V. Crackdown on the BDK in Bas Congo

State security forces acting under the authority of President Kabila have used unnecessary or excessive force against Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK), a political-religious group based in the province of Bas Congo, much as they did with Bemba and his supporters. The BDK is the latest of a series of independent religious movements in Bas Congo, a province in the westernmost part of the country whose people have often complained of being marginalized in Congolese politics and whose leaders seek greater autonomy.[213] The Belgian colonial administration, as well as the Mobutu government, used harsh tactics against such movements in order to keep the economically important province firmly under control.

With Kabila as president, there have been several clashes between BDK members and police and soldiers. In July 2002 soldiers killed 14 unarmed BDK supporters who were demonstrating for provincial autonomy. In June 2006 soldiers again opened fire on BDK demonstrators, killing 13.[214] With the resumption of political party competition, the BDK gained significant electoral popularity and its leader, Ne Muanda Nsemi, won a seat in the National Assembly in July 2006 with one of the largest majorities in the country. In August 2006 the BDK allied with Bemba and the MLC, bringing them important support in the second round of presidential polling. Since then the harshness of government forces toward the BDK has increased. When BDK demonstrators protested, at times violently, against electoral corruption in early 2007, police and government soldiers shot or stabbed to death 104 BDK adherents as well as several others not affiliated with the movement.[215] In March 2008 police made a preemptive strike in anticipation of further protests, in what MONUC investigators said appeared to be a deliberate effort to wipe out the movement.[216] Over 200 BDK supporters and others were killed and the BDK's meeting places were systematically destroyed. The 2007-08 violence is described in more detail below.

The BDK has perpetrated acts of violence itself, in the context of clashes with police and army soldiers, and in the context of trying to assert administrative control in parts of Bas Congo including killing 15 police officers and soldiers in various incidents in 2007 and 2008. The BDK adherents who carried out these acts committed crimes punishable under Congolese law and should be held to account in proceedings that conform to international fair trial standards. Congolese authorities have seized on these violent acts to try to justify their far more extensive violence against the BDK. Defending the March 2008 operation to diplomats and to the National Assembly, Interior Minister Denis Kalume presented what he called "evidence of BDK atrocities," and maintained that the police did a necessary job in restoring state authority.[217]It is the right and the duty of any government to halt crimes such as the killing of its law enforcement officials, but in doing so, government agents, including soldiers and police, are obligated to respect basic human rights standards governing the use of force in police operations.[218] Acts of violence by the BDK do not give government agents carte-blanche in response.

Bas Congo is of significant economic importance to Kinshasa. The province supplies the capital with most of its electricity, agricultural produce, and gasoline, and an estimated 80 percent of manufactured goods sold in Kinshasa enter through the ports of Bas Congo. The province also has the potential to generate tremendous future profits should the offshore oil fields and hydroelectric power of the Inga Dam be fully developed. The government initiated new plans to tap those resources soon after Kabila's election. Nsemi and his BDK supporters raised concerns about the development plans, which they said profited officials in Kinshasa and did little for the people of Bas Congo.[219]

Since Congo's independence, the people of Bas Congo have been at the forefront of demands for greater provincial autonomy. Congo's new constitution provides for decentralization within three years of the elections through the creation of more powerful provincial governments (including the creation of 12 new provinces) with greater control over natural resources and financial revenue, the details of which are due to be spelled out in a future decentralization law. Some Bas Congo elected officials and other observers told Human Rights Watch that the crackdown on the BDK was in part a show of force by the Kinshasa authorities against those pushing for greater autonomy.[220] One said, "This is a debate which Kinshasa seeks to dominate. They want to hold on to as much of the power and revenue as possible."[221] 

February 2007 Violence

Flawed gubernatorial elections

In February 2007 police and soldiers used unnecessary or excessive force to halt demonstrations being organized by the BDK to protest against corruption in the gubernatorial elections the month before. In ensuing clashes both sides were responsible for killings and injuries.

