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Congo (Kinshasa): War Goes On, Little Pressure for Peace
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Oct 11, 2008 (081011)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, site of the United
Nations' largest peacekeeping operation, attracts little attention
from the world's media. Conditions vary from place to place in that
vast country. But violence continues at high levels in parts of the
country, particularly North Kivu, and efforts to rebuild functional
state security and oversight over the economy still face enormous
obstacles.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from a recent report
from Amnesty International, focusing on the continuing crisis of
war-related rape and violence against women and children in North
Kivu. The Bulletin also includes links to other recent reports
touching on issues of security, displacement, and accountability in
the mining and logging industries.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, as well as links to additional background and current
news, visit http://www.africafocus.org/country/congokin.php
For updates on United Nations operations in the DRC and related
news, in French and English, see http://www.monuc.org
For a selection of books with background on the past and present of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/books/afbooks.php#conk1
or http://www.africafocus.org/books/afbooks_uk.php#conk1
Two that cover events in recent years, up to 2007, are The Congo
Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality (http://www.africafocus.org/books/isbn.php?1842776894) and The
Congo: Plunder and Resistance (http://www.africafocus.org/books/isbn.php?1842774859), both
published by Zed Books.
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North Kivu: No End to the War Against Women and Children
Amnesty International
AI Index: AFR 62/005/2008
September 29, 2008
[Excerpts: For a press release and the full report, see
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR62/013/2005]
Introduction
Months after a peace agreement to end conflict in North Kivu
province, eastern DRC, civilians are still being killed, raped,
abducted and tortured by armed group and government forces.
Amnesty International has found substantial evidence that armed
groups in North Kivu have continued to commit crimes under
international law, including unlawful killings, rape, torture, and
the recruitment and use of child soldiers, even after the armed
groups promised to immediately end these abuses in a 23 January
2008 "Act of Engagement". Government security forces have also
unlawfully detained and in some cases tortured and ill-treated
captured children, and continue to rape and sexually abuse women
and girls.
Amnesty International welcomes the intensive national and
international efforts that have been made to resolve the armed
conflict in North Kivu, in particular the establishment of the
Amani Programme for the security, pacification, stabilization and
reconstruction of the Kivu provinces. If the peace process is to
remain credible, however, human rights abuses committed by both
state and non-state actors must end.
...
This report is based on eyewitness testimony collected in the
province of North Kivu during February and March 2008.
Background
In August 2007 armed conflict erupted in the province of North
Kivu. The renewed fighting, the worst since the official end of
the DRC conflict in 2003, pitted the regular Congolese army (FARDC)
against the CNDP armed political group, under the command of
renegade general Laurent Nkunda. Also involved were mayi-mayi
ethnic militia opposed to the CNDP, and the Rwandan FDLR, a mainly
Rwandan Hutu armed insurgent group which contains remnants of
forces allegedly responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The
United Nations (UN) peace-keeping force in the DRC, MONUC, was
unable to contain the fighting and at its height could only assure
the security of major population centres. ...
Civilians bore the brunt of the violence, which was marked by
serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian
law by both the armed groups and government armed forces and which
triggered a desperate humanitarian crisis. By the end of 2007, more
than 500,000 people had fled their homes and sought shelter with
host families or in camps for the internally displaced that sprang
up across the province. The humanitarian and security situation in
many sites, many of which are located close to military positions,
is extremely poor.
The escalating violence in North Kivu, which again threatened
regional stability, led to concerted international efforts to
resolve the crisis. In November 2007, the governments of the DRC
and Rwanda agreed, in the "Nairobi communiqu‚", to take joint
measures to dismantle the FDLR. ... The Nairobi agreement was
mediated by the UN, the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU)
and the United States (US), and was followed in March 2008 by UN
Security Council Resolution 1804, which demanded that the FDLR
immediately lay down their arms and submit to repatriation to
Rwanda.
In January 2008, after the failure of a government military
offensive against the CNDP, a Conference on Peace, Security and
Development for the Kivus was organized in Goma, the capital of
North Kivu. The conference, which was again facilitated by
representatives of the US, AU and EU, brought together
representatives of the DRC government, the CNDP, PARECO and other
Congolese armed groups (the FDLR was not invited to the conference)
and Kivu civil society. The negotiations led to an "Act of
Engagement" signed on 23 January by Congolese armed groups in the
Kivus, including the CNDP and PARECO, in which they committed to an
immediate cease-fire, to the progressive demobilisation of their
forces, and to an immediate halt to violations of international
humanitarian law, including "acts of violence... of all forms
against the civilian population, particularly women and
children..." ...
