III. Human Rights Abuses by FDLR and Allies

FDLR Structure

The FDLR is a highly organized armed group with a clear chain of command. It has a political wing led by its president, Ignace Murwanashyaka, based in Mannheim, Germany, who is the supreme commander of the group, and a military wing known as the Forces Combattantes Abacunguzi (FOCA) led by General Sylvester Mudacumura, based in eastern Congo. On November 17, 2009, German authorities arrested Murwanashyaka, and his deputy, Straton Musoni, in Germany for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between January 2008 and July 2009 by FDLR combatants under their command.

Political structure

Ignace Murwanashyaka has presided over the FDLR’s “Directors Committee,” made up of about 35 political and military representatives of the FDLR, including the military high command led by General Mudacumura.[80] The FDLR’s executive secretary is Callixte Mbarushimana, based in France, who regularly issues press releases and other documents. The FDLR also has 10 other executive commissions, including for political affairs, defense, foreign affairs, propaganda and mobilization, finance, social affairs, gender, and legal affairs, among others.[81]

In an interview with Human Rights Watch in August 2009, Murwanashyaka explained that the Directors Committee meets every six months and decides on the FDLR’s overall strategy, although the members do not need to be physically present and can participate via phone or email. Murwanashyaka said that in between regular meetings he is authorized to make decisions on his own within the parameters of the general strategy decided upon in the Directors Meeting.[82]  

Military wing

Research conducted by independent experts, the UN’s DDRRR program responsible for the voluntary demobilization of FDLR combatants, and the UN Group of Experts investigating arms trafficking into Congo, has further clarified the FDLR’s military command structures.[83] According to their research, often based on interviews with former combatants, the FDLR’s military wing, FOCA, until January 2009 was based in Kalonge, in the Ufumandu area of Masisi territory near Kibua, where General Mudacumura was based.[84] The FDLR’s estimated 6,000 combatants were divided into two divisions, each consisting of four battalions. One division was based in North Kivu, commanded by Colonel Pacifique Ntawunguka (also known as Omega). The second division was based in South Kivu, commanded by Colonel Léopold Mujyambere (also known as Musenyeri Achille). The FDLR also has a separate Reserve Brigade, which was based near Kibua (Masisi territory), commanded by Lt. Colonel Félicien Nzabanita (also known as Kalume André.) The Reserve Brigade is sometimes called the Protection Unit, and is charged with protecting the military high command, in particular General Mudacumura.[85]

The Reserve Brigade has a special forces unit made up of 120 of the best-trained combatants. According to former combatants interviewed by Human Rights Watch, UN DDRRR specialists, and the UN Group of Experts, since January 2009 this unit has been charged with operations to retake areas that the FDLR lost following military operations against them, and to carry out missions “to do damage,” likely including targeted attacks against civilians.[86] The unit is commanded by Capt. Vainquer Mugisha (possibly not his real name) who reports directly to Lt. Col. Nzabanita, the commander of the Reserve Brigade.[87]

Since the start of Congolese army operations against the FDLR in January 2009 and the destruction of their bases in and near Kibua, much of the military high command moved to the Ntoto area of eastern Walikale.[88]

FDLR diaspora

According to independent experts, the FDLR has cells or satellites in various countries around the world including in Burundi, Zambia, Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, France, and the United States. Representatives in these countries raise funds and facilitate money transfers to the leadership in eastern Congo. They also carry out lobbying activities, recruit within the Rwandan diaspora, facilitate travel for their leaders and help to spread the FDLR’s message through contacts with the media and others.[89]

The UN Group of Experts told Human Rights Watch that throughout operations Umoja Wetu and Kimia II, the FDLR’s international supporters have continued to facilitate money transfers and be involved in the coordination of arms deliveries to FDLR troops on the ground. FDLR support networks operating in Burundi facilitate ongoing recruitment for the FDLR, as well as arms deliveries from Tanzania.[90] The Group has also tracked frequent telephone communications between FDLR military commanders based in eastern Congo to at least 25 different countries in Europe, North America, and Africa.[91]

Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD)-Urunana: an FDLR Ally

RUD-Urunana is a small splinter group of the FDLR based in North Kivu with an estimated 380 combatants, mostly former FDLR dissidents. It operates largely in Lubero and northeastern Walikale territories, with its headquarters in the Mashuta locality of Walikale. The RUD was created in 2004 by the US-based former FDLR first vice-president, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro. Other political leaders are based in France, Canada, the Netherlands, and Cameroon, as well as two political leaders based in North Kivu. Like the FDLR, its political objective is an inter-Rwandan dialogue and power-sharing in Rwanda. The Congolese military operations starting in January targeted the RUD as well as the FDLR, leading them to agree a mutual pact of cooperation and to ally militarily.[92] Since the fighting began, their tactics have followed the same path as the FDLR’s.

A Strategy of Deliberately Targeting Civilians

Before January 2009 and the launch of operations Umoja Wetu and Kimia II, FDLR members lived in numerous towns and villages spread across North and South Kivu, intermixed with Congolese civilians. Their relationships with local communities varied. In some locations, the FDLR lived in relative harmony, while in others the relationship was more violent. One constant was the FDLR’s ruthless economic exploitation of local populations. In many of the areas controlled by the FDLR, Congolese state authorities and administrative services were non-existent. FDLR commanders often acted as local authorities and imposed a system of forced cohabitation, administration, and exploitation on Congolese civilians who had no choice but to live side-by-side with FDLR combatants.

When the Congolese army launched military operations against the FDLR in mid-January 2009, the relationship between the FDLR and local Congolese communities suddenly changed. Almost overnight the FDLR brutally turned on their Congolese neighbors. The FDLR responded to the dramatic shift in the Congolese government’s policy toward them and the launch of joint Congo-Rwanda military operations by carrying out a strategy of unlawful retaliatory attacks against the civilian population. FDLR combatants deliberately targeted Congolese civilians with what they considered punishment for their government’s policy and for what the FDLR perceived as the population’s “betrayal.”