Congolese election law provides for provincial assembly members to elect senators, governors, and vice-governors. Bemba's MLC coalition won majorities in a number of provincial assemblies in the election held at the same time as the October 2006 presidential runoff election, including in Bas Congo where it took 16 of the 29 provincial assembly seats.[223] Ne Muanda Nsemi stood for the position of vice-governor as running mate to Leonard Fuka Nzola, the MLC's candidate for Bas Congo governor. In the January 2007 election by the provincial assembly Nsemi and Nzola lost, however, 14 votes to 15, to candidates linked to Kabila's coalition, Simon Mbatshi Batshia and his running mate Deo Gratias Nkusu Kunzi-Bikawa. In at least three other provincial assemblies where Bemba's coalition had won a majority, it also failed to win the governorships; only in the province of Equateur was a Bemba candidate chosen as governor. Congolese and international observers alike found that the elections were marred by corruption. According to a report by the International Crisis Group, Kabila's advisors later openly acknowledged that bribes had been paid to win votes in these crucial gubernatorial elections.[224]

Many people in Bas Congo were angered by the evident fraud. Several persons interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the position of governor had been "stolen from the people" and that "President Kabila had imposed his candidate on the people of Bas Congo."[225] Nsemi and his running mate filed a legal challenge to the results, demanding a new vote.[226]

Quelling BDK protests

Nsemi called on his followers and other citizens to protest the corruption through a "journée morte" ("dead day," or general strike) on February 1, 2007.[227] Concerned about protests, the outgoing governor of Bas Congo and Kabila supporter, Jacques Mbadu, met with the main employers in the provincial capital Matadi on January 31 and urged them to carry on business as usual on February 1.[228]In other Bas Congo towns, law enforcement officials held security meetings to prepare for possible action against the protest, in some cases declaring the demonstrations illegal even though they had no legal justification for doing so.[229]

Also on January 31, 50 police officers in Matadi raided Nsemi's house where BDK members were gathered, claiming that weapons were hidden there.[230] BDK adherents set up a barricade and threw stones at the police. In an ensuing skirmish that continued into the following day, the police shot and stabbed to death 15 BDK adherents and injured 18 others. BDK supporters stoned one police officer to death and injured another.[231] No weapons were found at Nsemi's house.[232]

The news of the violence in Matadi spread quickly and increased tensions between BDK demonstrators and the police elsewhere. On February 1 BDK supporters gathered for protests in the towns of Muanda and Boma, carrying sticks and clubs, but no firearms.[233] When the police attempted to disperse the groups, BDK members killed nine police officers and two civilians by beating them to death. In Muanda dozens of BDK supporters raided the police station and the neighboring administrative offices.[234]

The governor called in the army to assist the police in quelling the protests in Muanda, Boma, and Songololo. According to eyewitnesses, police officers and soldiers fired at demonstrators who were armed with rocks and sticks. In Muanda, government soldiers attacked a BDK zikua with assault rifles and explosive devices, killing 23, including four women and two children, none of whom had participated in the demonstrations. In Boma, soldiers and police opened fire with assault rifles on BDK protestors while they were praying at the esplanade at Kalamu commune, killing 24 of them. The eyewitnesses said the soldiers and police issued no warning nor attempted to use any non-lethal method of controlling the crowd. The police and soldiers then summarily executed those in the square who were injured-they "finished them off," eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch, by stabbing them to death or shooting them in the head, even following trails of blood to track down and kill injured persons trying to escape.

In total police and soldiers killed 104 persons.[235]

Following the events, the police and army rounded up scores of BDK supporters, including some who had not participated in the protests. They beat some detainees with rifle butts on the face and on their backs and kicked them repeatedly.[236]

On February 8, 2007, the Bas Congo appeals court ruled in favor of Nsemi and Fuka, concluding that the gubernatorial elections had been marked by "grave irregularities," that a clear majority had not been obtained, and that a new election must be held.[237] On February 17the Supreme Court overturned this decision, ruling that Congolese law did not clearly define the notion of an absolute majority and that the election results must stand.[238]

Government response

As with assaults on Bemba supporters, Congolese government officials sought to justify repression against the BDK by claiming that the protests threatened state security. It is the obligation and the duty of any government to prevent crimes and arrest the perpetrators. In accordance with international standards, force may be used only when strictly necessary and to the extent required under the circumstances. Lethal force may only be used when unavoidable to protect human life. BDK attacks on law enforcement officers and their forcible entry and looting of government buildings may have permitted the use of force, even lethal force, by state security forces, but only to the extent permitted under international law.