The Peace Conference also led to the creation of an ambitious
government-led programme, known as the Amani Programme, for
security, pacification, stabilization and reconstruction of the
Kivus, which has the potential to resolve some of the underlying
causes of instability in the Kivus. ...
In spite of the promise held by these initiatives, however, the
situation in North Kivu has not fundamentally moved forward since
January 2008. The province remains deeply insecure and the human
rights situation continues to be appalling. Since the signing of
the Act of Engagement, the cease-fire has been broken on hundreds
of occasions, thousands of women and girls have been raped,
hundreds of children recruited into the armed groups, often through
abduction, and scores of civilians unlawfully killed. ... The Amani
Programme is being vigorously promoted by its National Coordinator,
Abb‚ Apollinaire Malu Malu, and his staff, but has not yet been
able to deliver tangible results.
...
The UN peacekeeping mission to the DRC, MONUC, is the only force
which is currently providing meaningful security for civilians in
North Kivu. ... MONUC has made strenuous efforts to fulfil its
protection mandate in North Kivu, including by the redeployment to
the province of additional peace-keepers, establishing mobile bases
and standing combat deployments in insecure areas. However, the
force, despite reinforcement, is still relatively thinly spread and
its protection and assistance activities are limited ,,,
The Continuing Horror of Rape and Other Forms of Sexual Violence
In North Kivu, members of armed groups and government security
forces continue to rape and sexually abuse women and girls, and in
a smaller number of cases, men and boys. Infant children and
elderly women are among the victims, many of whom have suffered
gang rape or have been raped on more than once. Rape has been
committed in public and in front of family members, including
children. Some women have been abducted and held as sexual slaves.
In many cases, sexual abuse and rape appear to be ethnically
motivated and/or aimed at terrorizing and demoralizing communities
suspected of supporting enemy groups. ...
Complete statistics of the scale of rape in North Kivu do not
exist. According to December 2007 UN figures, around 350 rape cases
are reported every month in North Kivu, with around a third
committed against children under 18. The North Kivu Provincial
Commission for the Struggle Against Sexual Violence, however,
reported 800 new cases in April 2008 alone, 670 of which were in
Rutshuru territory. ... Given the reluctance or inability of many
women and girls to come forward to report rape or seek medical
care, however, it can be assumed that the actual number of victims
is much higher.
...
Despite these multiple legal obligations that bind all parties to
the conflict in the DRC to refrain from rape, other forms of sexual
violence and sexual slavery and bring any suspected perpetrators to
justice, women, girls and in some cases boys and men continue to be
subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence.
Elise is 16 years' old. She told Amnesty International that on 12
February 2008 she was abducted by two junior army (FARDC) officers
near Vurundo, in Beni territory. They forced her to a nearby
military camp, threatening to kill her if she resisted. She was
held at the camp for five days, where she was raped every night,
always by the same officer. During the day she was forced to do
domestic work. On the fourth day of her captivity, her mother
arrived at the camp looking for her. Elise was distraught,
however, when her mother was refused entry and turned away by the
soldiers. It was only on the fifth day, when her mother returned
with a local administrator [chef de quartier], that the soldiers
agreed to let her go. Throughout her ordeal, Elise told Amnesty
International: "The other soldiers in the camp didn't seem to care
or be willing to take responsibility. Only when my mother came with
the chef de quartier did they take any notice." Since the rape,
Elise suffers persistent headaches and flashbacks. She is
receiving medical and psychosocial care from a local
non-governmental organization.
...
Marie is a 13-year-old from a village near Bingi, Lubero territory.
On 27 January 2008 she was returning home from a friend's house.
I saw a man running towards me. He grabbed my hand and called
another man over. They took me to the mayi-mayi camp. One of the
men was dressed in military fatigues and the other in civilian
clothes. They led me to a hut where the soldier in military
clothing raped me. Once he had finished, he fell asleep. I stayed
there all night, crouched on the floor. The following day, they
let me go. When I arrived home, I told my mother. She took me to
hospital. The nurses wrote a letter to the commanders at the camp.
They also took me to the camp so that I could show them who the
perpetrator was. As punishment, the soldier was whipped in front
of me. He was then let go.
Marie now experiences severe headaches, which she tries to
alleviate by taking vitamin tablets. She has not seen the man who
raped her since the attack, but lives in fear that he will return.