The scale and ferocity of the attacks depended on the nature of the military operations against the FDLR. In some areas, FDLR combatants attacked civilians before the Congolese army and their allies had arrived, sometimes deliberately taking the civilians into their military positions as hostages, perhaps to be used as human shields. In other areas, the FDLR retreated, waited for the Rwandan or the Congolese army soldiers to come and go, and then returned to punish the civilian population for “welcoming” or “collaborating” with their enemies.

Between late January and September 2009, FDLR forces deliberately killed at least 701 civilians. Many were chopped to death by machete or hoe. Some were shot. Others were burned to death in their homes. More than half of the victims were women and children. The FDLR also targeted and killed village chiefs and other influential community leaders, a tactic especially effective at spreading fear throughout entire communities.

The widespread killing of civilians was accompanied by rape. In the first six months of 2009, the cases of sexual violence registered at health facilities near the areas of conflict in North and South Kivu doubled or tripled. FDLR combatants were responsible for nearly half of all the rapes documented by Human Rights Watch. In over 30 cases documented by Human Rights Watch, victims told us that their FDLR attackers said that they were being raped to “punish” them.[93] Most of the victims were gang-raped, some so viciously that they later bled to death as a result of their injuries. Some of the victims were killed when they were shot in the vagina.[94] The killing and rape was accompanied by widespread and wanton burning of homes, schools, health centers and other civilian structures. In dozens of places across North and South Kivu, entire villages were burned to the ground and the population’s goods were looted, leaving families utterly destitute.

The widespread and systematic nature of the attacks on civilians across North and South Kivu in areas sometimes hundreds of kilometers apart, the similarity of the messages from the FDLR to local communities—including in public meetings, warning letters and direct verbal threats—as well as the similarity of methods used during attacks, strongly indicate that the retaliatory attacks were ordered from the FDLR’s central command. Dozens of former FDLR combatants interviewed by Human Rights Watch and others confirmed that no significant military operations could be carried out without clear orders from the military leadership.[95] A senior FDLR commander who deserted in April 2009 told a European diplomat in a transcribed interview that the FDLR leadership had ordered “punitive action” against those who collaborated with the Congolese military operations.[96] The UN Group of Experts also collected information from FDLR “signalers” who pass on commands from the FDLR military command to individual units, some of whom later deserted, that they communicated orders to attack population centers, to carry out “reprisal” attacks against the Congolese population and to treat all collaborators of the Congolese army as their “enemies.”[97]

Some local authorities and health workers who had lived near FDLR positions for many years and knew the group well told Human Rights Watch they believed the FDLR’s strategy of attacking civilians may have been aimed at causing a humanitarian disaster with a high human cost so that the Congolese government would be forced to call off the military operations.[98] A number of FDLR combatants who left the group since January 2009 and entered the UN’s DDRRR program told UN officials that they had been given orders to create a humanitarian catastrophe with the intention of pressing the international community to call off its support for the military operations against them.[99]

Whatever the FDLR’s aims, under international law, deliberate attacks on civilians are war crimes, and serious offenses committed against civilians as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population are crimes against humanity.

Explicit Threats to “Punish” Civilians

The FDLR strategy of retaliatory attacks against civilians was clearly evident in threatening letters the FDLR wrote to local authorities, written announcements left on roads, public meetings FDLR commanders held with civilian populations, and in oral threats FDLR combatants gave to civilians. In dozens of such verbal messages collected by Human Rights Watch across towns and villages in North and South Kivu, the FDLR explicitly said that the civilian population would be “punished” for the Congolese army’s military operations.

 

Warning letters

The FDLR and its RUD-Urunana ally deposited letters and other notes for civilian populations before, during, and after attacks in which they explicitly warned people that they would be targeted or that further attacks would follow. Human Rights Watch researchers collected information about at least 16 such letters and written notes,[100] of which eight are on file at Human Rights Watch. Some letters bear the FDLR stamp, others are signed by known FDLR commanders, and others are unsigned. The letters are either in French or Kiswahili, the language commonly used in eastern Congo.

In one such letter from during the Umoja Wetu operation, addressed to the governor of South Kivu, a copy of which was given to the UN peacekeepers on February 11, 2009, an FDLR commander warned that anyone who collaborated with the Rwandan army would be considered a “mortal enemy.” The letter added that if the population collaborated with Rwandan soldiers, they would be considered as a “belligerent party” with all “imaginable consequences.”[101] 

In the Waloaluanda area of Walikale territory (North Kivu), the FDLR left threatening letters on footpaths frequently used by civilians. One such letter was left on a footpath near Biriko village and found by two teenage boys on March 6. According to a person who saw the letter, it said, “You the Congolese population and you the FARDC, since you have decided it's good to force us out of our positions, we also will attack you the population and you the FARDC.... [W]e will hit you hard.”[102]

Dozens of kilometers away in the village of Mihanda, near Ziralo, Masisi territory, the FDLR left another letter for local authorities. According to a person who saw the letter, it said, “You, the population of Mihanda, be on guard. We are going to kill the pregnant women and open their stomachs and we are even going to kill the young girls. The men will be decapitated like the salted fish. Since they are trying to force us out of Congo, we will punish the population of Ziralo.”[103]

Some letters were left after attacks and warned of further bloodshed. On July 28, the FDLR left a letter during an attack on Ihembe town in Kabare territory (South Kivu) where the hospital was looted, and several houses burned, including the home of the traditional chief.[104] The letter the FDLR left behind, a copy of which is on file at Human Rights Watch, said, “Today we burn, tomorrow we slaughter. We are only at the beginning.”[105]

Some letters referred to business relations between FDLR combatants and local people and warned that the FDLR would attack if debts were not paid, goods were not returned, or access to local markets were restricted. One FDLR commander based near Karasi (South Kivu), Simba Guillaume, signed three letters, copies of which are on file at Human Rights Watch. In one letter, dated March 25, 2009, Guillaume asked the Karasi local authorities to return goods that he claims were stolen from the FDLR. He warns that if “such practices continue, the zone risks falling victim to desolation and suffering” and goes on to make reference to attacks against civilians further north in Masisi by adding, “What is happening in Masisi should serve as a lesson to whoever wants to start a fire without knowing how to put it out.”[106]

In southern Lubero, RUD commanders also wrote similar letters. In April, RUD combatants left a letter in Miriki, a copy of which is on file at Human Rights Watch, which said, “Those who will die, do not say you were not informed in advance...We are angry against all people who provoke us...Leave the area, our brothers... Those who refuse this advice will pay the price!”[107] 

Public meetings

During the course of its research, Human Rights Watch interviewed individuals who were present at 11 separate public meetings held by FDLR or RUD commanders in North and South Kivu.[108] In each of these meetings the message was the same: if you are not with us, you are against us and will be punished.[109] In some meetings FDLR or RUD combatants warned that if local populations did not take action to stop the Congolese army’s operations, they would be punished, indicating that some of the attacks on civilians may have been carried out in an attempt to influence government officials to halt operations. In a number of areas, following the public meetings, FDLR combatants deliberately blocked and sometimes killed civilians who tried to flee.

