CONGO
(DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE)
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
Head of state and government:
Laurent-Désiré Kabila
Capital: Kinshasa
Population: 46.7 million
Official languages: French, Kikongo,
Kiswahili, Lingala, Tshiluba
Death penalty:
retentionist
The war, which started in August
1998 and involved the forces of at least eight countries and
numerous armed groups, continued. Fighting escalated as did
unlawful killings and other human rights abuses by combatants.
Thousands of unarmed civilians, mainly in the east of the country,
were unlawfully killed. Several hundred thousand people fled to
neighbouring countries and as many as one million were internally
displaced. Ill-treatment and torture, including rape, were
widespread. The government and its armed opponents persecuted their
critics and clamped down on the rights to freedom of expression and
association. Some 200 people were sentenced to death by a
government military court; as many as 100 of them were
executed.
Background
The armed opposition — composed
of the Rassemblement
congolais pour la démocratie (RCD), Congolese Rally for Democracy, and the
Mouvement pour la libération
du Congo (MLC), Movement for
the Liberation of Congo — continued to be supported by forces
of the governments of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) government forces continued to be
supported by those of the governments of Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe
and reportedly Sudan. Chad withdrew its forces after signing a
peace agreement with the DRC government and Uganda in April. The
two other parties to the agreement, which was mediated by Libya,
did not implement it.
By the end of the year, the armed
opposition and allied foreign forces had captured most of eastern,
northern and central DRC from forces loyal to the government. A
number of Congolese armed groups known as mayi-mayi, as
well as others including Rwandese interahamwe militia and former Rwandese government forces,
continued to attack opposition forces and their foreign backers in
eastern DRC after forces loyal to the government were routed. In
September, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila appointed
several mayi-mayi
commanders to senior military
posts.
RCD factions and their allies carried
out widespread unlawful killings and other human rights abuses
against unarmed civilians suspected of supporting the government
and local armed groups. Their armed opponents also committed
abuses.
Early in the year the RCD split into
two factions; one supported by Uganda and the other by Rwanda.
Disagreements over control of captured territory and the war
strategy culminated in several days of fighting in August in the
capital of Orientale province. In December, the RCD factions and
the MLC announced that they had agreed to form a common front
against the government.
All forces involved in the fighting
obtained extensive arms and recruited thousands of combatants,
including children as young as 10.
Most people in the DRC were victims of
either direct attacks by combatants or of hunger and disease.
Services such as education and health collapsed. Most ordinary
Congolese lost their livelihoods and most government employees were
rarely paid, if at all. Whereas foreign forces on both sides of the
conflict were reportedly paid, Congolese combatants were generally
not paid, and became increasingly undisciplined, living on
extortion and looting from already impoverished civilians and
humanitarian organizations.
Government-controlled areas
Unlawful killings
Although extrajudicial executions by
government forces were far less widespread than in late 1998, many
unarmed civilians were killed as a result of direct or
indiscriminate attacks. Some of the victims were reportedly killed
by government forces who suspected them of supporting armed
opposition groups and their allies. Many civilians were reportedly
killed when government aircraft indiscriminately bombed areas in
which there were high concentrations of unarmed
civilians.
* In
January government soldiers reportedly killed several hundred
unarmed civilians in the northwestern towns of Zongo and Libenge,
which were under attack by MLC and Ugandan troops.
* From May onwards, dozens of unarmed civilians were
reportedly killed when the air forces of the DRC, Zimbabwean and
Sudanese governments bombed the towns of Goma, Uvira and
Kisangani.
Political prisoners
At the start of 1999 more than 1,000
people were being held for their known or suspected opposition to
the government. The majority of the detainees, including members of
opposition political parties, journalists, human rights defenders
and members of the Tutsi ethnic group, had not used or advocated
violence and were considered prisoners of conscience. Most of them
were released during the year.
Members of the opposition
As many as 200 members of opposition
political parties were detained for periods ranging from a few days
to several months because they had failed to abide by a 1997
presidential decree banning opposition political party activity.
Most of those detained were members of the Parti lumumbiste unifié (PALU), United Lumumbist Party, and of
the Union pour la
démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS), Union for Democracy and Social
Progress.
* At
least 76 members of PALU were arrested during July and held in
detention centres around Kinshasa. Seventy-two of them, including
70-year-old Albert Mputucieli, 67-year-old Louis Nkwese, and
Alexandre Tata, were held until mid-December when the government
released most political prisoners.
* Several UDPS leaders in Lubumbashi were arrested
because they were linked to documents criticizing the government.
Professor Kambaji wa Kambaji, a lecturer in sociology at the
University of Lubumbashi, was arrested on 30 July. Tabu Kalala Mwin
Dilemb, President of the UDPS for the province of Katanga, and
Tshiwadi Shamuyi, were arrested in August. All three were still
being held in the central prison in Kinshasa at the end of the
year.
