Your Excellency,
Human Rights Watch welcomes the concern shown by the Security Council for the crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi. The departure of a mission to Central Africa at this time clearly demonstrates the urgency of the situation in these countries. We are writing to convey our analysis of the human rights situation in these countries, and to suggest steps that the Security Council could take to address areas of particular concern, including increasing protection for civilian populations and ending impunity for abuses. Our organization has been monitoring the human rights situation in the Great Lakes for more than a decade, and publishes frequent reports on the countries in the region.
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
The terms of reference for Security Council mission state that it will remind the government of the DRC, its neighbors, and armed political groups of their obligations under international humanitarian law, and that they respect human rights, ensure the safety of the civilian population, and cease supporting armed groups and militias. This is an extremely important and timely message, both for the current crisis in Ituri, and for the DRC more broadly. In his second special report on the United Nations Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC), published on May 27, 2003, Secretary-General Kofi Annan recognized the importance of human rights in this crisis. He said, “Without strong national human rights protection structures in place and an end to the widespread reign of impunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there cannot be any real reconciliation or the building of the foundation of long-term, sustainable peace.”
Crisis in Ituri
Despite three peace agreements aimed at ending the five year-old Congolese war, fighting in eastern DRC, particularly in Ituri and South Kivu, intensified in late 2002 and early 2003. The current violence in Bunia is only the latest episode in this war that has left an estimated 3.3 million civilians dead throughout the Congo, a toll that makes it more deadly to civilians than any other since World War II.
While Human Right Watch welcomes the recent decision by the Security Council to authorize an Interim Emergency Multinational Force for Bunia with a Chapter VII mandate, we continue to believe that the DRC presents the Security Council with a critical test of its stated commitment to protect civilians. We are particularly concerned about the protection of civilians outside of Bunia, which currently is not within the multinational force’s mandate.
The Interim Force will help to stabilize the situation in Bunia, but it should also address the need to protect civilians in other parts of Ituri and the eastern DRC. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled from Bunia, joining more than 500,000 displaced from previous fighting; the fate of many of these people is unknown. Hema and Lendu armed groups remain fully armed and ready to attack again. Recent reports of fighting in Aru, Tchomia, and Mongbwalu indicate that the violence continues.
War crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of international humanitarian and human rights law have been carried out on a massive scale in Ituri. Armed groups have massacred unarmed civilians, often solely on the basis of their ethnicity. They have also committed summary executions, rapes, arbitrary arrests, and torture; all groups have recruited children for military service, some as young as seven years old. Armed groups have deliberately prevented humanitarian agencies from delivering assistance to people whom they have defined as their enemies, resulting in further deaths.
Uganda, the occupying power in Ituri from 1998 until its withdrawal in May 2003, has failed in its legal obligation to protect the civilian population. From its initial involvement in a land dispute between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in 1999 through its joint operation with Lendu and Ngiti militias to dislodge the Hema from Bunia in March 2003, the Ugandan army has largely aggravated rather than calmed ethnic and political hostilities. In the past year, the RCD-Goma, backed by Rwanda, and the RCD-ML, backed by the DRC, have become increasingly active in the area, contributing to further conflict and backing new armed groups. The Security Council should ensure that the Ugandan, Rwandan and DRC governments commit themselves to not providing any military or financial assistance to political armed groups in Ituri. As the Secretary-General’s report noted, “External actors must recognize their accountability for the actions of those armed groups they helped create and must cease to supply them or give them succor.”
MONUC, with some 700 troops in Bunia, has been completely overwhelmed and has been unable to adequately protect civilians and restore calm to this volatile region. The force lacks a robust mandate such as that of the Interim Emergency Multinational Force for Ituri and has proved ineffective in quelling the violence and protecting civilians. Following this visit to the DRC, we trust the Security Council will consider an urgent strengthening of the overall MONUC mandate to ensure it is robust enough to protect civilians both in Ituri and elsewhere.
