VI. Congolese Army Attacks on Rwandan Hutu Refugees

Thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees live in eastern Congo, though the exact figure is unknown.[325] These refugees were part of the nearly one million Hutu who fled to Congo (then Zaire) in 1994 following the Rwandan genocide and after the then-Tutsi rebels, led by Paul Kagame, overthrew the Hutu government responsible for it. The refugees congregated in sprawling refugee camps based around Goma and Bukavu where they were intermixed with militia forces and others who had perpetrated the genocide.[326] The Hutu combatants quickly regrouped and transformed several refugee camps into military bases from where they launched attacks against the new Tutsi-led government in Rwanda.

In 1996, Rwandan troops[327] invaded Congo and attacked the refugee camps, killing thousands of civilians as well as combatants. In the chaos, the Rwandan Hutu refugees fled in different directions: some returned to Rwanda while thousands of others fled westwards into Congo’s thick jungles. The Rwandan army together with a hastily constituted Congolese rebel group, the Alliance for Democratic Liberation (AFDL), pursued the Hutu combatants and fleeing refugees, killing tens of thousands of the refugees in remote forest locations as they moved westwards.[328] Many of the remaining Rwandan refugees were scattered across Congo, some eventually turning up in neighboring countries such as Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo), Angola and the Central African Republic.

Many of the Hutu refugees who remained in Congo regrouped, often living close to Rwandan Hutu militias for protection (including since 2000 the FDLR) but also because the militias manipulated the refugees for their own political purposes and discouraged them from returning to Rwanda. Today, the refugees are effectively hostage to the FDLR combatants. FDLR commanders use the refugees for forced labor, recruit the youth into their ranks, and continue to actively discourage any return to Rwanda.

Despite the obstacles imposed by the FDLR, some 12,387 refugees returned to Rwanda from Congo between January and October 2009.[329] Many of them left in a large wave following the fall of the FDLR’s main bases in Masisi territory when control over the refugees appeared to temporarily weaken.[330] During February alone, UNHCR was able to repatriate 3,211 Rwandan refugees, a monthly figure much higher than at any time over the past few years.[331]

But the numbers of returnees dropped soon after Congolese army soldiers arrived in Hombo, on the border between North and South Kivu, where many of the refugees had gathered, waiting for transportation assistance back to Rwanda. A number of factors contributed to the reduction, including the slow speed at which UNHCR was able to get trucks to the area to assist in the returns, as well as stricter control by some FDLR commanders who wanted to prevent refugees from returning.[332] But the most important factor appears to have been the Congolese army attacks on Hutu refugees during military operations against FDLR forces, and the failure to provide the refugees and other civilians an effective humanitarian corridor by which to escape from FDLR zones of control.

Human Rights Watch documented the slaughter of at least 143 Rwandan Hutu refugees by Congolese army soldiers during operation Kimia II since March 2009. The vast majority were women and children killed in the area around Shalio, some 40 kilometers northeast of Hombo. Many of the refugees were summarily executed after they were taken into custody by Congolese army soldiers, while others have “disappeared.” Dozens of women and girls were raped, and some were kept as sexual slaves, and then killed. Deeply traumatized and fearful of further attacks, many refugees hid in small groups in the forests of North and South Kivu, avoiding main roads or towns, with little or no access to healthcare or adequate food, and with few possibilities to find ways to return to Rwanda.

Operation Kimia II has not given sufficient attention to the protection of the refugees, who have been isolated and preyed upon for years by Hutu militias, nor to facilitating their return to Rwanda. The establishment of safe humanitarian corridors, protected by MONUC peacekeepers, could help to facilitate the repatriation of the Rwandan Hutu refugees and reduce abuses by the FDLR, which relies on this community for filling its ranks and providing support.

Shalio Area Massacre

After Congolese and Rwandan coalition forces pushed the FDLR out of their main bases in Kibua and Kalonge in late January 2009, hundreds of refugees living there fled south and west, sometimes alongside FDLR combatants, sometimes on their own. After days of walking, many gathered in Biriko, a village on the border between Masisi, Walikale, and Kalehe territories. After an attack in March by Congolese army soldiers left at least 13 refugees dead, the survivors continued west where many gathered on the hills near the small town of Busurungi, in the Walualoanda area of Walikale territory. They set up make-shift camps on three of the hills known as Shalio, Marok, and Bunyarwanda, where they found other Rwandan refugees. The area had previously hosted a number of FDLR camps and is likely to have been known to the refugees.