Journalists
Dozens of journalists were arrested,
intimidated or harassed, often for writing or publishing articles
critical of the government or its policies. Most journalists
arrested during 1998 and 1999 were released. However, several
remained in custody, some after they had been sentenced to prison
terms by the Military Order Court.
* Mbakulu Pambu Diambu, a journalist with a private
television station and President of the local division of
the Union de la presse du
Congo, Congolese Press
Union, was still held at the end of 1999; he had not been formally
charged with any offence. Mbakulu Pambu Diambu had been arrested by
the Agence nationale de
renseignements (ANR),
National Intelligence Agency, in Matadi at the end of November 1998
because he hosted a television program on which representatives of
the armed opposition appeared.
* Thierry Kyalumba, editor of the newspaper
La Vision, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by the
Military Order Court for divulging state secrets. He had been
arrested in January after his newspaper published an article
refuting a government claim that an armed opposition leader was
dead. He was repeatedly beaten in custody. He escaped in May while
recovering from an operation for appendicitis and left the
country.
Human rights defenders
Human rights defenders were targeted by
the authorities for demanding respect for the rights of ordinary
Congolese citizens.
* Sister Antoinette Fari, a Roman Catholic nun and
veteran prison humanitarian worker, was arrested by the ANR in
Lubumbashi on 5 November. A day earlier, she had been questioned by
the ANR for two hours about her work with prisoners at Buluo
prison. She was transferred to Kinshasa before being conditionally
released on 7 December.
Union and student leaders
Trade unionists and student leaders
were subjected to human rights violations for demanding that the
government pay salary arrears to government employees or allowances
to students.
* Celestin Mayala, Malu Tshisongo and at least seven
other trade union leaders accused of organizing a workers'
strike were arrested on 3 August by members of the Rapid
Intervention Police in Kinshasa. They were held at the headquarters
of the Kinshasa Provincial Police, where they were reportedly
beaten before their release two days later without
charge.
Persecution of Tutsi
The government and its supporters
continued persecuting members of the Tutsi ethnic group and others
who had family or other links with them. They were accused of
supporting the RCD and their allies. Several dozen who had been in
hiding since late 1998 were arrested and joined hundreds of others
arrested soon after the armed conflict started. The government
claimed that the Tutsi were being held for their own protection.
During the second half of the year, the government succumbed to
international pressure and released most of the Tutsi detainees.
Several hundred were taken to Rwanda while others were taken to
Benin and Cameroon on the understanding that those fulfilling US
immigration regulations would be allowed temporary residence in the
USA. However, the vetting process had not started by the end of the
year.
Torture and ill-treatment
Many people were threatened with or
subjected to violence, including torture, at the time of their
arrest by members of the security forces. There were reports that
women were raped and men had their genitals beaten and pulled in
custody. Conditions in detention centres, particularly those run by
the security forces, often amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment.
* Clovis Kadda, a journalist, was arrested on 22
September and taken to Kinshasa military headquarters for
questioning. After the authorities established that he was a
relative of an armed opposition commander, he was severely beaten
by members of the security forces, four of whom reportedly
administered 57 lashes. He was released the following day and went
into hiding. Clovis Kadda was still suffering from his injuries at
the end of the year.
Military Order Court
The government increasingly used the
Military Order Court as a weapon against its opponents. Although
the Court was set up in August 1997 to try soldiers accused of
military offences, it also tried civilians accused of political and
economic offences. Trials by the Court were fundamentally unfair
and contravened international law and standards. The decree setting
up the Court specifically denies defendants the right to appeal to
a higher jurisdiction. Those convicted could only appeal to the
President for clemency, but in some cases the execution of those
sentenced to death took place so soon after the trial that it was
doubtful that President Kabila had been able to consider appeals
for clemency. Opposition political leaders and journalists critical
of the government or its policies were among those convicted and
sentenced to prison terms by the Court on political charges. In
many cases defendants had no access to legal counsel and, when they
did, lawyers did not have sufficient time to examine the evidence,
interview witnesses and adequately prepare a defence.
Death penalty
As many as 100 civilians and soldiers
were executed, virtually all of them in the first half of the year.
The victims had been sentenced to death by the Military Order Court
which had found them guilty of criminal offences including armed
robbery and murder. Some of them were soldiers convicted of
cowardice, desertion or other military offences. In a letter to the
UN Secretary-General and in a meeting with AI in July, the Minister
for Human Rights said that his government was making plans to
abolish the death penalty. However, the Minister said that
abolition would occur sooner if the government received material
assistance to reform and equip the judiciary and the penal
system.
