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Democratic Republic of Congo Renewed Crisis in North Kivu
HRW Index No.: A1917 October 23, 2007 Also available in 
Download PDF, 491 KB, 90 pgs Purchase online Download E-Book What Future? Street Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo This 72-page report documents how security officials and other adults routinely abuse the country’s street children. In the past 10 years, armed conflict, HIV/AIDS, prohibitive education fees, and even accusations of sorcery have led to a doubling of the number of street children. With no secure access to shelter, food or other basic needs, these children live in insecurity and fear. HRW Index No.: A1802 April 4, 2006 Also available in
Download PDF, 405 KB, 68 pgs Purchase online Download E-Book Democratic Republic of Congo: Civilians attacked in North Kivu This 34-page report documents war crimes and other serious human rights abuses committed during fighting in December. The failure to integrate the former belligerent groups into one unified national army was a major cause of the conflict; another was heightened ethnic tensions in North Kivu. Some of the newly armed civilians participated in the human rights abuses. HRW Index No.: A1709 July 13, 2005 Also available in
Download PDF, 729 KB, 36 pgs Purchase online The Curse of Gold This 159-page report documents how local armed groups fighting for the control of gold mines and trading routes have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity using the profits from gold to fund their activities and buy weapons. The report provides details of how a leading gold mining company, AngloGold Ashanti, part of the international mining conglomerate Anglo American, developed links with one murderous armed group, the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), helping them to access the gold-rich mining site around the town of Mongbwalu in the northeastern Ituri district. HRW Index No.: 1564323323 June 2, 2005 Also available in
Download PDF, 600 KB, 131 pgs Purchase online Seeking Justice The Prosecution of Sexual Violence in the Congo War This 52-page report documents how the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken insufficient steps to prosecute those responsible for wartime rape. Human Rights Watch calls on the Congolese government and international donors, including the European Union, to take urgent steps to reform Congo’s justice system. HRW Index No.: A1701 March 7, 2005 Also available in
Download PDF, 362 KB, 55 pgs Purchase online Democratic Republic of Congo: Child Soldier Use 2003 A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict The Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) continued to have children in their ranks despite commitments to demobilization. Only 280 FAC child soldiers had been released by August 2003, out of a total of 1,500 children scheduled for demobilization from July 2001. January 16, 2004 Covered in Blood Ethnically Targeted Violence in Northern DRC The war in Congo has been misdescribed as a local ethnic rivalry when in fact it represents an ongoing struggle for power at the national and international levels, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The 57-page report, ‘Covered in Blood’: Ethnically Targeted Violence in Northern DR Congo, provides evidence that combatants in the Ituri region of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have slaughtered some five thousand civilians in the last year because of their ethnic affiliation. But the combatants are armed and often directed by the governments of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. A number of treaties and ceasefires, the most recent signed in Burundi on June 19, have supposedly ended the conflict between the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC, as well as Congolese rebel movements set to share power with the Kinshasa government. But the minor players—often the proxies for the principals—continue the war. HRW Index No.: A1511 July 8, 2003 Also available in
Download PDF Purchase online War Crimes In Kisangani: The Response of Rwandan-backed Rebels to the May 2002 Mutiny In mid-May 2002 soldiers and police officers in Kisangani, the third largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), mutinied against their commanding officers and the local authorities of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, Goma faction (RCD).1 The RCD depends on the military and political support of neighboring Rwanda to exercise control over some thirty to forty percent of eastern Congo. The mutineers took control of the radio station and called on the population to join them in hunting down and expelling "Rwandans," apparently meaning both citizens of Rwanda and Congolese of Rwandan origin. Mutineers and civilian crowds killed six persons who were or were thought to be Rwandan. Loyalist RCD soldiers quickly put down the mutiny. After the arrival of reinforcements from Goma, RCD soldiers carried out indiscriminate killings of civilians, summary executions of military personnel and civilians, numerous rapes, beatings, and widespread looting. Almost immediately after the reinforcements and their commanders arrived from Goma, RCD soldiers entered