Between April 27 and 29, Congolese army soldiers—many of them former CNDP fighters—attacked the refugees and carried out one of their worst massacres, killing 129 refugees, mostly women and children.[333] While there were FDLR combatants positioned in these hills, all witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that the FDLR combatants fled in advance of the attacks and were not present in any of the make-shift refugee camps targeted by the Congolese army soldiers.[334]

In Shalio, the refugee camp was located halfway up the hill and housed between 450 and 550 refugees, mostly women and children, in about 100 thatch huts covered with plastic sheeting. Early in the morning on April 27 Congolese army soldiers surrounded the refugee camp and started firing. According to persons present during the attack and interviewed by Human Rights Watch, there was no warning, and at least 50 refugees were killed as they tried to flee.[335] Some of the victims were shot in the neck; others were killed by machete. A number were tied up first and then were clubbed to death with blows to the head. One man was buried alive up to his chest and then stabbed in the eye with a bayonet. Another man had his legs and arms tied together before the soldiers shot him.[336]

One woman told Human Rights Watch:

When the Tutsi soldiers attacked us at Shalio, I lost six members of my family, including my eight-year-old daughter, 12-year-old son, and 15-year-old son, who were all beaten to death by wooden clubs in front of me. Then four of the soldiers took me and raped me. They told me that I’m the wife of an FDLR and they can do whatever they want to me. I was able to flee, but I’ve been very sick since then, and I have constant pains in my stomach.[337]

Many women and girls were raped during the attack, some of whom were later killed.[338]

After some five hours, the soldiers left the camp and burned it to the ground.[339] One group of Congolese army soldiers took at gunpoint a group of 50 of the refugees, mostly women and children. At Biriko, a short distance from Shalio Hill, the soldiers beat 46 refugees to death with wooden clubs and shot three men who tried to flee. Only one man in the group, who had been used by the FARDC soldiers to transport goods from Shalio to Biriko, managed to escape.[340] According to an FDLR commander later interviewed by UN officials, the bodies of the refugees were then thrown into the Nyabarongo River.[341]

According to some reports, another group of soldiers took a second group of refugees from Shalio to Kaleta to be presented to Lt. Col. Innocent Zimurinda, the Congolese army commander in charge of the operations in the area, before being sent on to Ngungu (see below).[342] Human Rights Watch, however, has been unable to ascertain their fate or confirm whether they ever made it to Kaleta or Ngungu.

A third group of refugees comprising 40 women was taken from Shalio to the nearby Congolese army military position at Busurungi, where they were kept as sexual slaves, gang-raped and mutilated by Congolese army soldiers. A week later, 10 of the women managed to escape. Human Rights Watch interviewed several of these women. One bore marks of mutilation: her attackers had cut chunks from her breasts and stomach.[343] The fate of the remaining 30 women is unknown.

In the days following the attack on Shalio, Congolese army soldiers continued their attacks on the Rwandan refugees, targeting the make-shift camp on the nearby hills of Bunyarwanda and Marok, which housed hundreds more refugees. At Bunyarwanda, they killed at least 15 refugees, including one man and fourteen women and children, though some reported that as many as 35 refugees may have been killed.[344]

One woman described the attack to Human Rights Watch:

We were in a group of about 60 refugees... After I had been there for a little over a week, we heard gunshots and then realized the Tutsi soldiers had come to attack us. There were no FDLR combatants around. I was very pregnant so I tried to hide while watching the population fleeing... Then the soldiers found me and took me to the side of the path and raped me. During this time there were lots of gunshots and I heard the cries of people dying in the forest without any help. I was able to escape when I asked the soldiers who had taken me for authorization to relieve myself. As I fled, I saw the bodies of one man and fourteen women and children who had been killed. When I eventually found my husband, he rejected me because he’d heard that I had been raped.[345]

At Marok, Congolese army soldiers killed at least 15 civilians, and possibly as many as 40. According to witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, some of the victims were shot, and others were beaten to death with wooden clubs or stabbed with bayonets.[346] After the attack, the soldiers set up a position in Marok and stayed there for three days. Twenty women were held hostage and gang-raped, five of whom were later killed with bayonets. Before the soldiers left, they burned the camp to the ground.[347] 

Individual Responsibility for Killings in Shalio area

Neither the Congolese armed forces nor MONUC has undertaken an investigation into the April mass killings in the Shalio area. The Congolese armed forces have committed many acts of murder, rape and other atrocities in several large-scale attacks targeting a civilian population—Rwandan Hutu refugees. As such, Human Rights Watch believes that offenses committed during these attacks may amount to crimes against humanity as well as war crimes under international law.

Since the Shalio killings, some Congolese army officers expressed concern to UN officials about the killings.[348] On May 12, MONUC sent a joint assessment mission to Hombo to look into the allegations, but upon arrival the team was distracted by the Busurungi massacre committed by FDLR forces (see above), which had occurred only two days earlier, in a location that was easier to access than Shalio. Because the attack was by FDLR combatants, survivors fled to government-controlled areas, making them much easier for MONUC to access compared to the Shalio survivors, most of whom fled into the forests and areas controlled by the FDLR and their allies, where MONUC had limited or no access. While in the circumstances this was understandable, it is less easy to understand why no subsequent MONUC investigation into the events at Shalio has taken place.

