastien Kayembe, was tortured by armed men in military uniform. In November, a court reduced the fines, released Delly Bonsange and reduced Raymond Kabala's prison sentence to seven months.

Persecution of students
Students demonstrating against the government were arrested and ill-treated. Victims included students from the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) and from the University of Lubumbashi (UNILU).

• Frank Buruani Kitenge, a student at UNILU originating from Kivu, was arrested on 16 April by police in Lubumbashi. He was handed over to the ANR on 12 May and transferred to Kinshasa where he remained held, reportedly accused of being a spy for RCD-Goma and Rwanda because of his Kivu origins.

Areas controlled by armed political groups and foreign forces

Fighting escalated in parts of eastern and northeastern DRC. Hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed. Much of the fighting over mineral-rich areas in the northeast took place between combatants of the MLC and the RCD-National on the one side and those of the RCD-Mouvement de Libération (RCD-ML), RCD-Liberation Movement, on the other. All three rival armed groups were backed by Uganda. An agreement to end hostilities reached in Kampala, Uganda, in November between rival factions of the RCD-ML was not implemented.

Human rights abuses were widespread, particularly unlawful killings of unarmed civilians, arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention and torture, including rape. In a 10-week period from 10 February, a local human rights network reported more than 500 killings, more than 100 rape cases and several abductions, as well as destruction of villages by fire and looting in the eastern region under RCD-Goma occupation.

Massacres in Kibali-Ituri province
Killings of unarmed civilians in the armed conflict between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups continued in the Ugandan-created Kibali-Ituri province, previously part of Oriental province. As many as 50,000 people were reported to have been killed since June 1999, and around 500,000 forcibly displaced. The intensification of violence prevented international humanitarian agencies from operating in the area. Of the tens of thousands of Lendu who fled from their homes to surrounding forests, many died from starvation, disease and exposure.

• Ugandan soldiers allegedly killed more than 70 unarmed civilians at Kogoro, Gety and Chakurundu in Irumu territory in February.
• Scores, possibly hundreds, of civilians, many of them women and children, were reported to have been killed in Bunia in August. Several dozen bodies were found in a mass grave near the governor's residence after it had been bombarded by Ugandan troops.
• In August Hema militia killed dozens of Lendu while taking control of Bunia. In retaliation, Lendu and allied militia killed dozens of Hema including patients at Nyakunde hospital.

Atrocities in Kisangani
As many as 200 people were killed in Kisangani between 14 and 17 May. RCD-Goma and Rwandese soldiers are reported to have raped and summarily executed civilians after a mutiny on 14 May. Mutinous RCD-Goma soldiers occupied a Kisangani radio station and called on the population to end the occupation of eastern DRC by Rwanda. Hundreds of civilians reportedly came out on the streets in response to the call and killed several Rwandese soldiers and civilians suspected of being Rwandese.

RCD-Goma claimed that only 41 people died in the aftermath of the mutiny. However, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the bodies of more than 100 civilians and 60 police and soldiers were identified and 20 corpses were spotted floating in the Tshopo river.

Persecution of human rights defenders
Human rights activists were routinely threatened by RCD-Goma for investigating abuses in Kisangani.

• Xavier Zabalo, a Roman Catholic priest, was briefly detained by RCD-Goma and interrogated about his links to a local human rights group in May. His colleague, Guy Verhaegen, required medical treatment after being assaulted. They were released after international pressure.
• On 3 September Honoré Musoko, a lawyer and member of the Justice Plus human rights organization, was arrested in the town of Aru by RCD-ML soldiers, after describing the human rights situation in a radio interview. He was subsequently transferred to the RCD-ML "Mont Hawa" military camp. Following appeals by AI and other human rights organizations to the RCD-ML and Ugandan authorities, he was released on 7 September.
• Zelote Farini Luendo, a member of a local children's rehabilitation group, was arrested with two others by Rwandese soldiers on 27 May in Goma. The three men were held blindfolded and with their arms tied tightly behind their backs in a private house in Goma. They were presented at a press conference on

31 May, where Zelote Farini Luendo made a self-incriminating statement, allegedly under duress. He remained in custody.

Detention and torture
People accused of supporting the government or its allies were arrested, detained and tortured, particularly in Kisangani, Goma and Bukavu. Some were released after making payments. Detainees taken into custody by RCD-Goma and Rwandese soldiers were held in metal freight containers at Ndosho, near Goma, in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

• Raphael Paluku Kiyana, a radio station director in an area controlled by the RCD-ML, was arrested on 9 March when he was found in territory controlled by RCD-Goma. He was released by RCD-Goma on 14 March but his property was not returned.
• A group of 18 Banyamulenge men, four of them pastors, were arrested by RCD-Goma in July and held incommunicado. Many of the detainees, who included leading members of the Banyamulenge community, appeared to be prisoners of conscience. At least 20 Banyamulenge refugees arrested by the Burundian authorities were forcibly returned to eastern DRC and detained. They and others arrested in South-Kivu were still held at the end of 2002 (see Burundi entry).
• On 13 September Franklin Moliba-Sese, a correspondent in Gbadolite for the MONUC radio station Okapi, was arrested by the MLC and detained for one week for reporting on the plight of child soldiers.
• Journalists Safari Ntamana, Bugumba Tanganika and Zamukulu Mulungula were arrested by RCD-Goma officials in late September. The three men worked for a Uvira-based radio station and had broadcast a debate about the impact of a withdrawal of Rwandese troops from the area.They escaped from custody on 14 October when mayi-mayi forces briefly occupied Uvira town.

AI country visits

In January AI delegates visited northwestern DRC to interview refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) and discussed with MLC leaders human rights abuses committed by the armed group's combatants in the DRC and in the CAR in May 2001. In February AI delegates visited Goma to assess the impact of a volcanic eruption on the activities of local human rights defenders and to discuss concerns with RCD-Goma leaders. In April AI representatives briefed the UN Security Council in New York about the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian crisis, especially in eastern DRC. In September a delegation led by AI's Secretary General met exiled DRC human rights defenders in Burundi.