Congo-Kinshasa: Preliminary UN Report Confirms Over 300 Rapes By Rebels in Eastern DR Congo
24 September 2010
A United Nations human rights team today confirmed that at least 303 civilians were raped over a period of four days in late July and early August in the volatile far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), warning that the total number of victims may be even higher.
"The scale and viciousness of these mass rapes defy belief," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
"Even in the eastern part of DRC where rape has been a perennial and massive problem for the past 15 years, this incident stands out because of the extraordinarily cold-blooded and systematic way in which it appears to have been planned and executed."
The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men, and 3 boys, some of whom were raped multiple times, according to the 15-page preliminary report, prepared by the UN Joint Human Rights Office comprising the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Human Rights Division of the UN mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).
In addition, at least 923 houses and 42 shops were looted and 116 people were abducted in order to carry out forced labour, according to a news release on the report.
The attacks, which took place mostly after dark in the Walikale region, were carried out between 30 July and 2 August by a "coalition" of around 200 members of three armed groups - the Maï Maï Cheka, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and elements close to Colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, an army deserter who has also in the past been involved with the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) group.
OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that the attackers, armed with AK47s, grenades and machetes, initially pretended that they had come to provide security for the population, before launching attacks in small groups.
They subsequently cut off the main routes into the area and had taken control of a key hill, which was the only place where telephone communications were possible in the area, thereby preventing the population from raising the alarm, he added.
Mr. Colville also stressed that the total number of victims might well be higher, as attacks were still taking place in the area while the investigating team was in the villages. The attacks prevented the team from completing its investigation in six of the 13 affected villages.
In addition to the mass rapes in the Walikale region covered in the report, the FDLR also attacked 19 villages north-east of Shabunda during the first three weeks of August, allegedly committing a further 214 cases of rape. The UN Joint Human Rights Office has, however, not yet been able to confirm these cases and the exact circumstances surrounding them, due to serious insecurity in the area.
He added that both local leaders and victims believe the prime motive for the attacks were to punish and subjugate the local population whom the attackers viewed as "traitors."
The report points to serious shortcomings in the preparedness and response of the local detachments of the Congolese army and the police stationed in the area. It also notes that their failure to prevent or stop the attacks was compounded by subsequent failings on the part of MONUSCO forces, which the report says did not received any specific training in the protection of civilians.
A number of recommendations are made to both to the Congolese authorities and to MONUSCO to improve their systems to prevent such situations from arising. The report also urges humanitarian agencies to provide the Congolese authorities with much needed medical assistance and psychological care for all the victims, and the international community in general to support the efforts of the Congolese authorities to arrest those commanding the armed groups and bring them to justice.
Ms. Pillay offered the Congolese authorities her support to carry out investigations and bring the alleged perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
"I fully recognize the enormous difficulties this involves, but we have to do better. Impunity for rape in the past, and now, will simply breed more rape in the future. The cycle of impunity for sexual violence in this part of the DRC must be broken."
Source: allAfrica.com (http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201009240819.html)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
DR Congo Plans to Attack FDLR
Kigali — SENIOR officials of the Congolese army (FARDC) are in the DRC's volatile eastern region to assess the situation and come up with fresh strategies to battle against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia.
This was revealed by Maj. Vianney Kazalama, the Congolese army (FARDC) spokesperson in DRC's North Kivu Province.
"The chief of the army (FARDC Chief of Staff, Lt. General Didier Etumba), is currently in Walikale together with other senior army officers, to plan how to wipe out these rebels," he said.
The revelation comes shortly after Congolese President, Joseph Kabila, also toured the region and suspended mining activities in an attempt to clean up the sector and weed out rebel groups who are using the region's mineral wealth to fuel conflict.
The FDLR comprises remnants of masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. They fled the country in 1994 after masterminding the killing of over one million people. For the past 16 years, the rebels have been entrenched in the DRC's vast eastern region where they have continued to cause a humanitarian catastrophe - killing, raping and plundering.
In a series of attacks in July and August, the FDLR, in conjunction with their Congolese Mai-Mai militia allies, gang-raped 500 women and some children in Walikale.
"Ever since the last attacks and the rapes, there have been no more serious incidents," said Maj. Kazalama.
The Congolese army is reportedly increasing its deployments there in what seems to be another bid to purge the FDLR.
Following the recent Walikale atrocities, a top UN official - Atul Khare, the United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping, admitted that UN peacekeepers had failed the rape victims. Khare then also recommended that the UN Security Council imposes targeted sanctions against the FDLR.
source:http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201009201192.html
This was revealed by Maj. Vianney Kazalama, the Congolese army (FARDC) spokesperson in DRC's North Kivu Province.
