III. The Case of the 14th Brigade

The 14th brigade exemplifies many of the problems of Congo's army, as well as the challenges in preventing and punishing army abuses.

Creation, Structure, and Deployment of the 14th Brigade

The 14th brigade was created in 2006. The majority of its soldiers were former combatants of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma), one of the main, Rwandan-supported rebel groups that fought the national government during Congo's second war. In addition, the brigade also included former Mai Mai combatants (an armed group that opposed the RCD-Goma) andmembers of the former government army, the Forces Armées Congolaises (FAC). The brigade was divided into four battalions each broadly divided along ethnic lines which separated the Kinyarwanda-speaking soldiers (Congolese Hutu and Tutsi) from those of other ethnic groups.[46]

From its creation to early 2009, Col. David Rugayi, a Kinyarwanda speaker from Masisi (North Kivu), served as the brigade's commander.[47] During the second Congo war, Rugayi helped to establish a militia in support of the RCD-Goma, known as the Local Defence Force. In 2004, he was appointed a major in the 83rd brigade, a former RCD-Goma unit that had not yet been sent to brassage. In 2006 he was promoted to the rank of colonel and integrated into the new army as commander of the FARDC's 14th brigade.

The 14th brigade was one of the last brigades to undergo brassage in 2006. It had nine months of training and instruction, with support from South Africa, and instruction from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on international humanitarian law, including on civilian protection (see below for further details).[48] Although brassage wasaimed at overcoming previous political and ethnic divides, many 14th brigade soldiers felt aggrieved about the predominant role of Kinyarwanda speakers (mostly Congolese Hutu) in positions of command. In the words of one disillusioned former 14th brigade member, Colonel Rugayi "put his own people in positions of power."[49]

Soldiers of the then-newly integrated 14th Brigade of the FARDC at their unit's passing-out parade at the Rumangabo military base in North Kivu on September 15, 2006. Human Rights Watch does not intend or make any representation that the soldiers depicted in the above photo are responsible for the crimes discussed in this report. © 2006 Getty Images

Since 2006, the 14th brigade has moved around an area straddling the border between North and South Kivu.[50] In late 2007, the 14th brigade was sent to the frontline to fight the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a rebel group led by Laurent Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi who had refused army integration. In December 2007, in a tense battle at Mushake (Masisi Territory, North Kivu), the CNDP defeated a vastly superior number of Congolese army soldiers, including those of the 14th brigade. Soldiers fled the battlefront and dispersed in multiple directions, committing many abuses along the way.[51] The defeat was humiliating for the Congolese army and forced the government into peace discussions with Nkunda's CNDP.

After the Mushake debacle, the military hierarchy in Kinshasa temporarily suspended Colonel Rugayi who they suspected of having supplied the CNDP with weapons or information.[52] Army commanders also decided to canton the brigade further south, in Kabare (Kalehe territory, South Kivu), under the command of Rugayi's deputy, Col. John Tshibangu, an officer from another part of Congo. The move to South Kivu was considered by soldiers and by some military leaders as punishment for having lost the battle against the CNDP.[53]

From January to August 2008, the brigade was reconstituted in the town of Kabare. This period was characterized by widespread looting and abuses against civilians, as well as internal conflict within the brigade. When the approximately 4,500 troops and their families arrived in Kabare, the army provided them with no provisions, food, or shelter.[54] The soldiers were left to their own devices and as a result preyed on the local population for their basic needs. They destroyed fields, cut down a large number of trees and dismantled local wooden homes for firewood or their own shelter. Soldiers also erected barricades, extorted money from civilians, arbitrarily detained, tortured, and killed civilians, and committed acts of sexual violence against women and girls. One officer of the 14th brigade described the situation as "anarchy."[55]

There was also considerable internal division within the brigade. A group of Kinyarwanda speaking soldiers, led by a battalion commander and ally of Colonel Rugayi, Maj. Ringo Heshima, rejected Colonel Tshibangu's leadership. They were angry about Rugayi's suspension and their cantonment in Kabare, and might have used the violence to attempt to attract attention from decision-makers and the public to their grievances: a human rights activist in Bukavu reported that the soldiers encouraged them to inform the media about their abuses.[56] The same human rights activist visited Kabare and commented: "[The soldiers] lived according to their previous allegiance.... This was not a brigade any more, it was an amalgam of people who did not obey one commander."[57] When Colonel Tshibangu ordered troops to go further south to Baraka, they refused to go. Anger against Tshibangu over lack of food and over the plan to move south culminated in a mutiny on June 26.[58] There was shooting during most of the night of June 26, and according to press reports, one soldier died, and several civilians were injured, tortured, or otherwise abused.[59]

In July 2008, Colonel Rugayi was reinstated as brigade commander of the 14th brigade by the military hierarchy; the results of the investigations against him were not made public and remain unknown. In August 2008, the brigade returned to Minova and surrounding areas.