Areas under rebel and foreign
control
Unlawful killings
Thousands of unarmed civilians were
victims of deliberate and arbitrary killings by armed opposition
groups and their allies from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Most of
the killings occurred during or soon after armed clashes between
RCD and allied forces on one side and mayi-mayi and
allied armed groups on the other. Most of the victims appeared to
be women, children and the elderly who had not been able to flee or
had not fled because they did not expect to be targeted by
combatants.
* Local human rights groups said that as many as 800
unarmed civilians were killed by RCD and allied troops from Burundi
and Rwanda at Makobola in South-Kivu province at the beginning of
January. The attack was apparently to avenge fellow combatants
killed by mayi-mayi. A
team sent by the RCD to investigate the massacre claimed that only
23 people had been killed, while at the same time calling for
another investigation. No such investigation is known to have
occurred.
* RCD soldiers publicly killed at least 12 women —
some of whom were buried alive after being tortured and raped
— accused of witchcraft in Mwenga, South-Kivu, between 15 and
20 October.
In Orientale province, many of the
killings were carried out by Ugandan and Ugandan-backed RCD troops.
These forces reportedly participated in the killing of hundreds of
members of the Lendu ethnic group in the context of intercommunal
violence between Lendu and members of the Hema ethnic group in
Ituri district.
Armed groups opposing the RCD and its
allied foreign forces also deliberately killed and abducted unarmed
civilians, including many women.
* In
October at least four women were killed by mayi-mayi in
Walungu, South-Kivu, accused of helping RCD soldiers.
Political prisoners
Dozens of suspected or known critics of
the war waged against the government by RCD and allied forces were
arrested and detained by the RCD and their allies for periods
ranging from a few days to several months. Many were arrested and
held in secret or unofficial detention centres, including private
houses, on unsubstantiated accusations that they supported
the mayi-mayi
or the interahamwe militia. Some of those arrested were journalists and
human rights defenders targeted for denouncing human rights abuses
committed by forces opposing President Kabila.
* Raphael Wakenge, a member of the human rights
organization Héritiers
de la Justice was arrested
on 27 August by the RCD in Bukavu. His arrest was apparently linked
to the arrest two days earlier of journalists Mushizi Nfundiko
Kizito and Omba Kamengele, accused of using their radio receiver to
listen to sensitive military transmissions. Raphael Wakenge had
been producing human rights programs on Radio Maendeleo, where the two journalists worked before the RCD
closed it in July. All three were released on 8
September.
Torture and ill-treatment
Many of those arrested by the RCD and
their allies were reportedly subjected to beatings, rape and other
forms of torture while in custody.
* Francine Ngoy, a 22-year-old woman, was arrested in
Goma in May and ill-treated in a military detention centre. She was
accused of collaborating with President Kabila's government. In
November, she was transferred to Gisenyi, in northwestern Rwanda,
where she was still held in military custody at the end of the
year.
* Several prominent people were arrested and tortured in
November by the Ugandan-backed RCD faction in Butembo. On 11
December, just 11 days after their release, one of them,
Désiré Lumbu Lumbu, died from a brain haemorrhage
believed to have been caused by torture.
International action
Although they resisted pressure from
the DRC government to condemn the invasion of its territory by
neighbouring countries, the UN, the Organization of African Unity
and the European Union called for an end to the armed conflict in
the DRC. In April the UN Security Council passed a resolution
demanding an end to the conflict and an inquiry into violations of
human rights and international humanitarian law as soon as the
security situation permitted. These organizations supported
mediation between the main parties to the conflict by Zambian
President Frederic Chiluba. The mediation culminated in the signing
of a cease-fire agreement by the governments of Angola, the DRC,
Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe in July, and by the armed
opposition groups in August. However, fighting continued as the
opposing forces accused each other of violating the
cease-fire.
In August the UN Security Council
authorized the deployment of military liaison officers to prepare
for the deployment of a peacekeeping force. The liaison officers
visited the countries involved in the conflict, but the
peacekeepers required by the cease-fire agreement had not been
deployed by the end of the year. A threat by the European Union to
suspend aid to countries continuing the fighting was only
implemented to any significant degree against the DRC and
Zimbabwe.
AI country reports and visits
Public statements
• Scores of executions in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (AI Index: AFR 62/015/99)
• Amnesty International urges
peace negotiators to place the protection of DRC human rights
defenders on the agenda (AI Index: AFR 62/019/99)
Visits
AI delegates visited Tanzania and
Zambia in September and interviewed Congolese refugees. Other AI
delegates visited parts of the DRC under government control in
August and eastern DRC in November.
 democratic republic of congo_2000.pdf |
democratic republic of congo_2000.rtf |
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