Author: The Republic of Rwanda (Rwandan government)

Date: 21 November 2001 (publication date)

Title: THE REPUBLIC OF RWANDA RESPONSE TO THE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT ENTITLED:  DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rwandese – controlled east; Devastating human toll EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Original language: English

Concerning: Official response to an Amnesty International report released 19 June 2001, denouncing Rwandan responsibility for the reprted gross human rights violations from the eastern parts of Congo Kinshasa (DRC) occupied by the Rwandan army and their allied rebels. Amnesty report to be found on this external link (also in pdf).

Source: Rwandan Government

The Amnesty International (AI) report on the situation of human rights in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) issued on June 19, 2001 contains false and unfounded allegations of human rights violations against the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA). AI did not accord the RPA or the Government of Rwanda the opportunity to exchange views on the contents of the report prior to its publication. This response wishes to set the record straight.

Rwanda agrees with AI’s analysis that Rwanda’s current problems with the DRC have their origins in the events of 1994, namely the genocide and subsequent exodus of millions of Rwandese refugees to camps in Zaire, now the DRC. However, the Government of Rwanda contends that the impression given in the report that Rwanda does not have any real security concerns in the DRC is not only strongly objectionable but also grossly irresponsible.

The DRC has since 1994 been a safe haven for a large number of ex-FAR, Interahamwe and other violent groups (now numbering about 40 000 men) which committed genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and are still waging war against our country, with bases and military, financial and logistical support provided by the successive governments of the DRC and its allies. The self-proclaimed intention of these groups is to return to power and to continue their campaign of genocide in Rwanda. The extremely grave danger that these groups pose to peace, security and stability and reconciliation in Rwanda is common knowledge and readily acknowledged by the United Nations Security Council and the 1999 Lusaka Peace Agreement.

The Government of Rwanda maintains that the presence of the RPA in the DRC cannot be viewed in isolation from the presence of these violent groups. Rwanda maintains that the intervention of its troops in the DRC in 1996, 1998 and its presence in that country today, as a legitimate act of self-defence in accordance with international law. The use of force under conditions prescribed by international law to counter a previous unlawful use of force or even threat of the use of force (in our case by a group already responsible for the genocide of more than a million people) is permissible. The right to self-defense is enshrined as an inherent right in the Charter of the United Nation and justified under international law, as the current international campaign against terrorism clearly illustrates.

The Government of Rwanda is shocked by the outright bias, lack of objectivity and outright lies of AI’s coverage of the alleged abuses of human rights by members of the RPA in the Eastern DRC. The allegations of massive violations of human rights leveled against the RPA are clearly unsubstantiated. AI in its own report states the following:
‘The identity of those responsible for many attacks on civilians has not been established. Often there are no clear indications as to their identity or motives. In other cases, there are conflicting claims and interpretations as to whether RPA soldiers or armed members of opposition groups were responsible for particular incidents.’ (Page 38, paragraph 6 and page 39, paragraph 1)

The RPA is a well-disciplined army. The RPA attaches very great importance to the promotion and protection of respect for human rights and expects the highest standards of discipline from its members. It has a firm culture of accountability. Measures to make military justice increasingly effective continue. For example, the military investigation and prosecution services and courts have been decentralized to the units. Further, the RPA does not practice or tolerate impunity. The officers and men of the RPA could never conceivably condone a situation of generalized lawlessness and utter disregard for human life as the AI report alleges. On the contrary, many observers familiar with the Rwandese system of military justice frequently complain that it is draconian.

The Government of Rwanda does not deny that members of the RPA, whether based in Rwanda or in the DRC, may now and then commit crimes. However, such violations of human rights should be correctly seen as crimes committed by individuals and not portrayed as crimes sanctioned or in any way condoned by the command of the army.

The Government of Rwanda is concerned by the human rights situation in the eastern DRC. However that blame for this situation should not be passed around indiscriminately. The truth of the matter is that the violent dissident groups operating in the eastern DRC, such the ex-FAR, Interahamwe, Mai Mai and CNDD-FDD are responsible for the vast majority of the violations of human rights that have occurred and continue to occur in the eastern DRC.

The RPA upholds a vigilant military justice system that would compare favorably with similar institutions in any country anywhere in the world. Whenever members of the RPA are accused or suspected of having committed any crime, such complaints are always investigated and the suspects brought to justice. This policy has been strictly enforced in units based in the DRC as it is in Rwanda. The Rwanda Military Prosecution Service has investigated and prosecuted a total of 341 criminal cases (with 633 defendants) relating to offences committed by the military during the period January 1999 to September 2001. The cases include offences committed by officers and men serving in the DRC. The details of these cases are provided in Annex 1, a comprehensive report on cases of offences involving RPA soldiers serving in the DRC handled by the Military Prosecution Service. Our military courts have already tried many of these cases. In light of this, the allegation that the RPA does not care about respect for human rights and that it tolerates impunity in the DRC is completely untrue.