In a meeting in late January in Funguramacho, a village near Remeka in Masisi territory, the FDLR called everyone to attend a meeting, including the local mwami (traditional chief). According to several persons present, once everyone had gathered, the FDLR said, “We have heard that they [the coalition forces] are coming to attack us. If you are against us, before they come to kill us, we're going to kill you.”[110] 

In a similar meeting around the same time in Katoyi, Masisi territory, a senior FDLR commander known as Vainquer Mogisha, also held a public meeting. Persons present at that meeting told Human Rights Watch that Commander Vainquer addressed the crowd and said, “Even if we were together before, we are now enemies” and added that the FDLR were “sharpening their spears and machetes.”[111] Another person at the meeting said, “The FDLR told us that if they were shot at by anyone that they would hold us responsible and kill us.” Following the meeting the FDLR “put up barriers so we couldn't go anywhere. Then they started killing civilians.”[112] During the three-week period which followed between January 23 and mid-February, FDLR forces deliberately killed at least 86 civilians in this area.[113]

In Lubero territory, an area hundreds of kilometers away from the FDLR’s bases in Masisi, the RUD was also calling public meetings and threatened the civilian population in ways similar to FDLR combatants. In one such meeting in early February in Mbwavinya, RUD commanders said to those they had gathered: “You need to revolt against these operations that were sent to chase us out. You should call the authorities in Kinshasa and tell them that you live well with [us] and that they need to stop the operations.” When local authorities present at the meeting responded that they did not know to whom to send such a message, the RUD commander replied, “If you don't send this message, we will cause trouble for you. Even if you leave, we'll follow you and cause problems for you wherever you go.”[114]

Other oral threats

The FDLR also delivered numerous oral warnings and threats to civilians whom they met in the market, on the road, or during an attack. The threats were similar to those they pronounced at public meetings and in their letters. Human Rights Watch interviewed 23 civilians who consistently described oral threats they received from FDLR combatants, warning them that the Congolese civilian population would be punished as long as the Congolese government continued its military operations against the FDLR.

A health worker in the Waloaluanda region who treated FDLR combatants as well as members of the local community reported to Human Rights Watch the warning he received from one FDLR combatant in January at the beginning of the military operations. The FDLR combatant said, “The day when your soldiers come to force us out, that will also be the day when you die. We'll only return to Rwanda after exterminating the Congolese population here and burning your villages.[115]

A health worker from a different village in Waloaluanda received a similar warning. He told Human Rights Watch that four FDLR combatants came to the health center and told him the FDLR was planning to attack the population to show the FARDC and the international community that they were strong and had the force to commit atrocities. They told him they believed that if the FDLR massacred the population, the international community would pay attention, call off the military operations, and allow for an Inter-Rwandan dialogue.[116]

In Kibua, Masisi territory, in late January, FDLR combatants told a group of civilians, “You have lived with us like brothers. But now you have betrayed us and you will pay for your treason....”[117] Nearby in Kitarema village, FDLR combatants warned local people before the operations started, “If the Rwandan soldiers arrive here, we will turn this village into a battlefield.”[118]

Once military operations were underway, FDLR combatants threatened to punish civilians who, they said, had cooperated with their attackers. After the FDLR attack on Mianga village on April 12, killing some 44 civilians and the local chief, the FDLR sent an oral warning to villagers in nearby Ntoto. According to a villager present, the message was, “If we had to kill the population of Mianga and their chief, it's because they welcomed the Congolese and Rwandan forces who came to chase us out. We're ready to attack again if anyone welcomes these forces.”[119]

Massacres and Killings

The FDLR threats to punish Congolese civilians in response to government military operations against them were not empty. Following the launch of operation Umoja Wetu in January, FDLR forces began to brutally attack dozens of villages and towns across North and South Kivu. Between late January and September 2009, they deliberately killed at least 701 civilians. More than half of the victims were women and children, and at least 10 percent were elderly.

Some of the worst and most brutal attacks documented by Human Rights Watch occurred in the remote and mountainous region that straddles the border between North and South Kivu provinces, covering the areas of Ufumandu (Masisi territory), Waloaluanda (Walikale territory), and Ziralo (Kalehe territory). The FDLR had many bases in this region, including their main bases at Kibua and Kalonge in the Ufumandu area. They carried out economic activities and had lived side-by-side with local populations in this area for many years and as a result many victims were able to identify their attackers as FDLR combatants, sometimes knowing them by name. The FDLR killed at least 135 civilians in the Ufumandu area, at least 253 civilians in Waloaluanda, and 84 civilians in Ziralo.

Human Rights Watch also documented attacks by the FDLR in other areas of North and South Kivu provinces, including in Lubero and Rutshuru territories of North Kivu and Kalehe, Kabare, Shabunda, Mwenga and Uvira territories in South Kivu. In addition, Human Rights Watch documented killings by RUD combatants, allied to the FDLR, in Lubero territory. (See annex for further details.)  

Killings in Ufumandu area

The Rwandan army crossed the border into eastern Congo on January 20, just as many FDLR commanders had gathered at their base in and around Kibua for the annual meeting of the high command.[120] The FDLR called a meeting with the population from several nearby villages at which they accused the population, local leaders, and the Mai Mai armed group with whom they had been allied, of having betrayed them. Seeing their support collapse, the FDLR turned against the population and their Mai Mai allies.