...
Recruitment and Use of Children
In the January Act of Engagement, the armed groups of North and
South Kivu committed themselves to "a total and immediate halt ...
of all new recruitment", to an immediate "halt to acts of violence,
extortion, discrimination and exclusion, of all forms, against
civilian populations, particularly women and children, the elderly
and disabled" and to a "prohibition of all recruitment and
particular promotion of the rights of children in conflict (or
post-conflict) zones". ...
At the height of the DRC conflict, around 30,000 children were
estimated to be serving with the armed forces and non-state groups
party to the conflict throughout the DRC. Under a government and
international demobilisation programme, which began in 2005, the
majority of these children were released into the care of UNICEF or
specialist child protection NGOs and, where possible, reunited with
their families. The regular army formally ended the recruitment
and use of children in November 2004. ...
This progress has been seriously undermined in North Kivu, however,
with disastrous consequences for children. In North Kivu, armed
groups continue to use children aged under 18 and the conflict has
led to a resurgence in the recruitment of children into fighting
groups. Although releases of children from the armed groups still
take place in the province, these appear to have been outnumbered
by new recruitments of children. One international child
protection worker told Amnesty International, "For every two
children released, five are taken". Particular targets for
recruitment are children who had previously served with armed
groups but who had been reunited with their families as part of the
national DDR programme. According to one estimate, given to
Amnesty International by an international source, of the former
child soldiers who had previously been reunited with their families
in North Kivu, as many as half may since have been re-recruited by
the armed groups.
...
Caught between two sides: state violations against children
associated with armed groups
Rostin, a 16-year-old Hutu boy from Masisi territory, suffered at
the hands of both CNDP and government forces. In October 2007, he
and other children from his village, warned that the CNDP was
recruiting children by force from schools, had taken to hiding in
the countryside. Rostin recalls: "We built our own shelters in the
brush. Our parents brought us food. We made sure that there were
never more than five us together. Sometimes we could creep back to
the village, but cautiously. We spent two months like that."
As the fighting drew closer, his family fled to an IDP camp at
Kirolirwe, an area under CNDP control. In late December, "A group
of CNDP soldiers came to the camp. They ordered us: 'Those that
are young and have strength, stand up!' About 20 stood up and
followed the CNDP soldiers out. Those that didn't stand up were
picked out and beaten." Rostin was taken to a farm at Kabati, in
Rutshuru, where he underwent one week of military training with
around 40 other children before being sent to the frontline.
Shortly afterwards, he made his escape and while trying to find his
way out of the forest was picked up by FARDC soldiers who, he says,
arrested him and beat him badly.
The next day I was taken to T2 [FARDC military intelligence] in
Goma and put in a cell. There were seven of us, including three
children. We spent around three weeks there. We were fed a
handful of haricot beans a day, and given only small amounts of
water. They soldiers beat us regularly. When we were hit on one
side of the face, we were ordered to offer the other cheek also. At
night the CNDP detainees were made to hang from the bars of a small
overhead window. When eventually we fell, we dropped on to other
detainees sleeping on the floor below. They had been given orders
to beat us when we fell.
...
Recruitment, ill-treatment and unlawful killings by armed groups
Seraphin told Amnesty International that he was in the 6th year of
secondary school in Kitchanga when he was abducted by the CNDP in
mid-2007. "I was at school studying when CNDP soldiers turned up
and gathered all the 6th year boys together. They took 12 of us in
total aged from 16, and drove us to the training camp at Bwiza.
There they put us in a pit in the ground. Some of us tried to get
away but we were beaten. I was stabbed in the stomach and tied up."
Christophe, who bears the scar of what appears to be a knife wound
to his stomach, submitted to the training. Of the 250 people with
him in the camp, he estimated that 60 were children, including a
small number of girls. "The training was hard. We were fed one
plate of maize meal a day, shared between 12 people. Some people
died because of a lack of food or because of illness. Other people
were killed when they tried to escape, shot in public as an example
to us. We were forced to dig holes and bury the bodies, right
there beside where they had been killed."
...
Commanders of all armed groups will often deliberately brutalize
children, forcing them to commit crimes, including murder and rape,
against their will. Where children have committed crimes under
duress, the responsibility for these crimes clearly lies with their
adult commanders, but such crimes remain a major barrier to
community reconciliation and the successful reintegration of
demobilised children. ...