Minister of the Interior Denis Kalume repeatedly told the media and the National Assembly that the BDK was an armed group seeking to overthrow the government and was allied with rebel groups in neighboring Angola and Congo-Brazzaville. He said also that the BDK had established a military training camp at Kiala Mungu in Bas Congo. He repeated these claims in an interview with Human Rights Watch but presented no substantiating evidence.[239] During research missions in Bas Congo in February and September 2007, Human Rights Watch found no convincing evidence to substantiate these claims, nor did UN human rights monitors in their investigation of the events.[240]

Following heated debates in the National Assembly about the killing of BDK protestors, the government suspended the head of the army in Bas Congo, General Mbuayama Nsiona, and the provincial police inspector, General Mukendo. General Nsiona was later named to another senior army post. General Bonjuka Botungu, who had been responsible for the operations in Muanda, was also later removed from his post, but no criminal charges were brought against any of these officers. Instead, officials sought to arrest Ne Muanda Nsemi for inciting violence and asked the National Assembly to lift his parliamentary immunity so that he could be arrested. The request did not proceed to a vote in the National Assembly.

 

The National Assembly established a commission of inquiry-the first such commission in Congo's newly elected assembly-to investigate the events, but political leaders hampered its work. The chair of the commission, Hon. Egide Ngokoso, a member of the AMP majority coalition, initially accepted an offer from a Human Rights Watch researcher to present to the commission the results of her investigation, but then cancelled the presentation at the last minute. One opposition parliamentarian resigned from the commission to protest the cancellation, which he saw as an attempt to cover-up crimes committed by police and soldiers.[241] On May 22, 2007, the commission presented a report to the National Assembly that assigned blame for the violence primarily to the BDK. Two opposition members of the commission of inquiry publicly disowned the report presented to the National Assembly, stating the text was not one they had approved.[242] Without any discussion of the report, the National Assembly adopted recommendations calling for the prosecution of all persons, including officials, involved in the events, and asking for a provincial roundtable to promote dialogue in the province.[243] The National Assembly decided to publish the report after further revisions, but never did so. Other than a few BDK supporters, no one else was prosecuted.

In mid-2007 the government promoted Raus Chalwe, the head of police Special Services in Kinshasa and a Kabila loyalist (see above, Chapter IV), to the rank of general and named him head of the police for Bas Congo province. Some BDK leaders interpreted his appointment as a sign that further repression was planned.[244]

© 2008 Anthony De Bibo/Human Rights Watch

March 2008 Violence

Build-up to renewed violence

The brutal repression against the BDK demonstrators and the flawed gubernatorial elections led to widespread popular resentment toward Bas Congo provincial political leaders and Kabila's government that would continue through 2007. In a number of locations in the territories of Seke-Banza and Luozi, where BDK support is strong and the presence of the police weak, the BDK declared itself in charge of local administration. The BDK freed inmates from Luozi prison whom, it claimed, had been wrongly condemned, but the BDK perpetrated serious human rights abuses of its own. BDK adherents killed an off-duty soldier and harassed and beat local police officers. They set up a local court that convicted two persons of sorcery and burned them to death. They forced some Roman Catholic priests to leave the area.[245] Provincial police responded with renewed force to these challenges to authority. 

On January 5, 2008, six people, including one state agent, four BDK supporters and another civilian were killed during BDK protests against the arrest of two other BDK adherents in Seke-Banza territory. The protestors did not carry firearms, though some reportedly carried sticks and shouted abuse at the police. Police officers shot at the protestors and crushed and killed several BDK members with their vehicles when they attempted to flee the scene.[246] Anticipating further trouble ahead of the first anniversary of the February 2007 killings, MONUC sent additional civilian police units to Bas Congo but withdrew them in late February to meet needs in eastern Congo and other volatile regions.