In early 2009, the 14th brigade was mixed with combatants from the CNDP and other rebel groups. The newly mixed forces had orders to participate in military operations against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan militia. Ringo Heshima was promoted to the rank of colonel and took over as commander of the brigade.[60] Colonel Rugayi was promoted to become the commander of the 32nd sector, made up of three brigades involved in operations against the FDLR in South Kivu. Two brigades in the 32nd sector (also sometimes referred to as the 5th axis), including one commanded by Col. Heshima, are made up of former 14th brigade soldiers as well as newly integrated combatants from former armed groups. Officially, the 14th brigade no longer exists, though many still refer to the brigade of Colonel Heshima as the 14th brigade.

The 14th brigade is not the only brigade that has undergone serious internal conflict and escapes full control by the military hierarchy. Brigade commanders often have a considerable degree of autonomy and have sometimes used this to further their control over local populations and mineral wealth. Some other brigades, particularly in North Kivu, have refused to join brassage and joined the CNDP.[61] Tensions over pay have often resulted in violence within the army as well as against civilians.[62]

Sexual Violence by the 14th Brigade

Throughout its existence, soldiers from the 14th brigade have been involved in many acts of sexual violence. Human Rights Watch documented 26 cases of rape perpetrated by soldiers of the 14th brigade. Twenty-three of the cases occurred since the start of 2008, the others before. Soldiers were identified as members of the 14th brigade because they wore purple epaulettes, the color designated for members of the 14th brigade, because they lived at a military camp where the soldiers of the 14th brigade were based, or because their superiors or peers identified them as such. Such detailed process of identification was necessary as Colonel Rugayi has claimed that some of the abuses in Kabare might have been carried out by members of the 3rd brigade, stationed nearby, by demobilized soldiers, police, and civilians.[63]

Acts of sexual violence were often carried out at the same time as looting activities, a trend seen in many other parts of eastern Congo where Congolese army soldiers are based.[64] In many of the cases, women and girls were gang raped. Those who tried to resist were frequently beaten, shot, or otherwise injured.

A girl raped by soldiers of the 14th brigade in late August 2008 when she was 17 years old told Human Rights Watch what happened to her:

I had gone to the fields to find potatoes. I was returning to the house. Then I saw soldiers coming toward me. They asked what I was doing in the fields. They said I could choose: give them food or become their wife. I said to take the food. They refused and took [raped] me, then they took the food anyway. They were two soldiers of the 14th brigade, with purple epaulettes and a solid color uniform. When the rape happened, there had been fighting and insecurity. The 14th brigade had fought CNDP that same day.[65]

A woman from Sake, about 25 kilometers from Goma, described how she was raped by 14th brigade soldiers in September 2008:

I was leaving the field in Mitumbale, near Sake, it was afternoon. When I arrived in Kihanga [about two kilometers from Sake], soldiers raped me. They were two soldiers from the 14th brigade. They were about 25, 26, 27 years old. They had purple epaulettes. We were three women and two ran away. Afterwards my friends came to help me. They took me to get medical treatment in Goma. I was bleeding a lot, and I was given medicine. I still take the medicine. I did not do a HIV test.... My husband left me. I now farm for other people and look after their children.[66]

The 14th brigade soldiers behaved particularly badly during the time when they were based at Kabare. A local teacher described this period as the "time of general trauma." He told Human Rights Watch how his 17-year-old niece was raped and injured by 14th brigade soldiers in Kabare on the night of the mutiny on June 26, 2008. As the girl tried to resist, the soldiers deliberately injured her eye to punish her. On another occasion, the same teacher witnessed the rape of two other girls. He told Human Rights Watch what he saw:

I was on my way back from Bagira. I met a group of girls and we walked together. We encountered a group of soldiers. It was around 6:30 p.m. and dark. Those who had the strength ran away. The soldiers caught two girls and raped them. They were about 14 or 15 years old. I fled and heard the screams of the girls. People made loud noise so the soldiers ran away. The girls cried all the way home. There have been no judicial investigations.[67]