The Kivus
The complex mix of local, national, and regional conflicts exists also in the Kivus, where civilians have suffered from massacres and other grave abuses. The continuation of this kind of local level combat endangers the peace process throughout the country and in the Great Lakes as a whole.
In South Kivu, local sources report serious abuses by the Rwandan backed RCD-Goma against civilians and those accused of supporting the Mai Mai. For example, in Walungu between April 7 – 14, 2003 RCD-Goma troops allegedly attacked numerous villages near Burhale killing some 55 people and systematically raping women and girls. Similar acts have also been reported in Walikali.
Human rights activists and other members of civil society who report on these and others issues are often harassed and arrested by the RCD-Goma authorities. Independent radio stations such as Radio Maendeleo have been closed down for broadcasting “political content” and others have been threatened.
Sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war by most of the forces involved in this conflict. Combatants of the RCD, Rwandan soldiers, as well as combatants of the forces opposed to them– Mai-Mai, armed groups of Rwandan Hutu, and Burundian rebels of the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (Forces pour la défense de la démocratie, FDD) and Front for National Liberation (Front pour la libération nationale, FNL)– have frequently and sometimes systematically raped women and girls.
Ending Impunity
Those responsible for serious abuses of human rights and humanitarian law in the DRC are rarely, if ever, brought to justice. International leaders and the Security Council regularly denounce the crimes, but have failed to end them or to hold their perpetrators legally accountable. As a follow up to Security Council resolution 1468, the Security Council mission should recommend the establishment of an international justice mechanism to hold accountable those responsible for serious abuses of human rights and humanitarian law. Such a court must function with full independence and impartiality and according to international standards of due process.
In its meetings with DRC government officials, the Security Council mission should urge the government to make the establishment of a national justice system a priority so as to better prosecute and punish those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law and serious human rights abuses. The government should also be urged to pass the necessary national legislation to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Recommendations on DRC
We urge the Security Council mission to:
- Urge the command of the Interim Emergency Multinational Force to be prepared to respond to attacks against civilians outside of Bunia, where reports describe continued fighting between Hema and Lendu armed groups, including in Aru, Mongbwalu and Tchomia. The fate of thousands of civilians who live in these areas and those who have fled from Bunia is uncertain.
- Strengthen the Chapter VII component of the MONUC mandate to ensure it is robust enough to protect the civilian population throughout Ituri and beyond once the Interim Emergency Intervention Force leaves on September 1. Ensure that the additional MONUC troops for Ituri are deployed in key areas in the territory and given adequate resources and logistics to deter further violence. Broaden the operational guidelines of MONUC to include deterrent and preventative actions in order to maximise the protection of civilians.
- Establish a team of MONUC human rights investigators in Ituri with sufficient resources to document and publicly report on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in order to hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes. Ensure this team is supported by a local office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights based in Bunia which can provide technical experience to the MONUC team and also strengthen local human rights organizations.
- Ensure that the Ugandan, Rwandan and DRC governments do not provide any military or financial assistance, including military training and ammunition, to political armed groups in Ituri with a record of human rights abuses. This should include Lendu, Ngiti and Hema militias, groups such as the FNI, FRPI, PUSIC and the UPC, as well as the RCD-ML, RCD-N and the MLC.
- Establish a credible and legitimate international justice mechanism for the DRC to investigate and prosecute all parties accused of abuses from 1996 to 2002 including non-Congolese actors from Uganda, Rwanda and other states.
- Urge the Ugandan government to investigate and prosecute war crimes, violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed since 1999 by Ugandan troops in Ituri and local groups over which they exercised effective control.
- Exert pressure on the RCD-Goma to end its abuses against the civilian population and human rights activists and to permit the radio in Bukavu to resume broadcasting.
- Direct the staff of U.N. agencies working in eastern Congo to give priority to programs focused on the rights of women and girls, the elimination of sexual violence, and the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is an urgent problem. A World Health Organization Survey in Bukavu Hospital found that 54 percent of adult females and 26 percent of children were HIV positive.
