Amnesty International Report 2004 - Congo (the Republic of the)

Covering events from January - December 2003

The government tried to prevent investigations and prosecution in French courts of senior officials accused of involvement in "disappearances" in 1999. Killings of alleged sorcerers were allowed to continue with impunity. Combatants responsible for past human rights abuses were granted an amnesty. People displaced from their homes by internal conflict faced a humanitarian crisis.

Background

In February a former Rwandese armed forces officer was arrested in the capital, Brazzaville, for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

In March the government signed a peace agreement with an armed opposition group, the Conseil national de résistance (CNR), National Resistance Council, bringing an end to a one-year armed conflict in the Pool region. Implementation of the agreement included disarming some 2,300 CNR combatants known as Ninjas and releasing 40 captured combatants. In August the National Assembly approved a law granting amnesty to CNR combatants and to government forces, allied militias and mercenaries accused of any crimes committed since January 2000.

In August a President was appointed to head a National Human Rights Commission created under the 2002 Constitution. The Commission is mandated to work for the protection and promotion of human rights. Several non-governmental human rights groups questioned the independence and impartiality of the Commission.

On 12 August new members of the High Court of Justice were sworn in. The Court, composed of 17 Supreme Court judges and 19 members of the legislature, is empowered to try government officials, including the President, ministers and members of parliament. The appointment of new members, who constituted a majority of the Court's membership and included politicians, raised fears about their independence and impartiality and the motives behind their appointment.

On 1 September the government ratified the UN Convention against Torture. On 22 November the National Assembly passed a government bill to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

During the last three months of 2003 the International Committee of the Red Cross provided training in international humanitarian law for as many as 1,500 armed forces officers.

Impunity: the May 1999 'disappearances'

In April the government asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to rule that French courts had no jurisdiction over investigations or prosecutions of Congolese government and security officials, including President Sassou-Nguesso. In a case lodged in a French court in late 2001, the officials were accused of responsibility for the May 1999 "disappearance" of at least 353 refugees returning from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In June the ICJ dismissed the government's case. However, no official was brought to justice.

Investigations in the Republic of the Congo into the 1999 "disappearances" had not concluded by the end of 2003. It was reported that the investigating judge had interviewed government ministers, security officials and relatives of the "disappeared", and had charged four people – whose identities were not revealed – with unspecified offences. No one was arrested. In early November the investigating judge said the investigations had been blocked, but gave no further details. He died following an illness in mid-November and is not known to have been replaced.

In November the government was reported to have demanded that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provide documents relating to the return of refugees in 1999. In a letter to the UNHCR, the Minister of Foreign Affairs reportedly said that those alleged to have "disappeared" had actually remained in the DRC. By contrast, the Minister of Communication was reported as saying that there may have been a settling of personal accounts and unfortunate mistakes, but that the authorities "had no plan" to abduct or kill refugees.

Unlawful killings

The government failed to take action against unlawful killings. At least 13 people, five of them unarmed civilians, were killed on 15 October during a shoot-out at Mindouli in the Pool region. According to the authorities, the shoot-out began after railway officials tried to prevent former Ninja combatants from loading fuel containers on to a train. No action was known to have been taken against the perpetrators.

Human rights groups expressed concern in October that people were killing alleged sorcerers accused of responsibility for apparently natural deaths. In the Cuvette region alone, as many as 87 alleged sorcerers were reportedly killed between 1999 and 2003. The authorities failed to take action to prevent the killings or bring the perpetrators to justice.

Internally displaced people

More than 230,000 people had been displaced from their homes by armed conflict at the start of 2003. Many of them had no access to adequate food or medicine. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in September that there was an acute humanitarian crisis in the Pool region.