"The chief of the army (FARDC Chief of Staff, Lt. General Didier Etumba), is currently in Walikale together with other senior army officers, to plan how to wipe out these rebels," he said.
The revelation comes shortly after Congolese President, Joseph Kabila, also toured the region and suspended mining activities in an attempt to clean up the sector and weed out rebel groups who are using the region's mineral wealth to fuel conflict.
The FDLR comprises remnants of masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. They fled the country in 1994 after masterminding the killing of over one million people. For the past 16 years, the rebels have been entrenched in the DRC's vast eastern region where they have continued to cause a humanitarian catastrophe - killing, raping and plundering.
In a series of attacks in July and August, the FDLR, in conjunction with their Congolese Mai-Mai militia allies, gang-raped 500 women and some children in Walikale.
"Ever since the last attacks and the rapes, there have been no more serious incidents," said Maj. Kazalama.
The Congolese army is reportedly increasing its deployments there in what seems to be another bid to purge the FDLR.
Following the recent Walikale atrocities, a top UN official - Atul Khare, the United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping, admitted that UN peacekeepers had failed the rape victims. Khare then also recommended that the UN Security Council imposes targeted sanctions against the FDLR.
source:http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201009201192.html
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Kabila Suspends 'Conflict Mines'
The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo has ordered a suspension on mining in three provinces during a visit to the eastern Walikale region, where the United Nation says more than 240 women were raped within a month.
Joseph Kabila said authorities want to weed out "a kind of mafia involved in minerals exploitation" that he accused of fueling conflicts.
D'Assise Masika, the mining minister of North Kivu province, which is affected by the ban, said on Friday that the president wants to clean up the sector and create better living conditions for people there.
An official presidential statement would be published in the near future, Masika said.
Rebel groups accused of committing atrocities against local populations in the three provinces - North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema - also control the lucrative mining activities in the region.
The provinces are rich in cassiterite and coltan, the minerals used to make phones, computers, games consoles and other electronics. They also have some gold reserves.
Among the armed groups running illegal mining operations are the Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - considered one of the main sources of instability in the region.
Officers of the DR Congo army and members of other rebel groups have also been accused of exploiting the mines.
Continuing conflict
Atul Khare, the UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping operations there, blamed the FDLR and its allies, the local Mai Mai militia, earlier in the week for a series of mass rapes between July 30 and August 3.
He also acknowledged that the UN had failed to halt "the unacceptable brutalisation of villages in the area".
Since war broke out in 1998, the DR Congo had been embroiled in a conflict that has left more than five million people dead - the highest war-related death toll since WWII.
In December 2008, the UN security council passed a resolution calling for a travel ban and asset freeze to be imposed on all individuals and entities supporting illegal armed groups in DR Congo through the illicit trade of natural resources. Another resolution was passed in December 2009.
While in May 2010, the UN adopted a resolution on the security situation in the DR Congo, in which it emphasised "that that the linkage between the illicit exploitation and trade of natural resources and the proliferation and trafficking of arms is among the major factors fuelling and exacerbating conflicts in the Great Lakes region".
A US financial reform bill passed in July 2010 also requires companies that engage in the trade and use of minerals like coltan to declare in an annual report if they are sourcing their supply chain from the DR Congo, or an adjoining country.
Source:
Al Jazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/09/201091155928846989.html)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The Latest from allAfrica.com on DR Congo
Congo-Kinshasa: UN Mission in DR Congo Prolongs Special Patrols to Deter Attacks Against Civilians
8 September 2010
The United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday said it was extending by another week an operation designed to enhance the protection of civilians in the eastern areas of the country where members of illegal armed groups raped some 240 people recently.
The UN mission, known as MONUSCO, last week launched the operation known as Shop Window, intended as a show of force and to boost protection of residents of the villages of Pinga, Kibua and Walikale in North Kivu province, where the mass rapes took place. The operation has been extended until 15 September.
The operation, carried out by some 750 peacekeepers with the support of attack and observation helicopters, is also aimed at providing security cover to efforts by the national authorities to apprehend those suspected of committing the rapes in villages along a 21-kilometre stretch of road in North Kivu between 30 July and 2 August.
Eight of nine new operational bases have already been set up under the new measure. As of Monday, 165 patrols and 21 helicopter reconnaissance flights had been conducted. The operation is also intended to be a tool to gather information on armed groups in the area and to meet local officials and community leaders.
source: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201009090010.html
8 September 2010
The United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday said it was extending by another week an operation designed to enhance the protection of civilians in the eastern areas of the country where members of illegal armed groups raped some 240 people recently.