As the Rwandan and Congolese coalition forces engaged in operation Umoja Wetu advanced toward Kibua around January 25, the FDLR barricaded roads and blocked civilians from fleeing the area. According to witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, when some civilians tried to flee, the FDLR attacked them, killing dozens with gunfire, rocket-propelled grenades, and machetes. “As I ran, I saw bodies everywhere,” said one person. “They had all been killed by the FDLR.”[121]

The FDLR also abducted as hostages at least 46 local residents and took them to their military camp, apparently intending to use them as “human shields” against the impending attack. Witnesses said that when coalition forces attacked Kibua on January 27, the trapped civilians tried to flee, but the FDLR hacked many to death while others died in the crossfire. One person at Kibua abducted by the FDLR told Human Rights Watch that he saw FDLR combatants kill at least seven people, including a pregnant woman, whose womb was slit open.[122] Another saw an FDLR combatant beat a 10-year-old girl to death against a brick wall.[123] One man taken to the military camp by the FDLR told Human Rights Watch:

When the FDLR learned that the coalition forces were coming to chase them away, they went to hide in the Kibua forest. They forced many of us to go with them to their camp... They took everyone—men, women, and children. We had to stay with them there for two days. They threatened us and killed anyone who tried to leave. Then we heard bombs [mortars], and as the bombs came closer to us, we tried to flee. But many people didn't make it and were killed. Some were shot and others were killed by machete.[124]  

In the days following the attack, the FDLR abandoned their Kibua base heading south toward Ziralo or west toward Waloaluanda, taking with them some of the civilians they had abducted, who were forced to carry the FDLR’s baggage. Two men who had been abducted were later found killed; the whereabouts of many of the others remain unknown.[125]

On their route out of Kibua the FDLR continued to kill in the days and weeks that followed, punishing the civilian population for the attacks against the rebel group. In Kishonja in early February the FDLR forced their way into a house and shot and killed a five-year-old and a six-year-old boy in front of their mother. “We kill animals, and we're killing you so you must be animals,” they shouted at her as they killed the boys.[126] In Nyakabasa village around February 13, during a nighttime attack, the FDLR killed a 25-year-old man as his mother looked on and then threw his body into a burning house. She told Human Rights Watch that after they killed her son,

I ran outside, and an FDLR [combatant] grabbed me and cut me everywhere with his machete. I was almost dead. He cut me on my head and on my arms. He wanted to cut my neck, but I put up my hands to block it... There were many combatants. Some were burning houses and others were killing people. While two of them were beating me and cutting me with machetes, I pleaded, ‘Please, can't you pardon me?’ They said, ‘No, we can't pardon you. You went to get the government and the Tutsi so they would come to kill us and steal your farms. But you won't have your farm anyway because we're going to kill you.’ I said, ‘But I didn't get the government....I'm just an old woman.’ They said, ‘No, it was you and we will kill you.’ Then they continued to beat me and left when they thought I was dead.[127]

In some areas the FDLR returned to punish and kill civilians after Rwandan and Congolese coalition forces had passed through. This was the case in Kipopo village, about 10 km southwest of Kibua where coalition forces camped for two days before moving on. On February 13, just after their departure, FDLR combatants attacked Kipopo at night, locking people in their homes and setting them on fire. Seventeen civilians, including eight children, were killed.[128]

During a three-week period between January 23 and mid-February, FDLR forces deliberately killed at least 86 civilians in Kibua and neighboring villages, including many of those they had taken as hostages and used as human shields in their camp.[129] According to family members and witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, including those who helped to bury the bodies, the victims included at least 16 children, 22 women, and nine elderly men.[130] Nearly half of the victims had been hacked to death by machete, knife, axe, or hoe, or had been beaten to death with clubs. Another 18 were burned to death, and at least 11 were shot.[131] Dozens of others were left injured. Following the attacks, thousands of local residents fled the area, seeking safety in remote forest regions or in displacement camps near Goma. To date many remained too frightened or traumatized to return.

Killings in Waloaluanda area

Following their departure from Kibua, significant FDLR forces moved westward to the Waloaluanda area, just across the border in Walikale territory (North Kivu). Rwandan army forces pursued the FDLR into Walikale but did not stay long and at the end of February 2009 withdrew from eastern Congo. In March 2009, the Congolese army, with the backing of UN peacekeeping troops, launched its Kimia II operations against the FDLR. The change in military operations did not alter the tactics of the FDLR and they continued to attack and terrorize civilians. In the Waloaluanda area the FDLR carried out some of their most brutal and deadly massacres, killing at least 253 civilians.

As in the Kibua area of Masisi, the FDLR had long established military and civilian bases in the Waloaluanda area and had intermixed with the local population for many years. In March, Congolese army forces arrived in the area and established military positions in some villages and towns, heightening tensions. FDLR combatants, sometimes together with their dependents, withdrew from the villages, retreating to mountaintops or other more remote positions. As in Masisi territory, they threatened local civilians and said anyone who cooperated with the FARDC would be punished.

In rare instances, members of the FDLR may have sought to reconcile with civilians. One FDLR member known as Gregoire, who claimed to be the FDLR’s representative in the Waloaluanda region responsible for “civilian affairs,” sent a letter on April 3, 2009 to the Waloaluanda administrative chief and other community leaders. He requested reconciliation between the FDLR and the local population and a return to the “peaceful coexistence” they enjoyed before military operations began.[132] It is unclear whether the request was genuine. Before community leaders had a chance to respond, the FDLR attacked.