Burundi
During its mission to Burundi the Security Council should call on the new government to deliver on its promises to end the nine-year long war and to deliver justice for the many violations of international humanitarian law committed during the war. While the transfer of power, the signing of cease-fires, the promised deployment of an African Union peace-keeping force, the passage of laws on justice, and the infusion of foreign aid have raised hopes that the new government will succeed better than its predecessor, there are also less promising signs: conflict and violence continue throughout the country and the new laws on justice are encumbered with provisions that will slow their implementation.
Addressing Impunity
In several of the most serious massacres documented by Human Rights Watch, government soldiers have escaped all meaningful punishment. In a recent trial of officers accused of participating in the deliberate massacre of 173 civilians in Itaba commune, Gitega province, the military prosecutor called civilians present in a community after the passage of rebels “secondary assailants,” thus ignoring the distinction between combatant and non-combatant that is fundamental to international humanitarian law. On April 23 soldiers reportedly shot some twenty civilians fleeing combat in Kabezi commune, Bujumbura-rural. In combat zones, government troops have barred access by humanitarian agencies, leaving displaced persons without adequate food, water, or medical assistance.
Rebel FDD and FNL forces have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law. They have summarily executed civilians, some of them local administrative officials, and others, unarmed passengers in vehicles that have been ambushed on various roads throughout the country. Rebel forces have also raped and injured civilians and they have destroyed and looted civilian property. In recent months, the FDD has continued to recruit children into their armed forces. Neither of the rebel forces has announced any form of accountability or discipline for combatants guilty of violating international humanitarian law.
Burundian legislators have passed several laws important for delivering justice under the new government. Both the assembly and the senate adopted a long-promised law against genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Passage of the law marks a major step in this country that has seen large-scale ethnic slaughter in the past, but the law is encumbered with a complicated mechanism that may delay dealing with these crimes. It calls for an international judicial commission of inquiry, presumably to be created under the aegis of the United Nations, to examine crimes committed from 1962 until the date of promulgation of the law, a period of more than forty years. It also asks for an international criminal tribunal to be created to try cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity if the commission finds that such crimes have been committed. The assembly also proposed establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to cover the same period since 1962. The assembly authorized ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The African Mission
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and regional leaders preside over a number of diplomatic initiatives to end the war, but the actual work of peace-keeping is to be handled by a mission of the African Union. Forty-three observers attached to the mission have arrived from Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Togo and are deployed in several towns, although they are not traveling to combat zones for security reasons. More than one hundred South African troops arrived in Bujumbura on April 27, part of a larger peacekeeping force of 3,500 troops that will include soldiers from Mozambique and Ethiopia. The mandate of the force is only to monitor the cease-fire, leaving it unlikely that its soldiers will even endeavor to protect civilians. As yet, the force has no unit specially tasked with monitoring the human rights situation.
Recommendations on Burundi
The Security Council mission should:
- Use its influence to urge the Burundian government to ensure its armed forces strictly abide by international humanitarian law, particularly concerning the treatment of civilians during armed conflict.
- Use its influence to urge the rebel forces to ensure that their forces strictly comply with international humanitarian law, particularly concerning the treatment of civilians during armed conflict.
- Insist upon the full and rapid implementation of provisions in the Arusha Accord of August 2000, reaffirmed by the December 2002 ceasefire agreement, including those for bringing to justice those accused of violations of international humanitarian law.
- Assist the Burundian government with the development of an effective system of justice.
- Encourage the government to ratify the Rome Treaty of the International Criminal Court without making use of the article 124 option to delay implementation of the competence of the court.
- Work to speed the deployment of observers and peacekeeping troops, and ensure that peacekeeping forces protect civilians and that the African Mission create a unit to monitor and report on all human rights abuses by Burundian government, rebel forces, and African Mission troops.
Thank you for your attention to these important matters. We stand ready to assist you with any further questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Peter Takirambudde
Executive Director, Africa Division
Joanna Weschler
United Nations Representative
