Congo: Rebel Fighting Imperils Beni Residents
Residents of the eastern Congolese town of Beni are caught in the crossfire of week-long violent clashes between two competing rebel factions, with many civilians killed and injured, Human Rights Watch said today.
(New York, June 12, 2001)
Beni is the administrative capital of parts of northeastern Congo
occupied by Uganda and nominally controlled by the Ugandan-backed rebel
Front for the Liberation of Congo (FLC). The clashes have erupted
between opposing factions of the Army for the Liberation of Congo (ALC):
those loyal to the FLC's leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, and those loyal to
Mbusa Nyamwisi, a local rebel leader who had left the town soon after
joining forces with the FLC.
The fighting has disrupted civilian life, forcing residents to hunker
down in their homes, and bringing schools, markets, and other civilian
activities to a standstill. An eyewitness who fled Beni yesterday told
Human Rights Watch that the population was fleeing to the surrounding
bush following the arrival on the same day of five truckloads of troop
reinforcements for Bemba's camp. The witness said seventeen people were
killed in the market area alone, while others were hit by stray bullets
as they fled. Soldiers looted the empty stands in the market after the
traders fled. The official Ugandan daily New Vision on Saturday reported
that fifty people were killed in the fighting. Human Rights Watch has
learned that the casualties included many civilians.
"Jean-Pierre Bemba and the Ugandan army backing him should do everything
possible to ensure that civilians are protected," said Suliman Baldo,
senior researcher at the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.
"Humanitarian groups must have access to those who were harmed in the
fighting."
Baldo called on the United Nations Security Council to condemn the
fighting, and to authorize the United Nations' Organization Mission in
Congo (MONUC) to send observers to investigate the situation in Beni, in
particular the extent of loss of lives among civilians and damage to
property, and report its findings to the Security Council.
For further information and analysis:
Eastern Congo/Uganda: A pattern of factional rebel disputes, with
disastrous consequences for civilians available online at:
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/06/drc0611-brif.htm
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