Mianga massacre, April 2009

According to witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, early in the morning on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, the FDLR attacked the village of Mianga in the Waloaluanda area. FDLR combatants went directly to the home of the local chief, Adrien Balume Lubula. The attackers burst into the house, found the chief in his bed, and severed his head with a machete.[133] The FDLR then sought out and killed three other local authorities who worked with the chief, whom they accused of collaborating with the FARDC. That same day and in the days that followed, the FDLR deliberately killed a further 41 civilians, injured many others, and then torched the village, burning it completely to the ground.[134]

Congolese army forces had a small base in Mianga, but they proved no match for the FDLR. When the FDLR attacked, at least 35 FARDC soldiers were killed; the remainder fled, leaving the local population with no protection. No Congolese army forces returned to Mianga in the weeks following the attack, despite appeals from the local population and others to do so.[135]

Twelve days after the initial attack, on April 24, a local Mai Mai group, known as the Mai Mai Kifuafua, made up of local men and boys from the area, went to assess the damage. They found many of the bodies still in the open air, decomposing and barely recognizable. A Mai Mai Kifuafua combatant who helped bury 38 bodies described to Human Rights Watch what he saw:

Some [of the victims] had been hacked to death in their homes. Others were shot outside their homes and others were killed in the forest. We buried them each in their own grave according to the custom. There were children, women, and men.[136]

Busurungi massacre, May 2009

During the night of May 9-10, FDLR forces attacked Busurungi, one of the main towns in Waloaluanda, and its two neighboring villages, Bunyamwasa and Moka. The FDLR combatants massacred at least 96 civilians, including 25 children, 23 women, and seven elderly men. It was the largest single massacre by the FDLR since the start of military operations against the group. Nearly half of the victims were shot or hacked to death by machete. Some had been tied up and then had their throats slit. Others were deliberately locked in their homes and burned to death or killed as they tried to flee into the nearby forests for safety. A further 26 civilians were seriously injured, the vast majority women and children. Two later died of their injuries. Before they withdrew, the FDLR forces destroyed Busurungi, burning to the ground 702 houses, three health centers, and several schools and churches.[137]

On the night of the attack, a witness whose son was killed described what happened:

I was hiding in the house with my three children when the FDLR attacked. They came into our house and said, ‘You the Congolese people, you are here with these soldiers who don’t know how to fight. We will kill you, and we will exterminate you.’  Then they grabbed my 18-year-old son, pulled him out of the house and killed him. After that, they hacked to death by machete a 42-year-old woman and a 3-month-old baby girl who were also hiding in my house.[138]

The FDLR entered a church compound in Busurungi and abducted and killed a local church official and his family. The FDLR first tied the official to his wife and then slit both their throats. Then, according to a witness, “The [church official’s] son was tied up with 10 other men in a separate group, all in a line, before the FDLR slit their throats like chickens.”[139] His daughter-in-law was burned to death with her four-year-old daughter and baby son.

Another witness told Human Rights Watch,

When the FDLR came, they circled the entire village and started killing people. They stopped those who tried to flee with their own hands. They raped the women, even the young girls, and then they started to burn the houses. Some people who tried to leave their homes were stopped by the FDLR and thrown back into their burning houses, even the children.

The FARDC tried to fight back a bit, but the FDLR outnumbered them and a lot of FARDC soldiers were killed. The others fled into the forest.

I came back the next morning and saw bodies decapitated, burned, and raped. I was scared so didn’t stay for long.... The women were all naked so we knew they had been raped. Some of them were in their homes, others next to the houses. Some were killed by bullet and others by knife or machete. I saw two women who were pregnant, and the FDLR had cut open their stomachs and removed the fetuses from their bodies. The nine children’s bodies I saw had all been burned. One of them was killed first with a knife... I left that day for Goma.[140]

The massacre in Busurungi occurred just days after Congolese army forces attacked Rwandan Hutu refugee camps and FDLR military positions in the nearby hills of Shalio, Marok, and Bunyarwanda, killing many refugees (see below). Local residents of Busurungi and FDLR combatants interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they believed the Busurungi massacre may in part have been revenge for this earlier attack.[141]

As in Mianga, the Congolese army had a military base in Busurungi but government soldiers were unable to repulse the FDLR attack and protect civilians. An estimated 50 FARDC soldiers were killed; the remaining soldiers fled.[142]

As in other FDLR attacks, the attack on Busurungi did not come without warning. The FDLR had sent threatening letters and messages to the population of Busurungi before the attack, accusing them of betrayal for supporting the government’s military operations against the FDLR. One man from Busurungi recalled seeing these warnings, “We often found letters from the FDLR saying that they would be in Busurungi soon to burn the village because the people of Busurungi supported the government army and [supported] the operation to chase the FDLR. We gave these letters to the FARDC commander.”[143]

Two weeks before the massacre, on April 28, the FDLR raped and killed two women and a 14-year-old girl on their farm just outside Busurungi. A man who later found the bodies said the victims had been tied up with sticks in their vaginas, suffered cuts all over their bodies, and had their skulls crushed.[144]

Manje massacre, July 2009

On the night of July 20-21, the FDLR attacked Manje village, some 20 kilometers southwest from Busurungi. Manje had become a haven for many displaced people who had fled from the surrounding villages, hoping to find safety with Congolese army forces based in the area. It proved to be wishful thinking. The FDLR massacred an estimated 30 civilians, more than half being shot or hacked to death by machete. Others were deliberately burned to death in their homes.[145] The insurgents also burned an estimated 182 houses to the ground.[146] As in the earlier massacres, witnesses reported that they were accused by the FDLR of being collaborators of the Congolese army and for failing to have paid off their debts to the FDLR.[147] 

One victim, interviewed by Human Rights Watch, was raped and abducted by the FDLR during the attack in Manje. She lost her mother, father, grandmother, and cousin during the attack, as well as 15 of her neighbors. She told Human Rights Watch:

They attacked at night, locked people in their houses and then burned them in their homes. I was saved by the grace of God, but nobody in my family survived. I went to the toilet when the bandits [FDLR] were already in the village. I heard them attacking and burning houses, so I didn't go back inside the house. But then they found me while I was trying to flee and took me and 10 other women and girls into the forest to rape us. I was raped by four of them at least, but then I lost consciousness and couldn't count them. I was in the bush with them for one week. I don't know what happened to the others. When I managed to escape, they were still in the camp with about 30 FDLR combatants.[148]

FDLR forces may have initially pretended to be Congolese army soldiers to gain easy access to the village. According to one woman who was in Manje the night of the attack, “When the FDLR came, they pretended to be FARDC. Others welcomed them and they ate together and didn't realize it was the enemy because they spoke the same language. But then they started to attack.”[149] A later MONUC assessment mission to Manje found the FDLR had been able to enter the village freely because they knew the Congolese army password.[150]

During the attack, the FDLR also took three men hostage, two of whom they later killed. The third was given a letter warning that the FDLR would soon attack Hombo, a town some five kilometers from Manje.[151] Many people had fled from Manje to Hombo after the July 21 attack but when they received the message from the FDLR they fled again, fearing further attacks.[152]

Killings in Ziralo area

Following the fall of the FDLR’s Kibua base, some FDLR forces moved south toward the Ziralo area, crossing the border into Kalehe territory (South Kivu). Here too the FDLR continued to spread terror, deliberately targeting civilians and burning villages. The FDLR attacked some 19 villages and towns, deliberately killing at least 84 civilians in this area between January and July 2009. In each case they accused the local population of betraying them by supporting military operations against the FDLR. In some cases the FDLR killed people they alleged to be supporters of its former allies, the Mai Mai.