The UN mission, known as MONUSCO, last week launched the operation known as Shop Window, intended as a show of force and to boost protection of residents of the villages of Pinga, Kibua and Walikale in North Kivu province, where the mass rapes took place. The operation has been extended until 15 September.
The operation, carried out by some 750 peacekeepers with the support of attack and observation helicopters, is also aimed at providing security cover to efforts by the national authorities to apprehend those suspected of committing the rapes in villages along a 21-kilometre stretch of road in North Kivu between 30 July and 2 August.
Eight of nine new operational bases have already been set up under the new measure. As of Monday, 165 patrols and 21 helicopter reconnaissance flights had been conducted. The operation is also intended to be a tool to gather information on armed groups in the area and to meet local officials and community leaders.
source: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201009090010.html
Monday, September 6, 2010
Deaths in DR Congo boat accidents - Africa - Al Jazeera English
Deaths in DR Congo boat accidents - Africa - Al Jazeera English
Hundreds of people are believed to have died in two separate river-boat accidents on the Democratic Republic of Congo's vast rivers over the weekend.
In the first incident in the Central African nation, around 70 people were reported to have drowned when a boat capsized on the Rupi River early on Saturday morning. Ebale Engumba, a local official in Equatuer province where the accident occurred, said the boat hit a rock while travelling in darkness without a light.
"We are going to arrest people involved who are in charge of regulating the boat's movement who failed to stop that boat from traveling at night,'' she said.
On Saturday evening, another boat, overloaded with passengers, caught fire and capsized in Kasai Occidental province, leaving around 200 people feared dead.
Local officials said that passenger manifest had been burned in the fire, leaving them unable to confirm how many people were on board, but witnesses said that the boat was overfilled with passengers.
Looting fishermen
One survivor, a woman named Romaine Mishondo, said the boat was already packed with "hundreds'' of passengers when it stopped some 10 minutes before the fire to pick up more people.
She said she did not know exactly how many people were aboard, but said the boat was so crowded it reminded her of "a whole market in the village full of people.''
She said that local fishermen quickly arrived on the scene, but began looting the boat rather than helping those in the water.
"Fishermen attacked the boat and started beating passengers with paddles as they were (trying) to loot goods,'' she said.
Mwamba Mwati Nguma Leonard, the boat's owner, said the fire had started while the boat was refuelling. "At the moment I am crying after learning my boat caught fire,'' Leonard said. "I was just told on phone that it was while seamen were putting fuel into the tank that an explosion occurred after the oil touched the vessel's battery.''
He said he has not been able to contact his employees who were at the scene of the accident, about 800km from the capital Kinshasa.
Francois Madila, an official from the navigation department in the province, said police had arrested two crew members and were investigating the incident.
Accidents common
River boats are a common mode of transport in DR Congo, which has less that 480km of paved road. The boats are often in poor repair and overloaded for trips, and many passengers are unable to swim, making fatal accidents a common occurance.
In July, officials said at least 80 people died when a boat ferrying about 200 passengers to DR Congo's capital capsized after hitting a rock.
In May, dozens of people died when an overloaded canoe capsized on a river in eastern DR Congo. And last November, at least 90 people were killed after a logging boat sank on a lake.
The timber-carrying vessel was not supposed to be carrying passengers.
Source:
Associated Press
Hundreds of people are believed to have died in two separate river-boat accidents on the Democratic Republic of Congo's vast rivers over the weekend.
In the first incident in the Central African nation, around 70 people were reported to have drowned when a boat capsized on the Rupi River early on Saturday morning. Ebale Engumba, a local official in Equatuer province where the accident occurred, said the boat hit a rock while travelling in darkness without a light.
"We are going to arrest people involved who are in charge of regulating the boat's movement who failed to stop that boat from traveling at night,'' she said.
On Saturday evening, another boat, overloaded with passengers, caught fire and capsized in Kasai Occidental province, leaving around 200 people feared dead.
Local officials said that passenger manifest had been burned in the fire, leaving them unable to confirm how many people were on board, but witnesses said that the boat was overfilled with passengers.
Looting fishermen
One survivor, a woman named Romaine Mishondo, said the boat was already packed with "hundreds'' of passengers when it stopped some 10 minutes before the fire to pick up more people.
She said she did not know exactly how many people were aboard, but said the boat was so crowded it reminded her of "a whole market in the village full of people.''
She said that local fishermen quickly arrived on the scene, but began looting the boat rather than helping those in the water.
"Fishermen attacked the boat and started beating passengers with paddles as they were (trying) to loot goods,'' she said.
