Amnesty International Report 2000 - Congo (Republic of the)

Head of state and government: Denis Sassou Nguesso
Capital: Brazzaville
Population: 2.6 million
Official language: French
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice

Government forces, militias and armed opposition groups carried out widespread human rights abuses in the context of continued armed conflict. Unarmed civilians were victims of extrajudicial executions and deliberate and arbitrary killings, as well as "disappearances". Many arbitrary arrests and detentions were reported. Detainees, including political prisoners, were held for prolonged periods without charge or trial. Some were tortured or ill-treated. A number of political prisoners were released. Critics of the government, including human rights activists and journalists, were harassed and intimidated.

Background

The country continued to be gravely affected by armed conflict, which had flared up again at the end of 1998. Fighting was particularly intense in January and February, in the capital Brazzaville and elsewhere. On the one side were regular government forces and allied "Cobra" militias of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. On the other were armed opposition groups – primarily the "Ninjas" (loyal to former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas), active in the Pool region, and the "Cocoyes" (loyal to former President Pascal Lissouba), active in Niari, Bouenza and Lekoumou regions. All parties to the conflict took part in widespread fighting, killing and looting.

Insecurity and deliberate violence by both sides against civilians caused massive population displacements and a serious humanitarian crisis. Several thousand fled to neighbouring countries including Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Some internally displaced persons returned to their home areas during 1999, only to face further violence during or upon their return; they were among the victims of serious human rights abuses, including killings, "disappearances" and rape.

Peace initiatives and amnesty

Two cease-fires were signed during 1999: the first in Pointe-Noire in Congo in November; the second in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, in December, when President Omar Bongo of Gabon was appointed as an official mediator. The cease-fires were signed by representatives of the Congolese government and of the Ninjas and the Cocoyes. However, the exiled leaders of these two armed groups – Bernard Kolelas and Pascal Lissouba – disowned the cease-fire. Fighting continued at the end of 1999, despite the cease-fires.

In August the government announced an amnesty for armed opposition combatants who surrendered and handed in their weapons, including those who had carried out grave human rights abuses during armed conflict in previous years.

Killings of unarmed civilians

Many unarmed civilians, including the internally displaced, were killed in the context of the armed conflict, particularly in January after fierce fighting had erupted in December 1998. Several thousand people were estimated to have been killed during this period, including in Brazzaville and in the Pool region.

Some were killed by the Congolese security forces. However, most killings attributed to supporters of the government were carried out by current or former members of the Cobra militia allied to President Sassou Nguesso, some of whom had been reintegrated into the army. Angolan government troops fighting alongside the Congolese security forces were also reported to have killed unarmed civilians. Many people, including civilians, were killed indiscriminately, for example when government forces shelled areas viewed as strongholds of the Ninjas, sometimes with the use of helicopters. Other victims were singled out for execution on the basis that they were supporters of the Ninjas or Cocoyes, in many cases without evidence of links with these groups. Some victims, who included women and children, were extrajudicially executed at point-blank range, without any attempt to arrest them or to undertake any kind of judicial proceeding. The government was not known to have taken measures to prevent extrajudicial executions or to bring those responsible to justice.

• In January, five men suspected of being Ninjas because their identity cards indicated that they came from Mindouli in the Pool region – a stronghold of the Ninjas – were extrajudicially executed by police in Pointe-Noire.

Deliberate and arbitrary killings of unarmed civilians were also committed by armed opposition groups. In particular, cases of killings and abductions by the Ninjas were reported. As with the government, leaders of armed opposition groups were not known to have taken any measures to prevent further killings of civilians or to instruct those under their command to respect international humanitarian law.

Arrests and detention

There were many arbitrary arrests and detentions by the security forces, often of people suspected of supporting groups opposed to the government. Detainees included children, such as Frid Mfilou, aged 16, and Herman Mfilou, aged 15, who were arrested with their mother in January by the police in Brazzaville, apparently because the police could not find their father who was accused of training the Ninjas. Government agents frequently extorted money from relatives of detainees in exchange for their release.

Individuals associated with the former government or who had served in the armed forces under former President Lissouba were also targeted. Some detainees were held for months without charge or trial.

Releases of political prisoners

In October, 12 senior military officers who had been arrested in late 1997 and early 1998 on accusations of supporting former President Lissouba and detained for more than a year without trial were released. Former government officials accused of the same offence were also released. Hervé-Ambroise Malonga, president of the Brazzaville Bar Association and a former member of the Constitutional Council, was among those released. He had been detained without trial since November 1998. His health had deteriorated as a result of harsh prison conditions and inadequate access to medical care.

Two other former government officials – Henri Marcellin Dzouma-Nguelet, former law lecturer at Brazzaville university, and Colonel Jean-Michel Ebaka, former prefect of Owando – were also released. They had been detained without charge or trial since February and March 1998 respectively.

Violations of freedom of expression

Several journalists and human rights activists who were perceived as critical of the government or who had publicly denounced the gravity of the situation in Congo were subjected to threats and intimidation.

• Two journalists were arrested at the end of May. Television journalist Maurice-Lemaire Moukouyou was arrested and detained without trial at the Direction régionale de la surveillance du territoire (DRST), Regional Directorate of Territory Surveillance, in Pointe-Noire, accused of sending information to supporters of the former government in exile. He was released in October without charge. Hervé Kiminou Missou, a Congolese correspondent for Angola for the regional radio station Africa No. 1, was also detained in Pointe-Noire, accused of being a spy for opponents of the government. He was released without charge after eight days. The police who arrested him appeared to have targeted him because he was born in former President Pascal Lissoubaregion.

Torture, ill-treatment and harsh prison conditions

A number of detainees were victims of torture and ill-treatment. There were also many cases of rape of women by members of the security forces and militia. Conditions of detention were harsh.

In October, Paul Omoye Kamaro, a medical worker who had been arrested in October 1998, died in the military hospital of Pointe-Noire as a result of tuberculosis contracted in detention. He had been detained without charge for a year, without adequate medical treatment. A period of detention in especially harsh conditions in Impfondo, in the north of the country, was believed to have aggravated his condition.

Judicial reforms

In January the government created a High Court of Justice which it said would be used to try members of the former government and their allies for crimes committed in previous years. No one was known to have been brought to trial before this court during 1999.

In September the authorities announced plans to create military courts in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire to try government soldiers accused of human rights violations and other crimes.

AI's findings

AI published a report in March entitled Republic of Congo: An old generation of leaders in new carnage, based in part on the findings of an AI visit to Congo in 1998. The report documented widespread human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict. The Congolese government responded by acknowledging that its forces may have committed a few violations but blamed almost all human rights abuses on its opponents. The armed opposition rejected allegations that its forces had committed atrocities.

AI country report

• Republic of Congo: An old generation of leaders in new carnage (AI Index: AFR 22/001/99)