A 13-year-old school girl from Kabare witnessed the rape of her older sister:

One evening some soldiers came to attack us. This was in February or March 2008. They said they would kill our father. The soldiers were angry with my dad because he had stopped them from cutting down an avocado tree [as firewood].... We stayed in the living room. Two soldiers raped my bigger sister. When he had finished, he injured her with a knife at the eye, and he did the same with my brother.... Then they left. My mother brews beer and they took the money she had earned from that.[68]

Soldiers also abducted women and girls and kept them under their control as sexual slaves for extended periods. One 23-year-old victim described her ordeal:

We were three young women and we were on our way to Cirunga. They [the soldiers] raped us and dragged us to their camp which was not far away. I stayed there for one month, under constant supervision. Even when I went to fetch water, he came with me to ensure that I did not run away.... There was no conversation between us, he had sex with me at any moment, when he felt like it, and with a lot of violence. I spent my days crying. I begged God to free me from this hell. The time was long enough to get pregnant.... One day they all went to the military parade in Bukavu, I seized that moment to...run back home.[69]

Some soldiers also had sexual relations with children, amounting under Congolese law to statutory rape regardless of consent. As a soldier of the 14th brigade explained, "soldiers find a girl who lives miserably, and offer her money, and she accepts."[70] One Kabare resident remembered how his niece was approached by a soldier:

Lots of girls were taken as girlfriends and wives. My wife's sister was taken, she was in the second year of secondary school, 15 years old. I could say she left with him [a soldier] voluntarily. He passed by to see her, we told her it wasn't a good idea but she left with him. He was maybe 32 years old, I don't know his name. Everybody was afraid to protest to the commander. The soldier gave no dowry.[71]

As a result of the rapes and other violence, many people fled their homes; even the highest local authority, the Administrateur du territoire (territorial administrator), fled. Most civilians only returned when the brigade left.

After the brigade's return to the Minova area, soldiers continued to commit sexual crimes. A soldier of the 14th brigade described the situation in March 2009: "There is a lot of forced marriage, where soldiers will say, 'if you don't marry me, I will shoot you.'"[72]

In the first half of 2009, Human Rights Watch received testimony of sexual crimes committed by soldiers in newly integrated brigades made up of former 14th brigade soldiers, as well former combatants from the CNDP and another armed group, the Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO).[73] A 15-year-old girl from Kihonga (Kalehe territory, South Kivu) described how she and her three-year-old sister were raped on May 5, 2009 by two FARDC soldiers:

There were six soldiers who came into my house. They first raped my three-year-old sister, and then two of them raped me while the others looted our house. They threw my newborn baby onto the ground, and because of the shock he is in a lot of pain whenever anyone touches his legs. The soldiers were wearing military uniforms and they spoke Kinyarwanda. There were Hutus and Tutsis and other tribes as well. After they raped me, they took my mother away with them. She hasn't come back yet, and I think she must be dead. Five other houses in Kihonga were visited the same night by the soldiers.[74]

Sexual violence has serious, long-term consequences. Some victims interviewed alluded to the pain and trauma they had suffered; sometimes they also mentioned that other family members were deeply affected by what had happened. Several victims suffered wounds on their genitals, weeks of bleeding, or other medical consequences. Despite the risk of HIV infection, not all victims interviewed had taken an HIV test. Those married were often rejected by their husbands, and often left their homes, losing an income and most belongings. Others were unable to continue their usual work due to their poor physical condition, or stopped going to school. Several victims had babies from the rape, facing the challenging task to raise a child born from violence. A 30-year-old woman who had been raped, injured, and looted by three soldiers of the 14th brigade told Human Rights Watch:

My husband repudiated me. He told me to go back to my village. But my parents are dead. So I came to [woman's name withheld]'s house. She gave me a skirt and this cloth to carry the baby on my back and to wear it when I am washing the skirt. After I got here I discovered I was pregnant from rape.... Every time I go out people say that my husband abandoned me.[75]

Civilian Protest against Abuses by the 14th Brigade

Civil society and local residents have frequently and loudly complained to local, provincial and national authorities about the human rights violations committed by 14th brigade soldiers, including cases of rape. Despite the abundance of these complaints and the information to back them up, military and civilian authorities have not taken the complaints seriously and have done little to stop the abuses.