After leaving Kibua some FDLR forces deployed in the Kinono forest just south of the provincial border. From there they attacked the surrounding villages, including Lulere, Kalangita, and Kirambo, among others, killing local residents and abducting dozens of civilians, possibly to serve as human shields, but likely also for sexual and other purposes for the combatants.[153] 

In late January 2009, the FDLR attacked Busheke village, near Tushunguti, one of the main towns in the Ziralo area, killing 14 civilians, including 12 women and girls whom they raped before killing. A young woman who had been married shortly before the attack told Human Rights Watch the horror of that day and the ensuing months:

The FDLR attacked just after I got married. I was in the house with my husband. My sister came in and said the [FDLR] were raping women in the village and had captured our mother and father. We decided to flee, but as soon as we got outside of the house, they caught us as well. There were five of them. They entered our house and started to loot all our goods. They then killed my husband with a machete and two of them raped me. They also killed my father and raped my mother and sister before killing them as well, all with machete. Ten other Hutu women and girls from my village were raped and killed with machete the same night. They abducted me and brought me to their camp where I was made the “wife” of Captain Jean Claude. He raped me every day until I managed to escape six months later... The FDLR said they were brothers of the Congolese Hutu and didn't understand why we had welcomed the FARDC. That's why they were punishing us.[154]

Throughout the following months the FDLR continued to attack civilians in Busheke, Lulere, Shanje, Mihanda, Bunyangungu, Bwishi, and other villages and towns. As in other areas, the FDLR sometimes left letters or messages behind saying they were punishing the population because it had allegedly welcomed the Congolese army.[155]

On May 15, 2009, the FDLR attacked Mihanda, a village in the Ziralo area of Kalehe territory (South Kivu), killing seven civilians who were hiding in the forest and burning some 135 houses. One eyewitness told Human Rights Watch:

The FDLR attacked when the FARDC had left the village to attack an FDLR position. They killed seven civilians who were hiding in the forest, including two women, two girls, a man, and two baby boys. Another civilian was wounded. Three of the women and girls were raped before being killed by machete... I buried them all in a mass grave two days after they were killed. They [the FDLR] left a letter on the road as they left which said they were punishing the population because we had welcomed the FARDC and that they had attacked in revenge because the FARDC had gone after them in the bush.[156]

Killings in other areas

Human Rights Watch also documented killings by the FDLR in other areas apart from Ufumandu, Waloaluanda and Ziralo, including in May in Chiriba village, Kalehe territory (South Kivu); in Burai, Rutshuru territory (North Kivu) on May 22; in Ntoto, Walikale territory (North Kivu) in April, May, and August; and in Mikumbi and Mungazi, Walikale territory in April. (See chart for full list of killings.) In each of these incidents the pattern was the same: the FDLR deliberately killed men, women and children, hacking them to death with machetes, burning them in their homes or shooting them, nearly always accusing their victims of betraying them and collaborating with the Congolese army and its allies.

Targeting local chiefs

Since the start of military operations in January 2009, the FDLR has summarily executed at least eight local chiefs whom they accused of having welcomed the Congolese and Rwandan armies, failing to stop the military operations against the FDLR, or providing information to the coalition forces about their whereabouts. Family members and those who worked with local authorities have also been targeted. In some instances, local chiefs were executed publicly in a clear attempt to terrorize the population.

One local authority worried about the attacks on chiefs told Human Rights Watch:

All of this [targeting of chiefs] is to show us that things will get even worse. The chief is the reference point of the population. People will flee if the chief is gone. The FDLR have started a tactic of targeting the chiefs, and the military planners haven’t considered this when carrying out the operations.[157]

According to informed sources interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the following chiefs, local administrators, and their subordinates have been killed by the FDLR since January 2009:

• On January 27, 2009, the FDLR assassinated a local administrator in Kikoma, Masisi territory, along with some of his colleagues.[158]
• On February 14, in Pinga, Walikale territory, the FDLR assassinated a local chief one hour after he had participated in a meeting with a MONUC protection officer.[159]
• In late February, the FDLR killed Ngeleza, the Bayangana chief, near Oninga, Walikale territory, saying that he had encouraged the population to flee.[160]
• In mid-March, FDLR combatants shot dead the secretary of the chief in Kailenge, near Pinga in Walikale territory.[161]
• On April 12, the FDLR decapitated Adrien Balume Lubula, the local chief in Mianga, Waloaluanda area, Walikale territory, while he was in bed at his home. The FDLR then went on to kill several men who worked for the chief.[162]
• In late May in Shabunda territory, the FDLR killed the village chief of Nzovu, Kabakenge, along with several of his family members as they tried to flee. Three of the chief’s female relatives were raped before they were killed.[163]
• On June 17-18, the FDLR abducted and killed by machete Chiza Nyamaboba, the secretary of Chiriba locality, in the Mubugu area of Kalehe territory.[164]
• On July 16, the FDLR publicly executed the acting chief of Mulambula locality, in Walungu territory (South Kivu). FDLR combatants accused him of collaborating with the Congolese army, and then chopped off his head and paraded it around the village as a warning to those who collaborated with the government.[165]
• On July 27, the FDLR assassinated the chief of Irhegabarhonyi in Kabare territory (South Kivu), with hammer blows to the head.[166] The chief had earlier been visiting his family in Bukavu and when he returned the FDLR accused him of visiting “FARDC areas.”[167]
• On September 26, when the FDLR attacked the village of Kafukiro in the Nindja area (Kabare territory, South Kivu), they brutally killed the village chief in his home with blows of a machete and club, then burned 42 homes.[168]