the civilian neighborhood of Mangobo, killing dozens of civilians, committing numerous rapes, and systematically looting the neighborhood. At the same time, a large number of Congolese military and police personnel suspected of involvement in the mutiny were arrested, and most were summarily executed on the nights of May 14 and May 15 at the Tshopo bridge, their bodies thrown in the river. HRW Index No.: A1402 August 20, 2002 Download PDF Purchase online The War Within The War Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo Forces on all sides in the Congo conflict have committed war crimes against women and girls, Human Rights Watch said in a new 114-page report. The report documents the frequent and sometimes systematic use of rape and other forms of sexual violence in the Rwandan-occupied areas of eastern Congo.The report, which is based on numerous interviews with victims, witnesses, and officials, details crimes of sexual violence committed by soldiers of the Rwandan army and its Congolese ally, the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD), as well as armed groups opposed to them – Congolese Mai Mai rebels, and Burundian and Rwandan armed groups. These combatants raped women and girls during military operations to punish the local civilian population for allegedly supporting the “enemy.” In other cases, Mai Mai rebels and other armed groups abducted women and girls and forced them to provide sexual services and domestic labor, sometimes for periods of more than a year. HRW Index No.: 2769 June 20, 2002 Purchase online Democratic Republic of Congo: Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 From the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers The UN estimates that 15-30% of all newly recruited combatants in the DRC are children under age eighteen, and a substantial number are under the age of twelve. Both the Congolese Armed Forces and various opposition groups forcibly recruit children. The Rwandan Patriotic Army and the Ugandan People’s Defense Force facilitated the recruitment of children by opposition groups in the Eastern DRC, and often oversaw the training of child recruits. Congolese child soldiers known as kadogos or ‘little ones’, often serve initially as runners, bodyguards, porters or spies and later learn to use arms and serve in combat. June 12, 2001 Congo – Reluctant Recruits: Children and Adults Forcibly Recruited For Military Service in North Kivu The major rebel group in eastern Congo continues to recruit children to wage war against the Congolese government, Human Rights Watch chargesd in this report. The report details recruitment efforts since late 2000 by the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma) and the Rwandan army troops who support it. May 1, 2001 Download PDF Purchase online Reluctant Recruits Children and Adults forcibly recruited for Military Serivce in North Kivu This report, based upon a mission to the region in December 2000 and subsequent research, documents an intensive campaign of forcible recruitment of adults and children begun by RCD-Goma and its Rwandan allies in the last quarter of 2000. RCD-Goma was able to take control of much of the eastern Congo in mid-1998 with the assistance of soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and continues to rely upon them to maintain its hold over the region. The leaders of RCD-Goma operate under the influence of the Rwandan authorities with whom they are frequently in contact. May 1, 2001 Download PDF, 202 KB, 19 pgs Printer friendly version Uganda in Eastern DRC: Fueling Political and Ethnic Strife Ugandan authorities have fueled political and ethnic strife in eastern Congo with disastrous consequences for the local population. In this fifty-page report, "Uganda in Eastern DRC: Fueling Political and Ethnic Strife," documents how Ugandan authorities meddled in rivalries among factions of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). HRW Index No.: A1302 March 1, 2001 Download PDF Purchase online Democratic Republic of Congo: Landmine Monitor Report 2000 Key developments since March 1999: It is clear that antipersonnel mines were still being used in the DRC in 1999 and 2000, despite an August 1999 peace agreement. But it remains impossible to verify who is responsible for laying the mines. There have been accusations that not only are government troops and opposition RCD forces using mines, but also troops from Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Chad. Similar accusations were also levelled at the plethora of foreign and local insurgent groups, which are fighting in eastern Congo against the RCD rebels and their foreign backers. Virtually all sides have denied using mines. August 1, 2000 Eastern Congo Ravaged: Killing Civilians and Silencing Protest The Rwandan army and its Congolese allies have massacred and raped civilians in eastern Congo, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Their opponents, Hutu and Mai Mai armed groups, are also committing atrocities against the civilian population.The RCD launched a rebellion against the government headed by Laurent Kabila in August 1998. They vowed to restore democracy and respect for human rights within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but