Protests about the abuses by the 14th brigade were particularly numerous when the soldiers were based in Kabare. Several Congolese human rights organizations, the Catholic church, a traditional leader (Mwami), and local residents addressed letters and reports to the military authorities, the governor of South Kivu and President Joseph Kabila.[76] The vice-governor of South Kivu, encouraged local residents to write letters of complaint to national authorities in the hope it might elicit a response.[77] The letter and reports urged South Kivu's governor and President Kabila to transfer the 14th brigade elsewhere, to start judicial proceedings against the perpetrators, and to give the victims assistance. The South Kivu provincial assembly also debated the matter and appealed to the governor to request the brigade's transfer from the province. The governor, who has no authority over the national army, responded that the situation of the 14th brigade was outside his competence.[78]

Senior officers and commanders in the Congolese army who did have authority over the soldiers and who were responsible for having put them in Kabare with no provisions and food, abdicated responsibility for the unruly brigade.

UN agencies received reports about the abuses by the 14th brigade, visited Kabare several times, and set up a task force on the 14th brigade.[79] However, it was only after Colonel Rugayi's return in July 2008 that the UN established regular meetings with the brigade commander and pressed-largely unsuccessfully-for action on human rights abuses. After the departure of the brigade, in October 2008, the UN assessed the extensive damage done by the 14th brigade and organized humanitarian aid to assist the population.[80]

Lack of Clear Chain of Command

Soldiers in the 14th brigade were able to commit abuses without consequence partly because of confusion over chain of command and because commanders made aware of the problems did not take action against those responsible. The brigade lacked a clear chain of command both within the field, where Colonel Tshibangu's leadership was not accepted, and at senior levels in the military hierarchy. Military authorities who should have been in a position to give orders were either unwilling or unable to control the troops. The confusion over chain of command became particularly evident during the 14th brigade's stay in Kabare.

Following brassage, the 14th brigade was deployed in North Kivu, which is designated for military purposes as falling within the 8th military region, under the authority of the 8th region's military commander, General Mayala. But in late 2007, the brigade was ordered to regroup at Kabare, South Kivu, within the boundaries of the 10th military region, commanded by General Mazunzu. When problems occurred within the brigade and its soldiers carried out wide-scale abuses and harassment of the local population, the 10th military region claimed it was not responsible for the brigade, while the 8th military region stated it was responsible, but did nothing to deal with the situation.[81] The army's headquarters in Kinshasa failed to make clear which region was responsible. Different military officers gave contradictory answers when asked by Human Rights Watch about this. According to some, the 10th military region was responsible for the brigade.[82] General Masunzu, the head of the 10th military region, went to Kabare several times and urged the brigade's rebellious units in vain to move to Baraka. When the 10th military region sent trucks for the transport to Baraka, some soldiers rebelled and there was shooting.[83] On June 13, soldiers also shot at General Masunzu's car and hit one of his guards.[84] According to several residents, General Masunzu said publicly on the radio that the 10th military region had no control over the 14th brigade. He also told a human rights organization that the brigade reported directly to Kinshasa.[85]

In contrast, in an interview with Human Rights Watch, General Mayala, head of the 8th military region of North Kivu, said the 14th brigade depended on his military region for "operational" purposes, while depending on the 10th military region for "administrative" purposes, such as the payment of salaries.[86] However, the 8th military region did not take any action to respond to the problems in Kabare.

When Human Rights Watch asked soldiers within the brigade who they took orders from, a former 14th brigade official said that the brigade was under the control of the "operational command," a command structure for troops involved in military operations, separate, he said, from the military regions, and reporting directly to the headquarters in Kinshasa.[87]

De facto, control was with the military headquarters in Kinshasa, as illustrated by the suspension of the brigade commander in December 2007. Kinshasa's authority over the brigade was further evidenced by action they took following the mutiny against Colonel Tshibangu. The headquarters sent a high-level delegation to investigate the event composed of General Masamba, chief of the air force; Colonel Finda, a senior intelligence officer from Kinshasa; General Masunzu military commander of the 10th military region; and two military prosecutors.[88] Following their investigation, the Kinshasa headquarters reinstated Colonel Rugayi as the brigade's commander and decided that it be moved to Minova; Colonel Rugayi also advocated the move to a different location.[89] According to a former member of the 10th military region, this solution was considered a compromise between the rebellious soldiers who refused to move further south, and the 10th military region (and residents) which wanted the brigade to leave Kabare.[90]