The provincial government continued to label the BDK a "terrorist organization" and increased the pressure on central government officials to neutralize the BDK threat. Charges against the BDK were repeatedly broadcast on pro-government television networks.[247] To help ease the tensions, a leading opposition member from Bas Congo, Gilbert Kiakwama, organized a meeting on February 26, 2008, between BDK leader Nsemi and three Bas Congo Roman Catholic bishops, which led to a common statement of mutual respect and commitment to non-violence.[248]

 

The same day, President Kabila met with officials, including Interior Minister Kalume and Inspector General of Police John Numbi to discuss the security situation in Bas Congo. On February 28 the government launched a police operation intended, said Kalume, to "restore the authority of the State."[249] Some 600 police officers were dispatched from Kinshasa including units of the Rapid Intervention Police (PIR), the Integrated Police Unit (Unité de Police Intégrée, UPI)[250]and the Simba Battalion, a group of former soldiers, mainly from Katanga, who are part of an anti-terrorist unit, and whose commander, Maj. Christian Ngoyi, was reportedly the de facto head of the operation. Their arms, including grenades and machine guns, gave the operation a strong military character and, according to international police experts, were "totally inappropriate for operations aimed at the arrest and detention of persons who are not carrying firearms."[251] (For more on these expert conclusions, see "MONUC investigation," below. Many of the details of the March violence we present here come from MONUC's report of its investigation.)

Police operation against the BDK

In the last days of February and the first week of March, truckloads of heavily armed police moved through towns in Cataracts district of Bas Congo attacking BDK adherents, most of whom were gathered in or around their zikua meeting places, and at improvised road blocks. The BDK had stones, nuts,[252] sticks, and pieces of wood fashioned into the shape of weapons. Some of them refused to surrender to the police, chanting war cries and sometimes throwing stones, but did not present a serious and immediate threat to the numerically superior, heavily armed police units.[253] With no adequate warning, the police fired at them, killing over 200 and injuring scores of others during three weeks of police operations.

As in previous operations, in the various deadly encounters with BDK adherents during this period the police used excessive force and in some cases deliberately killed persons who were wounded, running away, or otherwise in no position to threaten them. On March 8, during their operation in Matadi, police entered the home of a family who lived near the BDK zikua, demanded money, and then shot two young children, one of whom later died.[254] In some locations, such as at Sumbi village, the police called local residents to look at the bodies of the people they had killed, possibly in an attempt to intimidate others who were or might become BDK adherents. The police systematically burned meeting places, homes, and other buildings belonging to BDK adherents. They arrested over 150 suspected BDK followers, including those who had not participated in any actions against the police, and tortured or ill-treated some of them.[255] One person, arrested at his home in Kinsundi, was transferred along with a group of BDK adherents and two corpses to Lemba village, where police beat the detainees and burned them with hot melted plastic.[256]

Police summarily executed some injured persons seeking medical treatment at health centers and arrested others. A 13-year-old boy who was shot in the leg on March 3 while trying to run away from the violence in Nsumbi village was arrested by police at a clinic while undergoing treatment. He spent six days in prison where he was regularly beaten before judicial officials sent him to a hospital.[257] As the police actions became known, other injured persons fled from clinics and hospitals.[258]

Cover-up again

The police attempted to hide or minimize the extent of the violence. They dumped dozens of bodies in the Congo river and hastily buried others in mass graves. According to a Congolese human rights organization, three graves containing the remains of an estimated 50 bodies were discovered in March. Unidentified persons later dug up the bodies at one grave in Materne and moved them to an unknown location.[259] According to information gathered in April by a provincial parliamentary commission, police ordered first-aid workers to bury 40 bodies in five mass graves in Sumbi, Nienge, and Lolo Bene, in the Seke-Banza territory. Local residents told the commission that some bodies had been removed from the largest of these graves a few days before parliamentarians gathered their information.[260]

On March 5, 2008, Vice-Governor Deo Nkusu and provincial police chief General Raus warned residents of Lufuku, a village where at least 36 persons had been killed, to reject the BDK and keep silent about the casualties in the village.[261] The authorities prevented health teams from entering the area even after police had stopped firing and they limited interaction between the local population and an inter-agency UN humanitarian mission in mid-March.[262]

The government claimed that only 27 people, including three police officers, had died in the events. MONUC investigators concluded that at least 100 people died and noted that they had received information of many more killings that they were unable to confirm. Based on information from local sources, including medical workers, Human Rights Watch estimates the death toll to have been well over 200, with the heaviest loss of life at Seke-Banza, Sumbi, Luozi, Mbandakani, and Lufuku. Among the victims were several people hit by stray bullets, including children.[263]

