Amnesty report on DRC: human rights abuses by Ugandan troops andtheir allies of the RCD-ML

["serv. informazioni Congosol" <congosol@neomedia.it>]

Please find below a Public Statement published today about  new reports of
serious human violations by Ugandan and Rwandese troops in northeastern
DRC. We would appreciate any help you can give to publicise this
information and to exert pressure on the two governments, as well as the
United Nations, to implement the key recommendations in the statement.

Thank you.

Godfrey Byaruhanga
Central Africa Researcher

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement


30 June 2000
Amnesty International is appealing to Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda
and Paul Kagame of Rwanda to end atrocities by their troops in northeastern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ugandan troops are reported to be
involved in killings and other abuses against members of the Lendu ethnic
group in Kibali-Ituri province in April and more than 500 unarmed civilians
have been killed by Ugandan and Rwandese troops fighting in Kisangani
between 5 and 10 June 2000.

     The organization is urging the United Nations to urgently send human
rights monitors to investigate reported human rights abuses by Ugandan
troops and their allies of the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie -
Mouvement de libération (RCD-ML), Congolese Rally for Democracy -
Liberation Movement. The monitors should be provided with adequate
security, logistics and material resources.

     Recent reports from the province of Kibali-Ituri show that Ugandan and
RCD-ML troops continue to collude with Hema civilians to kill Lendu. Tens
of thousands of Lendu have fled their homes into forests where they have no
access to shelter, food or medical care. Many, particularly children, are
suffering from severe malnutrition and are exposed to major killer diseases
such as malaria, cholera and bubonic plague.

     On 20 April 2000, Ugandan and RCD-ML troops killed at least 15 unarmed
Lendu civilians in Rethy. About 250 Ugandan soldiers had arrived there four
days earlier and confiscated weapons, mainly bows and arrows, from the
local Lendu.  The population fled to surrounding forests where it has
remained fearing further attacks.

     On 22 April, Ugandan troops and armed Hema civilians attacked
displaced Lendu camped on a farm owned by a Lendu businessman at Buba,
situated south of Rethy. At least six Lendu were killed and cattle looted
by the attackers. The population sought help from Ugandan troops at
Kpandroma but these demanded to be provided with transport. When they got
the vehicle to transport them to Buba, the soldiers deliberately took the
longer route and arrived too late to be of any help. Survivors of the
attack fled into the forest.

     Previously predominantly-Lendu centres, such as Fataki, have either
been totally destroyed or taken over by Hema. Although the Lendu may be too
deep in the forest to be reached by the soldiers, many of them are
continuing to die from starvation, treatable diseases and exposure. Ugandan
soldiers and Hema armed groups are reportedly carrying out a deliberate and
calculated campaign to drive Lendu from their homes in areas rich in gold
and commercial wood. In a report entitled DRC: Killing human decency,
published on 31 May 2000, Amnesty International reported that as many as
7,000 civilians had been killed in Kibali-Ituri during the second half of
1999.

     Amnesty International is also continuing to receive details about
serious human rights violations committed between 5 and 10 June 2000 by
Ugandan and Rwandese troops fighting in Kisangani, the capital of DRC's
Orientale province. The violations were mainly characterized by
indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial executions of unarmed civilians and
summary executions of captured soldiers.

     Amnesty International urges the UN Secretary-General to urgently send
human rights experts to Kisangani to investigate violations of human rights
and international humanitarian law during fighting between Rwandese and
Ugandan troops in June 2000, as well as previously in August 1999 and May
2000.  In its Resolution 1304 of 16 June the UN Security Council requested
the UN Secretary-General to submit an assessment of the damage (loss of
life and property) as a basis for reparations.

     Promptly after the report by the investigators identifying the victims
and the perpetrators, the UN Security Council should demand that the
Ugandan and Rwandese governments compensate the victims without undue
delay, and that those responsible be brought to justice.

     Sources in Kisangani have informed Amnesty International that more
than 500 civilians were killed  -- some estimate as many as 1,000 -- during
the six days of fighting between the two armies. Some of the sources say
that it will take time to get a full picture as some of the bodies found on
the streets were of Rwandese soldiers who were stripped of their uniforms
by their commanders to disguise their identity.

     Cases of extrajudicial executions of local Congolese civilians include
a man identified as Bolembo, his wife and five children who were shot dead
by Rwandese soldiers on 7 June when the family was found looking at bodies
of dead Rwandese soldiers in their compound on 7th Avenue in Commune
Tshopo. On 9 June Ugandan soldiers shot dead Sophie Longeni, wife of
Raphael Matata, as she collected vegetables from her garden on nearby 5th
Avenue.

     Many people were killed when shells fired by both sides landed on
residential houses. For example, five members of the Kanyinda family, four
of them children aged between six and 13 years, were killed on 7 June when
a shell fired by Rwandese troops landed on their house on the 11th Avenue
in Commune Makiso. Four members of the Ngunga family, including three
children aged between two and 10 years, were killed on 5 June when a shell
fired by Ugandan troops landed on their house on Hospital Avenue in Commune
Makiso.

     Rwandese soldiers are reported to have summarily executed at least 10
Ugandan soldiers captured at Plateau Boyoma in Commune Makiso on 11 and 12
June, after the fighting had stopped. The organization is investigating
reports that some civilians in Tshopo were killed by Rwandese troops for
refusing to kill Ugandan soldiers.

     Meanwhile, civilians accused of links with Uganda, and particularly
Ugandan nationals, are reported to be at risk of human rights abuses by
Rwandese troops and their allies of the RCD-Goma in Kisangani. Rwandese
soldiers are reported to have broken into the house of a Ugandan Anglican
bishop, Tibafa, in Kisangani on 11 June, stripped his wife and stolen his
money. A Ugandan Roman Catholic priest, Raphael Wokorath, is reportedly in
hiding after he was being sought by Rwandese troops.

Background
Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi have sent armies to the DRC to support armed
opposition groups seeking to overthrow the government of President
Laurent-Désiré Kabila since August 1998. The armies of Zimbabwe, Namibia
and Angola are supporting the DRC government forces. Since August 1999 the
otherwise allied armies of Rwanda and Uganda have fought each other in the
DRC because of disagreements on territorial control of the areas they
occupy and support for rival Congolese armed opposition groups.


Amnesty International Public document - AI Index AFR 62/015/2000 - News
Service Nr. 128
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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London,
UK, on 44 171 413 5566




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