the RCD-Goma and its Rwandese allies have regularly slaughtered civilians in massacres and extrajudicial executions. HRW Index No.: A1203 May 1, 2000 Purchase online Democratic Republic of Congo: Casualties of War: Civilians, Rule of Law, and Democratic Freedoms With the disintegration of the rule of law in Congo and elsewhere in the region, Congo has become the battle ground for the interests of its neighbors and a Congolese political and military elite—all at the expense of Congolese civilians. In this context, neither the Congolese government and its allies, the RCD and its backers, nor the myriad of militia and rebel groups in Congo have made respect for human rights a priority. Without firm action from international players in the region and elsewhere, the results for the Congolese are likely to be more abuses and a further degradation of the situation. This report is based on Human Rights Watch field investigations in November and December of 1998 to eastern and western Congo as well as other countries in the region. HRW Index No.: A1101 February 1, 1999 Purchase online Transition and Human Rights Violations in Congo In its bid to monopolize power, the government of the Congo severely cracked down on those political parties with any credible claim of popularity and national presence. Police and a plethora of security agencies attacked their meetings, public and private, and arrested their supporters and often subjected them to torture and ill-treatment. The attacks were strategically targeted to cripple the infrastructure of these parties, and frighten away their militants, particularly those in the youth branches and the student movement who to a large extent give the opposition its vitality and credibility. Human rights defenders who stepped forward to denounce the abuses themselves became the targets of arbitrary detentions and ill-treatment.The Congolese government's promise to organize elections within two years appears to have been accepted uncritically by certain members of the international community as democratic credential, deserving immediate international recognition. HRW Index No.: A909 December 1, 1997 Purchase online What Kabila is Hiding: Civilian Killings and Impunity in Congo The Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) carried out massive killings of civilian refugees and other violations of basic principles of international humanitarian law during attacks on refugee camps in the former Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) that began in late 1996, and in the ensuing seven months as war spread across the country. The war pitted the ADFL, used here to mean all forces under the nominal command of Laurent-Desiré Kabila, with important backing from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Angola and other neighboring states, against a coalition of then President Mobutu Sese Seko's Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ), former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR), Rwandan Interahamwe militia, and mercenaries. In addition to overthrowing former Zairian President Mobutu, the RPA and ADFL sought to disperse the refugee camps in Eastern Zaire, home to hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees as well as the ex-FAR and Interahamwe. Since the beginning of the war in the former Zaire gross violations of international humanitarian law have been committed by all parties to the conflict. HRW Index No.: A905 October 1, 1997 Purchase online Transition, War and Human Rights Nearly seven years ago, on April 24, 1990, President Mobutu Sese Seko ostensibly gave in to mounting pro-democracy pressure by announcing the end of the one party state and the beginning of transition to multiparty democracy in Zaire. Seven years into the transition, there have been at least ten different governments but no transition. The president's refusal to step down or to relinquish control of the governments he appointed and manipulated have managed to make a mockery of the promised passage to democracy. The rapid advance of the rebel troops from the east, in turn, threatened to subordinate political change wholly to the passage of arms. HRW Index No.: A902 April 1, 1997 Purchase online "Attacked by All Sides" Civilians and the War in Eastern Zaire Nearly 100,000 people, most of them Rwandans once resident in the camps of eastern Zaire, have fled to a site near Ubundu, where their further flight is blocked by the Zaire River. Among them are thousands of unarmed noncombatants as well as soldiers of the former Rwandan army (ex-FAR, Forces Armées Rwandaises) and militia responsible for the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. In addition several thousand refugees remain at Amisi and Shabunda with untold numbers of others scattered in the forest. The ruthless disregard of the rights of civilians, including the right to life, by all armed parties in this conflict raises fears that the noncombatants at Ubundu and elsewhere will once more be attacked, with large-scale loss of life. Many also risk death by hunger or disease unless they are provided with prompt humanitarian relief. HRW Index No.: A901 March 1, 1997 Purchase online |
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