On March 21 the Congo government revoked the authorization of the BDK to operate as a social and cultural organization, effectively making the movement illegal.[264] In a heated three-day debate from March 27 to 29 in the National Assembly, a number of parliamentarians criticized the government for failing to investigate and prosecute alleged BDK crimes while others criticized the failure to find nonviolent solutions to the crisis and to minimize the use of force. Gilbert Kiakwama, who had sought to calm tensions in late February, initiated the parliamentary debate. He publicly castigated Interior Minister Kalume: "Stop hiding behind the need to restore state authority in an area where state authority had been non-existent," he said. "This excuse cannot justify your actions."[265]

In response Kalume said the police carried out their mission "to protect the population" with great professionalism, characterizing the BDK as a "militia" and their actions as a "rebellion."[266] He repeated this claim to diplomats.[267]

In one of the few judicial proceedings following the Bas Congo violence, a tribunal in Mbanza-Ngungu on May 22 convicted 18 BDK supporters for criminal offenses, including murder. Three of those convicted received the death penalty, while the others received sentences of two months to 20 years. The lawyers for the defense claimed that the only evidence presented to the court was the signed confessions of the accused, which they said had been obtained under torture. Four defendants were acquitted.[268]

MONUC investigation

MONUC human rights investigators received little cooperation from government officials in their efforts to ascertain the facts about and responsibilities for the Bas Congo violence. They nonetheless produced a report on June 13, 2008, concluding that the aim of the operation appeared to have been to cripple the BDK.[269] The investigators criticized the use of the Simba battalion, a special force of police troops with more military than police training, as "at best misguided, or at worst a deliberate decision to conduct a military-style operation aimed at punishing the BDK and severely reducing its capacity as a group."[270]The weapons and tactics used during the operation further reinforced the conclusion that there may have been "a premeditated plan to use lethal force against the BDK."[271]

When the MONUC report was published, a government spokesperson responded by saying that the report was "mendacious." The spokesperson added, "While we congratulate MONUC for taking the trouble to shed light on the situation in Congo, we sadly deplore the overly partial, overly tendentious nature of this report and the casualness of its authors." The spokesperson stood by the government's death toll of 27 people and said MONUC had based its larger figure on "imaginary people."[272]

Under pressure from the UN, the government agreed to conduct a judicial inquiry into the police operation. A similar commitment by government authorities following the 2007 violence in Bas Congo led to no arrests or prosecution of police or army personnel.

Threats against Other Politicians from Bas Congo

The intense debates in the National Assembly about the police operation were given broad media coverage and highlighted Bas Congo opposition politician Gilbert Kiakwama's role as a leading critic of the government's actions. Some of Kiakwama's supporters saw him as a possible contender for the position of spokesperson of the opposition, should Bemba not return home.[273] Kiakwama expressed interest in taking on this role.

With his increasing visibility, Kiakwama became a new target for intimidation by Kabila's supporters. As one local observer later noted to Human Rights Watch, "Kiakwama was the first opposition politician who dared to [conduct] a political tour of Bas Congo, but he was bullied at every step."[274]

 

On April 27, 2008, Kiakwama, back in Bas Congo for a series of meetings, attended a gathering organized by the Roman Catholic Church. Kabila's People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy supporters broke up the meeting, shouting abuses at Kiakwama, throwing chairs, and forcing the audience from the hall. On subsequent days two further meetings were disrupted in a similar fashion.[275] Calls to the police for assistance got no response. A senior member of Kiakwama's Christian Democrat party told Human Rights Watch that he had received numerous reports that local "hooligans" had been paid by Vice-Governor Deo Nkusu to disrupt the meetings.[276]

At another meeting on May 2, this time in his home town of Mbanza-Ngungu where Kiakwama in the past regularly met local residents without trouble, a group of 50 persons threw rocks at the meeting hall and dispersed the crowd. Residents identified some of the attackers as Republican Guards in civilian dress from a camp some two kilometers outside of the town. Others were said to be police. Kiakwama's driver was temporarily arrested and Kiakwama was escorted back to Kinshasa by police.[277] When Kiakwama asked for the opportunity to explain the events and register his objections before the National Assembly, he was allowed to speak but was blocked from showing video footage or naming those whom he believed to be responsible for the harassment.[278]

© 2008 Anthony De Bibo/Human Rights Watch