The allegation that Rwanda recruits children into its armed forces is absolutely false. The Government of Rwanda equally denies that the RPA has instructed or requested Congolese civilian authorities to recruit children for the police and the army of the RCD.
The last children in the RPA were demobilized more than six years ago. We have demobilized 18,692 military personnel over the past several years. These demobilized combatants included 2,364 children who had joined the army during the liberation struggle and have since been returned to school. The Government of Rwanda is currently negotiating with donors including the World Bank for financing to demobilize more than 20,000 more members of its army over the coming year.
It is therefore illogical that the government should be recruiting children while demobilizing able bodied, mature and experienced soldiers.

The Government of Rwanda deeply deplores the preposterous and malicious allegation that the presence of its troops in the DRC is in any way motivated by a desire to exploit that country’s resources. We condemn the allegations that anyone in authority, whether civil or military, in Rwanda has exploited Rwanda’s presence in the DRC for personal enrichment as alleged in the report. The allegations are an insupportable insult to the memory of the more than a million victims of the 1994 genocide and to the Government of Rwanda’s decision to pursue those responsible.

Trade between Rwanda and Congo dates from time immemorial. Trade between Rwanda and the DRC is permitted by bilateral and multilateral agreements between our respective countries. There are trade exchanges between eastern DRC and many other countries. Rwanda does not however subscribe to the view that all trade with areas in the DRC controlled by the rebels is necessarily illegal. This trade benefits the people of Congo as much as it benefits the foreigners who conduct business in the DRC. The war in the DRC has now been going on for three years. The economic life of the Eastern DRC cannot be expected to be shut down just because the central government does not control the area.
AI should refer to the Government of Rwanda’s response to the UN Panel of Experts Report and the Security Council’s subsequent decision.

The Government of Rwanda strongly rejects the irrational and cynical view propagated by AI that Rwanda is responsible for the victimization and persecution which ethnic Rwandese have faced and continue to face in the DRC. Successive governments of the Congo alone bear responsibility for the discrimination and immense suffering which has been visited upon Congolese of Rwandese ethnicity and the current threats by some individuals, groups and institutions in Congo to exterminate this population altogether.
The Government of the DRC and its allies should commend Rwanda for the role Rwanda has played in protecting this endangered community from annihilation. AI should condemn in clear and unequivocal terms the atrocities, which have been and continue to be committed against Congolese citizens of Rwandese ancestry at the instigation or with the connivance of the Government of the DRC.

The AI report is basically a reproduction of war propaganda circulating in the DRC. The report has scant details of specific of incidents of violations of human rights and merely rumbles on page after page making generalized and unsubstantiated allegations. It is evident that the authors of the report did not attempt to carry out an independent in depth investigations of the human rights abuses. They relied instead on heavily partisan and biased reports by non-governmental organizations hostile to the Rwanda and the RCD.

The DRC is a country at war. Propaganda is rife. As AI itself admits in the report, the problem of disinformation on issues pertaining to the situation in eastern Congo is large (page 2, paragraph 5). In reporting on human rights in the DRC, AI should be mindful of the fact that there are individuals and organizations in the DRC, which are hostile to the RCD and Government of Rwanda. AI should subject the allegations, which these individuals and organizations make against Rwanda and the RCD to the strictest possible scrutiny. AI should not publish war propaganda distributed under the guise of human rights advocacy as it has done in this report.

The Government of Rwanda believes that organizations such as AI who investigate and report on human rights in a situation of conflict as in the DRC where there are so many protagonists have a duty to exercise extra diligence in researching the truth, lest they become unwitting propaganda tools of one or the other of the parties to the conflict. In compiling this report, AI has not discharged its obligations in this regard.

The authors of the AI report themselves acknowledge that much of the information they receive is inherently unreliable. The Government of Rwanda maintains that the report is biased and partisan and that the allegations made in it against the RPA are completely baseless and unfounded.

The problems Congo faces are a result of both the on-going conflict and the legacy of bad governance over the decades. In order to address and resolve the problems, including human rights problems it is imperative first and foremost that the on going conflict be brought to an end.

The Government of Rwanda re-affirms its belief that the Lusaka Peace process is the only acceptable and viable framework for settlement of the conflict and the problems relating to peace and security of the DRC and her neighbours. Implementing the peace process is the foremost priority.

We reiterate our call that all parties to the Lusaka Agreement should faithfully implement the terms of the peace agreement without setting preconditions.

Concerted efforts are needed by the international community to pursue, apprehend and bring to justice members of ex-FAR and Interahamwe and other persons responsible for the Rwanda genocide now based in the DRC.

The Government of Rwanda regrets that AI a reputable organisation from which one would ordinarily have expected sound analysis of issues, objective reporting and recommendations which promote durable peace, has in the instant report conducted a biased and superficial analysis. In doing so AI has conspicuously avoided the important issue of the overwhelming responsibility which the Government of the DRC bears for the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC through its provision of bases, training, weapons, financing, logistical and other support to the Ex-FAR and Interahamwe, Mai-Mai, CNDD-FDD and other armed groups which are responsible for the majority of human rights abuses in the east of the country.

The AI Report is a reflection of the longstanding antipathy that AI has demonstrated towards Rwanda. The report’s accusations against Rwanda are false and unfounded. It lacks objectivity and is glaringly partisan. The Government of Rwanda strongly condemns the AI report and hopes that those who read it will subject its contents to appropriate scrutiny.

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