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DRC - Amnesty International press release
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- Subject: DRC - Amnesty International press release
- From: CONGOSOL - servizio informazioni <congosol@neomedia.it>
- Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 17:33:52 +0200
Title: DRC - Amnesty International press
release
=
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 14:59:19 +0200
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.
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