The FDLR attempted to kill another two village chiefs, but were unsuccessful. On March 29, a local chief in the Ufumandu area, Masisi territory, was burned alive in his home by the FDLR. He later received emergency treatment and survived.[169] On July 28, following an FDLR attack on Ihembe, the main town of the Nindja area, in which the FDLR burned the chief’s home, the attackers left a letter with a specific warning to the village chief saying, “Even if you escaped today, there are no guarantees for tomorrow. You could be killed any day, whether during the day or night.”[170]

FDLR combatants also abducted and injured village and other traditional chiefs, often through severe beatings with sticks or with their guns. On July 30, the FDLR abducted the chief of Chulwe village, Kabare territory, soon after the Congolese army set up a base in the area. He was taken to an FDLR position, where he was badly beaten but managed to escape four days later.[171]

In February, in Buhuli, Masisi territory, the FDLR attacked the local chief at his home. They beat him so badly that he needed hospitalization, and then looted all his goods before burning down his home.[172] In March 2009, an elderly local chief from the Katoyi, Masisi territory, was detained and beaten by the FDLR before he was tied up, taken to a neighboring village and ordered to give the FDLR five goats or be killed. With assistance from the community, the chief was able to obtain the demanded goats and he was released. Weeks later he was still sick and suffering from the injuries inflicted during the beating.[173]

 

Killings by RUD-Urunana in Southern Lubero

Since January, RUD forces have attacked civilians in a manner similar to the FDLR, likewise calling it punishment for civilians’ perceived support of Congolese army operations. Human Rights Watch has documented 70 civilians deliberately killed by RUD and FDLR combatants in Lubero, northeastern Walikale, and Rutshuru territories (North Kivu).

One such attack occurred on the night of April 17, 2009, when RUD combatants attacked Luofu and Kasiki villages in southern Lubero territory, killing at least seven civilians, including five young children who burned to death in their homes. At least seven other civilians were injured and 300 houses were burned to the ground.[174]

The father of three young boys (ages three, four, and six) who burned to death in their home told Human Rights Watch what happened,

[RUD] came and circled my house. When we tried to leave, they said, ‘You can’t leave or we’ll kill you.’ I was able to move out a bit and get some distance from the house, but my three young boys were still inside, sleeping on a single bed. Then I saw the combatants light a fire directly on my house and my three boys burned to death.[175]

Earlier the same day, RUD had sent a warning that Luofu would be attacked if a local businessman was unable to pay a debt the rebels said he owed them. A few days before the attack on Luofu, Congolese army soldiers supported by MONUC peacekeepers had begun operations against the rebels in the area. The timing of the attack on Luofu strongly suggests it was retaliation for these operations.

Rape and Sexual Slavery

The FDLR has a long and horrific record of perpetrating rapes and other forms of sexual violence against the women and girls of eastern Congo. But since the start of military operations against the group in January their involvement in such crimes has increased dramatically. As part of its strategy to target and punish Congolese civilians for the government’s military operations, the FDLR has deliberately used sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Between January and September 2009, Human Rights Watch documented 290 cases of sexual violence perpetrated by FDLR combatants in North and South Kivu in areas affected by military operations. This information was compiled through interviews with the victims, family members, and rape counselors or health workers who interviewed the victims.[176] In case after case, rape victims told the same story: during the rape, FDLR combatants accused their victims of “siding with the government,” of “welcoming the coalition forces,” or being the “wives” of Rwandan or Congolese army soldiers. The FDLR attackers repeatedly told their victims they were being raped to “punish” them.[177] 

For example, on February 9, 2009, FDLR combatants raped a 48-year-old woman in the Ufumandu area in Masisi territory. “The FDLR hit me on the back and on the head,” she told Human Rights Watch. “Then they took me by the throat and tried to strangle me....They said ‘We're raping you because you've joined the government side.’”[178]

On March 25, in the Ziralo area of Kalehe territory, seven FDLR combatants gang-raped a 60-year-old woman. When her daughter resisted being raped, the attackers shot her in the vagina, killing her. Before the FDLR departed they turned to the mother and reportedly said, “You voted for your President Kabila... Now he is sending his soldiers to chase us out. Since your president sent soldiers to kill us, we will take it out on you and rape and kill you.”[179]

In another case in May, the FDLR abducted five women on their way to the market near Mihanda village in Ziralo. One of the victims told Human Rights Watch her attackers said, “You made us suffer. We’ve always been here, and now they’re trying to chase us out. You, the mothers and fathers here, are complicit with the government forces, and because of that, we are going to punish you. Since you’re Congolese, we can never pardon you.”[180] Then the FDLR attackers raped the women.

In the cases investigated by Human Rights Watch, most victims of sexual violence by FDLR combatants were gang-raped, in some cases by as many as seven or eight soldiers at a time. The FDLR sometimes tied their victims to trees before raping them, violently inserted objects into the victims’ vaginas, such as sticks or the barrel of a gun, cut them with machetes or knives, or brutally beat them during the rape. Some women and girls were killed after being raped, sometimes by being shot in the vagina. Others were killed if they resisted when the FDLR tried to rape them. Some victims were so violently raped that they later bled to death; others suffered debilitating and often chronic injuries. The psychological harm to the survivors is undoubtedly immense.

A doctor working with rape victims at a hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu, described to Human Rights Watch the brutality he had witnessed. “When the FDLR rape, it’s not just rape, but torture afterwards... Some burn their victims, some introduce objects into their vaginas, some shoot into their victims’ vaginas... From a medical perspective, the cases of rape by the FDLR are the most severe.”[181]

In mid-May, the FDLR raped three women and a 16-year-old girl in Mirenge, near Kibua in Walikale territory. The only survivor told Human Rights Watch that the 16-year-old girl died immediately after the rape when her uterus ruptured, and the two other women died three weeks later because they were unable to access medical treatment.[182]

On April 5, the FDLR attacked Lulere village, in the Ziralo area. A 30-year-old woman who was raped during the attack told Human Rights Watch what happened to her,

