Amnesty International Report 1999 - Congo (Democratic Republic of)
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Date:
1 January 1999
CONGO
(DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE)
Armed conflict continued throughout the year in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in August flared into full-scale war. Before August the fighting was between government forces and armed opposition groups collectively known as mayi-mayi, most of whom had been part of the coalition that overthrew former President Mobutu Sese Seko in1997 (see Amnesty International Re-port 1998). Relations between President Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his former political allies in the Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo (AFDL), Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, deteriorated and on 27 July he ordered all Rwandese and other foreign troops out of the DRC. On 2 August his opponents began an armed campaign to overthrow him and most mayi-mayi members joined his supporters.
The new opposition alliance known as the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD), Congolese Rally for Democracy, formed in August, contained dis- affected DRC government soldiers, many of whom were members of the Tutsi ethnic group, and was backed by troops from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. In October a second armed group known as the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC), Movement for the Liberation of Congo, joined the fighting in northern DRC. By December the RCD controlled much of eastern DRC. In August other governments notably Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe provided military support to President Kabila, preventing the capture of the capital Kinshasa by the armed opposition.
There were numerous unsuccessful attempts by the UN, the Organization of African Unity, the Southern African Development Community, the Non-Aligned Movement and various African governments to help bring the parties to the conflict to negotiate an end to the hostilities.
Throughout the year the Constitution remained suspended and political party activity outside the AFDL was banned. A commission appointed by the government in October 1997 submitted a draft Constitution to President Kabila in March. The commission recommended that more than 200 politicians be banned from standing for presidential elections scheduled for mid-1999. In September President Kabila appointed a new commission chaired by the Minister of Justice to propose modifications to the draft Constitution. The commission submitted its report in October.
In April the government outlawed the Association zaïroise pour la défense des droits de l'homme, Zairian Association for the Defence of Human Rights, and denied legal registration to many other human rights organizations.
The same month the UN Secretary-General withdrew his team investigating massacres and other human rights abuses committed in the DRC between 1993 and 1997, because of the repeated obstructions of the investigation by the DRC government. In June the team submitted a report confirming that combatants, including those loyal to President Kabila and Rwandese government troops, had committed atrocities. The team recommended further investigation by an independent body to identify those responsible. The UN Security Council ignored this recommendation and instead asked the governments of the DRC and Rwanda to investigate the crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice. The governments failed to report as requested by the UN Security Council.
In November the Minister of Justice dismissed 315 magistrates accused of corruption, incompetence, dereliction of duty and immorality. They were not given an opportunity to challenge the accusations against them.
Thousands of people were extrajudicially executed by government troops during the year. Most of the reported killings occurred in the east, particularly in North- and South-Kivu provinces.
Early in the year hundreds of civilians in and around the town of Butembo in North-Kivu province were reported to have been killed by members of the DRC's newly formed army, the Forces armées congolaises (FAC), Congolese Armed Forces, allegedly supported by Ugandan and Rwandese government forces. For example, between 20 and 23 February they reportedly killed as many as 300 unarmed civilians accused of supporting the mayi-mayi. Following further mayi-mayi attacks in early April, government forces surrounded the area and killed up to 600 men. Further north in Beni, around 40 civilians accused of collaborating with the mayi-mayi were said to have been extrajudicially executed by government forces between 2 and 6 April.
In late March and early April, about 54 Rwandese refugees and at least 100 DRC civilians were reported to have been extrajudicially executed by the FAC in Shabunda, South-Kivu province. The victims reportedly included Wandjo, chief of Lwamba locality, and his assistants (known as Camile and Cléophace).
When allies who overthrew former President Mobutu split into two hostile groups in August, FAC forces extrajudicially executed fellow soldiers and unarmed civilians accused of supporting the RCD, many of them solely on the basis of their Tutsi origin. In August FAC soldiers loyal to President Kabila extrajudicially executed at least 150 civilians in Kisangani before the town was captured by the RCD. In August and September, as DRC officials and media incited violence against Tutsi and people of Rwandese origin, hundreds of civilians and captured combatants were reportedly killed by civilians supporting the FAC in Kinshasa and other parts of the country.
Hundreds of people were detained, many of whom were prisoners of conscience. They included political party activists, community leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and people of Rwandese and Tutsi origin.
Political activists were detained for flouting the ban on opposition political party activity. Joseph Olengha Nkoy, leader of the Forces novatrices pour l'union et la solidarité, Innovative Forces for Union and Solidarity, was arrested in January and charged with endangering the security of the state. In May the Military Order Court sentenced him to 15 years' imprisonment. He was a prisoner of conscience.
Etienne Tshisekedi, leader of the Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS), Union for Democracy and Social Progress, was arrested in Kinshasa in February and banished without charge to Kabeya-Kamwanga village, Kasai-Oriental province, where soldiers were deployed to prevent him from leaving. The restriction was lifted in June. Many UDPS members were prisoners of conscience, including approximately 40 who were arrested in July for supporting Etienne Tshisekedi. A further 13 were arrested by soldiers on 9 July, including Firmin Nkama and Shabana who were severely beaten. Around 30 others, including eight of Etienne Tshisekedi's bodyguards, were arrested by police five days later. Nearly all of them were released without charge by the end of July.
