Letter to Professor Wamba (Human Rights Watch Press release, New York, August 10, 2000)

World Report 2000: Democratic Republic of Congo

Letter to Professor Wamba

(New York, August 10, 2000)

Dear Professor Wamba:

Human Rights Watch has just been informed of the recent arrest of certain senior executives close to the deputy general commissioner of the RCD-ML Tibasima Mbogemu Ateenyi. Others are reportedly being subjected to harassment, including brief detentions. In particular, we learned that the Commander Mukalayi and the deputy commissioner for mines and energy Michel Rudatenguha were respectively arrested on July 27 and on July 29 by the RCD-ML's security services. The two officials are reportedly being held since their arrest in the Military training Center of Rwampara, not far from Bunia. They are reportedly locked up in a narrow pit where they are being subjected to daily beatings and denied access to visitors. Several young soldiers of the RCD-ML accused of mutiny, also detained at Rwampara center, are reportedly being subjected to similar treatment.

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Human Rights Watch appreciates your response to our telephone call on Friday, August 4. During that conversation, you confirmed that Mr. Rudatenguha was subject to investigations relating to his supposed role in the recent mutiny of elements of the military wing of the RCD-ML, and gave us assurances that he would be treated well. We learned from you also that the RCD-ML called upon its allies of the Ugandan army, the Ugandan People's Defense Force (UPDF) to restore order in Bunia. We understand from other reliable sources that the Rwampara training center is under the command of the UPDF.

We are gravely concerned because last November, in similar circumstances of challenge to the authority of the RCD-ML and its UPDF backers, a detainee held by the RCD-ML security forces died as a result of torture. Four leaders of Civil Society groups arrested in mid-November 1999 in the Congolese town of Butembo, which the RCD-ML controls, were severely tortured. Desire Lumbu Lumbu, a prominent local leader, had lost an eye under torture, and entered into a terminal coma after his release. He died in hospital of brain hemorrhage on December 11, 1999.

Concerned about the information on the treatment reserved by the RCD-ML to the current detainees, we would like to appeal to you, and to the UPDF which is backing your movement, to do all that is in your joint capacity so that detained individuals are not subjected to torture or to ill treatment. They must be held under humane conditions, be placed in official centers of detention, and allowed access to medical care and be given decent food. We urge you and the UPDF to grant full access to all detention places to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other humanitarian organizations. We call upon the RCD-ML and its UPDF backers to publish lists of all prisoners, including their gender, ages, where they were captured, where they were detained, and other relevant details.

We thank you in advance for your action on this urgent matter.

Sincerely Yours,

Suliman Ali Baldo

Senior Researcher
Africa Division
Human Rights Watch

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