It happened in the evening. I went out to get water, and when I came back, I saw everyone fleeing. I ran into the house to get my baby, but when I got there, the Interahamwe [FDLR] immediately came in and closed the door with us inside. There were four Interahamwe who came in the house. And there were four of us inside: my oldest daughter who was 23 years old, another woman, me, and the baby. They wanted to rape my daughter, and when she resisted, they shot her. After killing her, they tortured and raped me. They used the barrel of the gun as a bat and hit me on my ears and on my head. Three of them raped me, and they said, ‘If you resist only once, we will kill you like we just killed your daughter.’ After each of them raped me, they went on to the other woman who was in the house.[183]

On March 4, FDLR soldiers raped a 30-year-old woman at her farm near Lulere village (Ziralo). She was eight months pregnant and lost her baby. When her 16-year-old daughter, who was with her, resisted being raped, the FDLR combatant took her by force, inserted the barrel of his gun into her vagina and shot her dead.[184]

On May 18, FDLR combatants tied a 32-year-old woman to a tree near Katahunda (Ufumandu) before four of them raped her. The woman told Human Rights Watch, “When they found me, they put me on a tree and tied my feet and my hands to the trunk. Then four of them raped me. They told me, ‘If you try to move, we'll kill you.’ I was tied so tightly that it wasn't possible to move at all... Now I suffer a lot. My uterus came out because of the rape.”[185]

FDLR combatants raped the old and the young alike. The youngest case documented by Human Rights Watch was the rape of a nine-year-old girl on January 27 in Ngwilo village, Masisi territory. A rape counselor who later interviewed the victim said the girl had fled with her mother when they ran into the FDLR. They first raped her mother and inserted a large stick in her vagina, which led to her death. When the young girl cried out, the FDLR raped her as well.[186]

The oldest rape victim documented by Human Rights Watch was an 85-year-old woman raped by five FDLR combatants in early July in a village in Masisi territory. She later told a rape counselor that her attackers had found her on a footpath as she fled from the fighting. According to the notes taken by the counselor, the elderly woman told the FDLR that she was fleeing, that she was tired and asked them to pardon her. But the FDLR forced her down on the ground, beat her and dragged her into the nearby forest by her legs where she was gang-raped by five FDLR combatants.[187]

Scores of women were abducted and forced to serve as sex slaves in FDLR camps, where they were raped repeatedly for weeks or months at a time.

One such case was of a 60-year-old woman from Lumbishi, near Ziralo, abducted in January 2009. She was with the FDLR for four months before managing to escape:

I was on the road going to my daughter's house in Ziralo. They took all my money and raped me. Then they took me into the bush, and I was there for four months. A lot of women were taken hostage by the FDLR in Lumbishi. They beat me if I was tired when they wanted to have sex. When there was an attack, everyone moved together, the FDLR and those who were taken hostage. They shot those who weren't capable of moving so they wouldn't give out any secrets. I left many unburied corpses behind me in the forest, especially those of women and young girls who weren't capable of having sex anymore.[188]

A number of women became pregnant because of the rape. Despite increased sensitization and awareness in eastern Congo about sexual violence, the stigma is still strong. After FDLR combatants raped or held them as sex slaves, women and girls, and their babies born from rape, are rarely accepted back into their families and communities. One 15-year-old girl, ostracized by her family after giving birth following months of sexual slavery to the FDLR, despairingly asked a Human Rights Watch researcher, “Should I kill my baby or should I kill myself? I have no future.”[189]

In some cases, the FDLR forced civilian men and boys to rape women or girls, sometimes their own family members. In February 2009 in Miriki, Lubero territory, the FDLR stopped a group of six young people and forced the three boys to rape the three girls in the group.[190] On July 2, in Remeka, Masisi territory, the FDLR tried to force a man to rape his 28-year-old daughter-in-law, after she had already been raped in his presence by seven FDLR combatants. When he refused, they killed him.[191]

Burning and Pillage

The FDLR’s strategy of retaliatory attacks against Congolese civilians to “punish” them also included the widespread and wanton burning of thousands of homes, schools, health centers, churches and other structures throughout North and South Kivu. In some villages, not a single structure was left standing. According to information collected by Human Rights Watch in missions across North and South Kivu, the FDLR burned or otherwise destroyed at least 7,051 homes and other structures between January and September 2009. The destruction was often accompanied by the pillaging of goods, leaving civilian populations utterly destitute. In many cases, civilians were forced at gunpoint to transport the looted goods to an FDLR camp. Many of the civilians were later beaten, raped, or disappeared.

One man told Human Rights Watch what he saw in Masiba village, in the Mubugu area of Kalehe territory, on April 25 when the FDLR attacked and burned some 200 homes in the village,

They came at night when we were in our houses. They made us get out of our homes, and then they looted all our goods and set our houses on fire. When they finished the operation, they made the youth transport all their looted goods to their camp in the forest.[192]

The same thing happened in nearby Mwenga village (Kalehe territory) where 50 houses were burned on the same day.[193]

Some local officials believed the FDLR were deliberately burning homes to create large numbers of displaced people as part of their strategy to influence the government to call off its offensive.[194]In some places, the FDLR burned villages that were deserted after local populations had fled earlier attacks, possibly in an attempt to stop them from returning. This was the case on July 30, when the FDLR burned the village of Kingete, in the Ufumandu area of Masisi territory, destroying nearly 100 homes.[195]

In the Nindja area of Kabare territory (South Kivu), a MONUC mission confirmed that in June and July 2009, the FDLR systematically pillaged and burnt down 706 houses in Mudaka, Tshololo, Buhira, Kabuye II, Kalinganya, Lwizi and Kabona villages.[196] Many of these villages had been former FDLR bastions taken over by the Congolese army. But as the government soldiers advanced, they left no soldiers behind to protect the villages, allowing FDLR combatants to return, burn homes, and otherwise punish the civilians.

Satellite imagery collected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) provides visual and shocking confirmation of the widespread destruction of homes and villages. Analyzing pre- and post-attack imagery in a 100-square-kilometers radius around Busurungi, in Walikale territory (North Kivu), AAAS estimated that 1,494 homes and other structures were destroyed between January 19 and September 22, 2009. The damage amounted to an estimated 80 percent destruction rate. Some of the destruction in the satellite imagery was recent, having taken place between August 31 and September 22. In its report published on October 13, AAAS added that it believed further destruction had taken place outside the bounds of the imagery it had in its possession.[197]