Kisangani killings news release for immediate publication andappeals

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source: Amnesty International
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE


AI Index:       AFR 62/009/2002    (Public)
News Service No:         99
12 June 2002

   Democratic Republic of Congo: Kisangani killings - victims need justice
now

On the second anniversary of the killing in June 2000 of as many as 1,200
people in Kisangani, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Amnesty International is seriously disturbed that the unlawful killings in
mid-May 2002 of as many as 200 people in the same city may have been a
direct consequence of the impunity enjoyed by the killers two years ago.

         "We acknowledge the importance of condemning the killings, but the
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and UN member states must go a step
further and demand adherence to international human rights law by taking
measures to ensure that the perpetrators and their leaders are brought to
justice", Amnesty International said today.

         The May 2002 abuses, including summary executions of civilians and
combatants, rape and pillaging, are reported to have been carried out by
members of the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) and combatants loyal to the
Goma-based faction of the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie 
(RCD-Goma), Congolese Rally for Democracy. RCD-Goma is sponsored by 
the
Rwandese Government to destabilize the DRC Government.

         The deliberate and arbitrary killings occurred hours and for days
after a group of mutinous RCD- Goma combatants occupied the armed
political group's Kisangani radio station on 14 May and called on the
population to use all means to end the occupation of eastern DRC by
Rwanda. Hundreds of civilians reportedly came out on the streets in
response to the call and killed several RPA soldiers and civilians
suspected of being Rwandese.

         "These horrendous abuses are reminiscent of those carried out two
years ago today by Ugandan and Rwandese troops, together with their
Congolese armed allies. That they have reoccurred in the same city that
the UNSC demanded that it be demilitarized is a clear indication that the
UN and its member states have not shown sufficient resolve to bring the
perpetrators to justice", the organization said.

         Civilians shot dead included Roger Bombata, a teacher at Simi-Simi
Agricultural Technical Institute, and his mother, Godée, Vicky Longombe, a
student at Home-Feyen Institute, and her 70-year-old grandmother, Mbutu.
Children too were not spared and those killed included 4-year- old
Dieu-Merci Bonganga shot dead in his bedroom. The killings were reportedly
carried out by an RCD-Goma unit known as Zoulou under RPA command.

         Combatants summarily executed reportedly include commanders
Dominique Kamba Mukunji, Yugo, Mangbau and Nyembo.

         Although the RCD-Goma initially claimed that less than 40
mutineers and loyal combatants had been killed in a fire-fight on 14 May
2002, sources in Kisangani have reported that a few days later several
dozen bodies, many of them in bags, were seen floating in nearby Tshopo
river. Some of the bodies, with arms tied behind the back, were reported
to have been decapitated. It is unclear whether the heads were severed
before or after the victims, many of them thought to be RCD- Goma
policemen and soldiers, had been killed. Sources in Kisangani have also
reported that many of the mutilated bodies recovered from the river had
been disemboweled and their stomachs filled with stones in an apparent
effort by their killers to prevent them from floating.

         As in June 2000, combatants involved in the May 2002 events
killed, raped and pillaged in Kisangani while members of the UN cease-fire
monitoring team known as MONUC were in town.

         To demonstrate their disregard for Congolese and international
opinion, RCD-Goma have at the start of June 2002 banned several MONUC
officials from the territory they control and demanded the removal of the
UN Secretary-General's representative to the DRC.

         RCD-Goma blamed protests against the killings and other abuses on
human rights defenders in Kisangani. Xavier Zabalo, a Roman Catholic
missionary priest was briefly detained and interrogated about his links to
a local human rights group. His colleague, Guy Verhaegen, required medical
treatment after he was assaulted with a rifle butt. Fearing for their
safety, human rights defenders in Kisangani went into hiding for about two
weeks.

         The United Nations and other inter-governmental organizations such
as the European Union and the African Union, as well as governments
committed to peace and justice, should make it clear that the perpetrators
of the Kisangani atrocities in June 2000 and May 2002 and their leaders
will be brought to justice. An important component of this process must be
providing reparations for the victims, including restitution,
compensation, and rehabilitation.

         "Victims require justice, now. No one should be considered to be
above international justice. The international community has decided that
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and former Rwandese leaders
are not above the law. Central African leaders and their proxy gangs
responsible for war crimes and other violations of international
humanitarian law in the DRC should be denied impunity too", Amnesty
International said.

Background
In June 2000, as many as 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were
unlawfully killed and many private houses and public buildings, including
churches and health centres, destroyed or severely damaged. Similar death
squads from Rwanda, the DRC and other countries in the region unlawfully
killed as many as 200,000 people, most of them Rwandese refugees, in the
DRC between October 1996 and May 1997. As many as 2.5 million people are
estimated to have been killed or died as a result of the war to overthrow
the DRC Government which started in August 1998.



Public Document
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Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW.  web: 
http://www.amnesty.org

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