Samuel, aged 16, was re-recruited from his home by mayi-mayi forces
in August 2007, having previously served with the mayi-mayi for
nearly a year in 2006. Samuel told Amnesty International that his
unit regularly raped women, killed and looted, often under the
influence of alcohol and drugs. He reported that some commanders
would withhold food from boys unless they raped a woman or girl.
He continued:
Once I killed a deserter. The major knew where this man lived and
wanted his weapon back. We went to the man's house and caught him.
The older soldiers called me over. They said I had a choice -
either slit the man's throat or be killed. I killed the man
because I had to save my own life. Afterwards I felt scared.
...
Protecting Women and Children Is Essential to Reviving the Peace
Process
The Congolese people can have little faith in a peace process in
which the belligerents continue systematically to kill civilians,
rape women and girls, and abduct children. ,,, Until there is a
basic level of human security where people can go about their daily
lives without fear of sexual violence and abduction there will be
no peace in the DRC.
...
The prime movers of the insecurity in the Kivus, on both government
and armed group sides, are aware of their obligations under
international humanitarian law, drawn unceasingly to their
attention by the UN as well as international and national human
rights and humanitarian organizations. Amnesty International
believes that no further amount of mediation or facilitation will
significantly advance the cause of peace in North Kivu unless,
first, there is an immediate and unequivocal halt to violations and
abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law. The
priority of the international community must therefore be to
convince all armed forces present in the Kivus to abide immediately
by international human rights standards or face justice.
The DRC government, with support and assistance of the
international community, must for its part make justice a living
and convincing reality. This involves the rehabilitation of the
civilian court and policing services so that they are capable of
properly investigating and prosecuting human rights violations,
including especially crimes of sexual violence and crimes against
children. ...Amnesty International believes that the Amani
Programme should make this one of its core objectives in the search
for peace and reconciliation in the Kivus, and that this should be
complemented by clear national strategies to address violence
against women and children and to tackle impunity. Women's and
child protection NGOs and agencies, national and international,
should have a central role in the design and implementation of such
strategies.
MONUC, too, has a key role to play in protecting women and children
and in bringing an end to systematic sexual violence and child
recruitment. Ensuring that women and children are a priority in
MONUC peacekeeping and civilian protection operation, particularly
by patrolling in locations where women and children are most
exposed to risk of human rights abuse and through regular
consultations between peacekeepers and women's and children's NGOs,
will help. But MONUC must also ensure that a clear priority and
focus is put on ending impunity for human rights abuse against
women and children in its crucial programmes of support to the
rehabilitation and reform of the DRC's justice and security
sectors. Initiatives such as recent MONUC human rights training to
Congolese police in North-Kivu on laws on sexual violence
procedures for helping rape survivors and the protection of victims
and witnesses are essential and should continue and be expanded.
At the political level, too, MONUC should press the government to
ensure that women and children's civil society organizations are
included at all levels of the Kivu peace process ...
It is also essential for all parties with the support of the
international community to protect and encourage the DRC's human
rights and civil society activists. These human rights defenders,
with limited resources and often under situations of physical
threat, work on behalf of the survivors of human rights and
humanitarian law abuses and violations with an exceptional and
lonely courage. They are usually the first refuge for survivors of
rape and other forms of sexual violence and for children in
distress, including those who have been forced to take part in the
conflict. Amnesty International calls on the DRC government and
international community to recognize and support the work of these
individuals and organizations, and to provide them with greater
protection.
Recent Reports on the Democratic Republic of the Congo
IRIN, report on Enough Project statement, "Save Eastern Peace
Process from Collapse"
http://allafrica.com/stories/200810030747.html
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, latest reports on the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
http://tinyurl.com/4xscn2
"Opportunities for Recovery in Northern Katanga, Refugees
International, October 8. 2008
http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/10861
Candide au Congo. L'échec annonc‚ de la réforme du secteur de
sécurité (RSS) 17/09/2008 by S‚bastien Melmot, Focus stratégique n
9, Paris, Ifri, septembre 2008
http://www.ifri.org/files/Securite_defense/Focus_Candide_Congo.pdf
For an Effective and Credible MONUC (Sept. 29, 2008)
and The Goma Agreement: Chronicle of a missed opportunity (Sept.
15, 2008)
http://www.eurac-network.org/web/plaidoyer.php
Global Witness, "Control of Mines by Warring Parties Threatens
Peace Efforts in Eastern Congo," September 10, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/4jr6kp
"Congo logging review could lead to more forest destruction, warns
Greenpeace" 08 October 2008
http://tinyurl.com/525yyn
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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