DRC: War Is International, Not Local, says new report

The war in Congo has been miss-described as a local ethnic rivalry when in fact it represents an ongoing struggle for power at the national and international levels, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The report provides evidence that combatants in the Ituri region of north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have slaughtered some five thousand civilians in the last year because of their ethnic affiliation. But the combatants are armed and often directed by the governments of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

Embargoed for Release:
Tuesday, July 8, 2003
At 00:01 GMT
(For Tuesday’s newspapers)
Congo: War Is International, Not Local
New Report Documents Role Beyond Tribal Conflicts

(New York, July 8, 2003) – The war in Congo has been misdescribed as a
local ethnic rivalry when in fact it represents an ongoing struggle for
power at the national and international levels, Human Rights Watch said
in a new report released today.

The 57-page report, ‘Covered in Blood’: Ethnically Targeted Violence in
Northern DR Congo, provides evidence that combatants in the Ituri region
of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have slaughtered some
five thousand civilians in the last year because of their ethnic
affiliation. But the combatants are armed and often directed by the
governments of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

A number of treaties and ceasefires, the most recent signed in Burundi
on June 19, have supposedly ended the conflict between the governments
of Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC, as well as Congolese rebel movements set
to share power with the Kinshasa government. But the minor players—often
the proxies for the principals—continue the war.

“Agreements between governments don’t do much good when the government
armies are just passing their guns on to local militias,” said Alison
Des Forges, Senior Adviser to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.
“The crisis in Congo won’t be resolved without addressing all levels of
this conflict.”

The majority of the population in Ituri are neither Hema nor Lendu, the
ethnic groups whose militias are responsible for much of the current
violence. But all inhabitants of Ituri have been forced to choose sides,
and are subject to attack because they are thought to be associated with
either Hema or Lendu groups.

In recent months, human rights workers have not had access to rural
Ituri or been able to provide information about specific massacres of
civilians. But the Human Rights Watch report covering events in the past
12 months presents evidence of, among others, a civilian massacre at
Nyakunde in early September 2002, where Lendu combatants slaughtered
some 1,200 people of the Hema and related groups. Over a 10-day period,
the killers dragged victims from their homes and murdered patients found
in beds at a missionary hospital. According to Human Rights Watch
research, the Nyakunde massacre claimed significantly more victims than
has previously been known.

Uganda occupied Ituri, an area rich in mineral resources and potentially
a major source of oil, from 1998 to May 2003, when it withdrew its
troops under heavy international pressure. During its occupation,
Ugandan soldiers provided arms and military training to different ethnic
groups, fostering the spread of an initially limited dispute between
Hema and Lendu over land..

The DRC government supports and arms the Congolese Rally for
Democracy—Liberation Movement (RCD-ML) which often joins in combat with
militia of the Lendu and related Ngiti groups. Rwanda backs the
RCD-Goma, a movement split from the RCD-ML, that provides aid to the
Union of Patriotic Congolese (UPC), a Hema militia group that has
recently controlled the Ituri town of Bunia.

The Human Rights Watch report details how combatants tortured and
summarily executed political opponents and raped women of rival ethnic
groups. They also engaged in such inhumane acts as the mutilitation of
bodies and cannibalism.

“Violent death is now an everyday occurrence in Ituri,” said Des Forges.
“Killers have resorted to cannibalism to terrorize people they want to
control.”

The Human Rights Watch report charges that all groups recruited
children, some as young as seven years old, for military service. Local
observers describe the fighting forces as “armies of children.”

Militia have driven some half a million people from their homes, and
looted and burned the dwellings. To weaken their enemies, various
militia have impeded deliveries of food or other forms of humanitarian
aid to displaced people and others in need, increasing immeasurably the
number of civilians dead because of the war. In some thirty cases in
recent months they have threatened, beaten, and expelled humanitarian
workers.

A United Nations Observer Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo
(MONUC), present primarily to monitor ceasefire arrangements, had
neither the mandate nor the numbers and equipment needed to protect
civilians.

After UPC Hema militia slaughtered hundreds of civilians in Bunia in
early May, the U.N. Security Council authorized an Interim Emergency
Multinational Force to restore order inside the town. The Multinational
Force, consisting mostly of French troops, was the first mission ever
deployed by the European Union. It has managed to stop killing inside
Bunia, but will end its mission in September.

In September, the U.N. force, strengthened by several thousand more
soldiers, will be the only international force present in DRC. The
Security Council will soon consider the size and mandate for the force.

“The Security Council must ensure that civilians in Bunia and elsewhere
will be protected after the interim force leaves,” said Des Forges.
“They must provide the peacekeepers and the mandate necessary to prevent
further ethnic killing.”

The report is available online at the following location during the
embargo period:
http://docs.hrw.org/embargo/ituri/, using the username “ituri” and
access-code “drc0703.”

After embargo, it will be available at:
http://hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/.

For more information, please contact:
In Buffalo, Alison Des Forges: +1.716.881.2758
In London, Anneke van Woudenberg: +44.207.713.2786 (office)/
+44.771.166.4960 (mobile)
In Washington, Janet Fleischman: +1.202.612.4325

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Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
Phone: +1-202-612-4347
Fax: +1-202-612-4333
http://www.hrw.org/africa/index.php
en français, http://www.hrw.org/french/africa/