Mwamba Mwati Nguma Leonard, the boat's owner, said the fire had started while the boat was refuelling. "At the moment I am crying after learning my boat caught fire,'' Leonard said. "I was just told on phone that it was while seamen were putting fuel into the tank that an explosion occurred after the oil touched the vessel's battery.''
He said he has not been able to contact his employees who were at the scene of the accident, about 800km from the capital Kinshasa.
Francois Madila, an official from the navigation department in the province, said police had arrested two crew members and were investigating the incident.
Accidents common
River boats are a common mode of transport in DR Congo, which has less that 480km of paved road. The boats are often in poor repair and overloaded for trips, and many passengers are unable to swim, making fatal accidents a common occurance.
In July, officials said at least 80 people died when a boat ferrying about 200 passengers to DR Congo's capital capsized after hitting a rock.
In May, dozens of people died when an overloaded canoe capsized on a river in eastern DR Congo. And last November, at least 90 people were killed after a logging boat sank on a lake.
The timber-carrying vessel was not supposed to be carrying passengers.
Source:
Associated Press
One Rape Per Hour
Congo-Kinshasa: Outrage Grows Over Failure to Protect Civilians
6 September 2010
Geneva — Human rights groups are demanding an investigation into the U.N.'s failure to prevent a raid from occurring where nearly 200 women were systematically gang raped by armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) late last month.
"These scandalous, outrageous atrocities should serve as a wakeup call for the international community," Marcel Stoessel, Oxfam International's country director in the DRC, told IPS in a phone interview.
Amnesty International echoed Oxfam's sentiments, calling for a critical investigation of the U.N.'s inaction.
"The DRC government and the United Nations must urgently review the failures to protect civilians to prevent such horrors from being inflicted again," Amnesty International said in a statement.
According to IPS, Amnesty also urged the immediate gathering and preservation of evidence in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Legally, the responsibility to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the mass rapes lies with the weak and often ineffective Congolese government, which has been under mounting pressure to capture and try the individuals responsible.
A spokesperson for the U.N. said that a team has been deployed to investigate the incident, and is expected to finish its work by the beginning of September. The Congolese government, however, is not involved.
Another official of a human rights group admitted that the rebels were not likely to be apprehended, much less prosecuted. He cited a leaked U.N. report, revealed by Le Monde on Wednesday, which accuses the government of Rwanda of war crimes, including possibly genocide, in the DRC as reflecting the history of violence in the region since 1993.
Rape is systematically used as a tool of war, with about one case of rape reported every hour - the perpetrators of which are usually armed men from rebel groups or the regular Congolese army, according to Amnesty.
Given the DRC's instability, in 1999 the U.N. sent a peacekeeping force to the country, now called MONUSCO, which is charged with the protection of civilians. This week, it was revealed that MONUSCO failed to act despite knowledge of the rebels' presence in the villages, and failed to respond timely after eventually receiving information of the mass rapes.
Source: allAfrica.com (http://allafrica.com/stories/201009060441.html)
6 September 2010
Geneva — Human rights groups are demanding an investigation into the U.N.'s failure to prevent a raid from occurring where nearly 200 women were systematically gang raped by armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) late last month.
"These scandalous, outrageous atrocities should serve as a wakeup call for the international community," Marcel Stoessel, Oxfam International's country director in the DRC, told IPS in a phone interview.
Amnesty International echoed Oxfam's sentiments, calling for a critical investigation of the U.N.'s inaction.
"The DRC government and the United Nations must urgently review the failures to protect civilians to prevent such horrors from being inflicted again," Amnesty International said in a statement.
According to IPS, Amnesty also urged the immediate gathering and preservation of evidence in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Legally, the responsibility to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the mass rapes lies with the weak and often ineffective Congolese government, which has been under mounting pressure to capture and try the individuals responsible.
A spokesperson for the U.N. said that a team has been deployed to investigate the incident, and is expected to finish its work by the beginning of September. The Congolese government, however, is not involved.
Another official of a human rights group admitted that the rebels were not likely to be apprehended, much less prosecuted. He cited a leaked U.N. report, revealed by Le Monde on Wednesday, which accuses the government of Rwanda of war crimes, including possibly genocide, in the DRC as reflecting the history of violence in the region since 1993.
Rape is systematically used as a tool of war, with about one case of rape reported every hour - the perpetrators of which are usually armed men from rebel groups or the regular Congolese army, according to Amnesty.
Given the DRC's instability, in 1999 the U.N. sent a peacekeeping force to the country, now called MONUSCO, which is charged with the protection of civilians. This week, it was revealed that MONUSCO failed to act despite knowledge of the rebels' presence in the villages, and failed to respond timely after eventually receiving information of the mass rapes.
Source: allAfrica.com (http://allafrica.com/stories/201009060441.html)
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