In the east, local community leaders were detained after criticizing human rights violations. They were prisoners of conscience. Among them were at least 10 prominent figures in South-Kivu, including traditional chiefs, university lecturers and opposition party leaders, who were arrested in January and detained for up to two and a half months. Désiré Rugemanizi, chief of Kabare, was reported to have been severely ill-treated by members of the Agence nationale de renseignements (ANR), National Intelligence Agency, in Bukavu before his release in February. Three prominent community leaders from Uvira, South-Kivu province, were arrested in July after leading a delegation to the provincial governor to discuss the political situation. They were said to have been repeatedly beaten and held in appalling conditions for criticizing the authorities. They were released without charge after several weeks in custody.
Human rights activists were detained; many were tortured or ill-treated. In March Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, President of La Voix des sans-voix, Voice of the Voiceless, was beaten at his home by armed men, some in army uniform. Paul Nsapu and Sabin Banza, leaders of the Ligue des électeurs, Electorate's League, were arrested in April on their return from a meeting at the Belgian Embassy in Kinshasa and held by the ANR. They were prisoners of conscience. Both were released in August without charge. Oswald Hakorimana, a human rights activist in North-Kivu, was severely beaten in March by soldiers who accused him of documenting massacres of civilians.
Church leaders were also targeted. For example, Théodore Ngoye Ilunga wa Nsenga, a Protestant pastor who had been arrested in December 1997, was charged in February with endangering the security of the state and insulting the Head of State. He was held in the Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre, formerly known as Makala prison, until his release without trial in September. He was a prisoner of conscience.
Other prisoners of conscience included trade unionists detained for peacefully demanding labour rights. For example, three leaders of the postal workers' union, including its Secretary General, Makiona Benga, were arrested in March after preparing to strike in protest at non-payment of salaries. They were released without charge in April.
Prisoners of conscience also included journalists who were ill-treated, their newspapers seized and radio stations silenced by the authorities. For example, Albert Bonsange Yema, editor-in-chief of L'Alarme, was arrested in February after his newspaper criticized the arrest of Joseph Olengha Nkoy (see above). He was found guilty of endangering the security of the state by the State Security Court and sentenced in June to one year's imprisonment and remained in detention throughout the year. His diabetes worsened, apparently as a result of harsh prison conditions.
From August onwards, hundreds of Tutsi civilians, people of Rwandese origin, DRC nationals married to Rwandese, and people suspected of sympathizing with the rebellion were arrested without warrant by the security forces. The authorities claimed that Tutsi civilians were being held in "preventive" detention to protect them from lynch mobs. Visits by humanitarian organizations to detention centres in Kinshasa revealed that just over 100 civilians were being held there. Hundreds more were held in Lubumbashi and other parts of Katanga province. Many more were reported to have been arrested. It was feared that many others had been killed by government forces soon after their arrest.
Torture and ill-treatment were widespread. Early in the year women dressed in mini-skirts, trousers or leggings were arrested and tortured or ill-treated by FAC soldiers. Many were beaten at the time of arrest, then raped and otherwise tortured in unofficial or security force detention centres. About 30 members of the UDPS, including Jovo Bossongo and Honoré Kabeya, were reportedly tortured, including with electric batons, after their arrest in January. Female relatives of political activists were also arrested and tortured.
Trials before the Military Order Court, set up in August 1997 to try cases of undisciplined soldiers, contravened international standards of fairness. Those tried included civilians accused of political offences. In January Matthieu Ka Bila Kalele, a university lecturer, and Jean-François Kabanda, a freelance journalist, were convicted of spreading rumours and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, following publication of an article opposing the influence in the DRC of Rwanda and the USA. They were still held at the end of the year.
The Military Order Court also sentenced dozens of soldiers and civilians to death. Most had no access to legal counsel and no right of appeal to a higher court. President Kabila had powers to commute sentences imposed by the Court, but only the death sentence imposed on a 15-year-old child soldier, Malume Mudherwa, convicted of murder in March, was known to have been commuted by the President.
More than 100 people sentenced to death by the Military Order Court were executed. Two soldiers, one accused of rape and the other of shooting and injuring a fellow soldier, were executed in March without trial in Kamanyola barracks near Bukavu on the orders of a military commander.
At least 200 refugees from Burundi and around 140 from Rwanda were forcibly returned in April by the DRC authorities to their countries where they were at risk of serious human rights violations.
Armed opposition groups and their allies, including Burundian, Rwandese and Ugandan government forces, were reported to have committed grave human rights abuses, including the deliberate and arbitrary killing of hundreds of unarmed civilians. Members of the RCD sum-marily executed government soldiers at Kavumu, near Bukavu, in August. The same month RCD combatants and Rwandese soldiers reportedly killed 37 people, including Stanislas Wabulakombe, a Roman Catholic priest, and three nuns at Kasika Roman Catholic parish and as many as 850 other unarmed civilians in surrounding villages. Between August and December, RCD forces and their allies reportedly killed hundreds of civilians around Uvira. They were also reported tohave abducted or imprisoned scores of civilians and raped many of the women detained.
Throughout the year Amnesty International called on all parties to the conflict to respect human rights and international humanitarian law. The organization published several reports on the DRC, including Civil Liberties denied in February; A year of dashed hopes in May; and A long-standing crisis spinning out of control in September. In War against unarmed civilians, published in November, Amnesty International called on all parties to the conflict, governments in the region and beyond, and intergovernmental organizations to institute mechanisms to prevent an escalation of atrocities.
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