On October 15, Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, issued a press statement following a 10-day mission to Congo, and called for a thorough investigation into the killing of refugees in the Shalio area.[349]

The following Congolese army commanders should be investigated for ordering alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Congolese army forces in the Shalio area and as a matter of command responsibility:

Lt. Col. Innocent Zimurinda

Lt. Col. Innocent Zimurinda, a former CNDP Tutsi officer integrated into the Congolese army, played an important role in the Shalio attack. Colonel Zimurinda was based in Gasake (between Ngungu and Remeka, Masisi territory) and was responsible for the army’s 231st Integrated Brigade, under the command of Col. Baudouin Ngaruye.[350] According to a Congolese army soldier who was in the 231st Brigade at the time, Zimurinda sent the 2312 battalion under the command of Maj. Eric Badege to carry out an operation against the FDLR in the Shalio area. Soon after the operations began, Badege called Zimurinda to tell him they had captured a refugee woman and her children. According to Congolese army sources who were present Zimurinda replied that the refugees should not be spared. He then gave an order via radio overheard by others, “I want no prisoners of war in this operation.”[351]

According to Congolese army sources, Major Badege was unwilling to carry out the order he received from Zimurinda to kill the refugees. Colonel Zimurinda sent an order directly to the battalion’s S2 (intelligence officer), Capt. Jules Hareremana, who was loyal to Zimurinda, instructing him to lead an attack on the refugee camps along with some of Zimurinda’s escorts who had accompanied the battalion.[352]

According to credible reports received by Human Rights Watch, including interviews with Congolese army soldiers present during the attacks, Colonel Zimurinda directly ordered the killing of all persons taken by their forces, including refugees.[353] This order, which appears to have been acted upon, violates the prohibitions under the laws of war against ordering that no quarter be given to enemy troops,[354] against summarily executing persons taken into custody,[355] and failing to distinguish civilians from combatants during attacks.[356]

Philip Alston’s October 15 press statement specifically cited the responsibility of Colonel Zimurinda for the massacre of Rwandan Hutu refugees in Shalio on April 27.[357] The Congolese government spokesperson, Lambert Mende, responded that the government was aware of the massacre but was not prepared to take action against Colonel Zimurinda.[358] Mende added, “Zimurinda's arrest would have had worse consequences than the crimes of which he is accused.”[359]

The government might have been reluctant to act against Colonel Zimurinda because he is a cousin and close ally of Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, the de facto deputy commander of operation Kimia II and the person responsible for integrating former CNDP troops into the Congolese army. General Ntaganda was in Ngungu during the Shalio massacre, not far from where Colonel Zimurinda was based. Given the close relationship between Ntaganda and Zimurinda, there is a strong basis for concluding that Ntaganda was aware of the massacre and possibly gave the orders to Zimurinda to carry out the attack. Ntaganda is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court and is also listed in MONUC’s internal report on officers responsible for gross human rights violations.[360] The Congolese government said the “demands of peace override the traditional needs of justice” to justify their refusal to arrest Ntaganda for fear of upsetting the peace process and the integration of former CNDP troops into the army.[361] Congolese civil society groups as well as Human Rights Watch had denounced incorporating combatants from this highly abusive force into the Congolese army.[362]

Colonel Zimurinda also appears in another confidential internal MONUC document from mid-2009, which lists 15 Congolese army officers responsible for past gross human rights violations who continue to serve in Kimia II operations. In the document he is listed as having taken part in the March 2007 massacre in Buramba, North Kivu.[363]

Other Killings and “Disappearances” of Rwandan Hutu Refugees

In addition to the killings in the Shalio area, Human Rights Watch also received unconfirmed reports that Congolese army forces killed 15 refugees in Mihanda (North Kivu) in late February,[364] 20 refugees in May near Ramba (South Kivu),[365] and 30 refugees in Rusamambo (North Kivu) in July.[366]

Dozens of other Rwandan refugees, often held by Congolese army soldiers under the pretense that they would be transferred to relevant agencies for repatriation to Rwanda, have later “disappeared” and not been presented to DDRRR or UNHCR repatriation centers. This was the case near Luvingi, Uvira territory, where according to MONUC officials, 10 women and 15 children, possibly family members of FDLR combatants, were being held by Congolese army soldiers for intelligence purposes. After direct intervention with senior Congolese army commanders, MONUC officials were eventually informed that the individuals were being transferred to the Kimia II operations center in Bukavu, but they never arrived. Their whereabouts remain unknown.[367] One MONUC official who followed the incident later told Human Rights Watch, “My fear is that this is just the tip of the iceberg... who knows what else is happening in the forests and on the other side of the frontline in areas we have no access to.”[368]

Many of the Rwandan refugees in Congo feel targeted by all sides. The despair of this community was vividly expressed by one refugee woman interviewed by Human Rights Watch. She said,

I can’t go back to Rwanda because the situation hasn’t changed, and we [the Hutu] are still treated like animals. Soon after my brother went back [to Rwanda], he was put in prison without judgment and then they killed him for unknown reasons. His wife also died in very suspect circumstances. But here in Congo, we are all treated as FDLR and are forced to hide in the forest to avoid being attacked. I want to be recognized as a refugee, and I want to be able to leave the forest and live with honor and dignity, either here in Congo, back in Rwanda, or in another country.[369]