Author: Roberto Garretón (for UN Economic and Social Council)

Date: 1 February 2001.

Title: Summary of [Report on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, submitted by the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Roberto Garretón, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/15]

Internal reference: Summary of [E/CN.4/2001/40]

Original language: French/Spanish (translation by UN).

Concerning: Since 1994, the UN Commission on Human Rights has been studying the situation of human rights in the Republic of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is the seventh annual report of the Special Rapporteur and it is submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/15, which extended his mandate for one year. This document is the summary of the report, as presented by the UN Commission.

Source: UN Commission of Human Rights

Abbreviations

Since 1994, the Commission on Human Rights has been studying the situation of human rights in the Republic of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is the seventh annual report of the Special Rapporteur and it is submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/15, which extended his mandate for one year. In resolution A/C.3/55/L.62, the General Assembly requested him to submit a further report in 2001. The Commission on Human Rights also requested him, together with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and a member of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, to conduct an investigation into human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law committed between 1996 and 1997 in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, security conditions permitting. The requirements of the resolution have not been met.

The Special Rapporteur carried out a mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, visiting the area governed by the Government and by two of the rebel groups, which, with foreign support, control over 50 per cent of the territory of the country. He attended a special session of the Security Council on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was later received by the Security Council at a special meeting under the so-called “Arria formula”. He spoke with the highest authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, RCD, MLC, the United Nations, the Facilitator for inter-Congolese dialogue, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. Although he was prepared to undertake more than one mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Geneva, as on other occasions, administrative formalities prevented him from doing so.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, nine armed internal, international and internationalized internal conflicts are going on with the participation of 6 national armies and 21 irregular groups. The most serious conflict is the one which pits Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, together with the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), against the Kinshasa Government. RCD has split many times and the pro-Uganda and pro-Rwanda factions have fought on Congolese soil, causing death and destruction in a foreign country. In another conflict, the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) is fighting the Government of President Kabila. Another conflict, started by Ugandan soldiers, opposes the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups. The victims of all these conflicts are always Congolese. In its resolution 1304 (2000), the Security Council expressly recognized that Uganda and Rwanda have violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Earlier, it described these two countries as “uninvited”.

None of the parties has respected the 1999 Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, although the forces’ positions have remained relatively stable. Without consultations, the Government suspended the Agreement and has seriously hampered the work of the United Nations observer mission, to which it agreed in Lusaka.

The most serious are violations of public freedoms: liberty of person (many persons are arrested for political reasons, regarded as traitors and sentenced as such), freedom of expression and opinion (more than 35 journalists were arrested, threatened or sentenced during the year and the media were warned by the Government about restrictions on what they could say) and freedom of association (non-governmental organizations are not recognized). There have also been cases of torture, some resulting in death. There have been attempts on people’s lives, but less frequently than in RCD-controlled territory. President Kabila did not keep his word about suspending the death penalty, which continues to be applied.

The Government has not taken any step in the direction of democracy and political parties which do not adapt to new and inadmissible requirements continue to be prohibited. Without consulting any social or political sector, it established a constituent assembly which is lacking in representativity and in no way reduces the absolute powers assumed by the President when he won out against Mobutu in 1997. The inter-Congolese dialogue agreed on in Lusaka (1999) has been rejected by the Government.

In the eastern regions occupied by the “rebel” or “aggressor” forces, there continues to be a climate of terror imposed by the armies of Rwanda, Uganda - and sometimes Burundi - and RCD. As in past years, massacres and other atrocities have been committed against the local population. Foreign soldiers operate with full impunity. Torture has led to a number of deaths. Liberty of person is violated and many non-governmental organization activists were detained or threatened during the year. There are no independent media and the scant information provided by organs of civil society is suppressed. Any dissent or opposition is presented as collaboration with Kabila or as “attempted genocide”. There are frequent reports of transfers of Congolese to Rwanda and especially to Uganda, including children (to be drafted into the Ugandan army) and refugees, contrary to the principle of non-refoulement. The death penalty has been applied in a number of cases, and this is a step backwards compared to the situation one year previously. There have been attacks on parish churches and religious centres, priests and ministers have been murdered, meetings in churches prohibited and the archbishop of Bukavu prevented from carrying out his functions.

There is no room at all for political participation. RCD governs as a party-State and it also relies on a paramilitary militia, the Local Defence Unit (ADL), which has carried out many attacks.

The Government is responsible for the breaches of international humanitarian law committed by the Mai-Mai, which it has incorporated into the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC). It is also responsible for bombings of civilian populations: Gemena, Boma, Libenge (hospital).

In reprisal for attacks on soldiers whom the Congolese population calls “aggressors”, RCD forces retaliate by massacring defenceless civilian populations with machetes or knives and guns, causing thousands of victims, most notoriously in Ngenge, Kalehe; Kilambo; Katogota, Kamanyola, Lurbarika, Luberezi, Cidaho, Uvira, Shabunda; Lusenda-Lubumba, Lulingu, Butembo and Mwenga, in November 1999, when 15 women were buried alive after being tortured.

The situation of human rights advocates is very precarious and dangerous. Throughout the territory, they are persecuted, detained and threatened and their offices are shut down. In the territory controlled by Kinshasa, they are regarded as allies of the Rwandans or the rebels and, in the east, as allies of Kabila.

ACL - PT Constituent and Legislative Assembly - Transitional Parliament

ANR National Information Agency (Agence nationale de renseignements)

APR Rwandan Patriotic Army

ASADHO Association africaine de défense des droits de l’homme

CEDA Centre d’études, de documentation et d’animation civique

COM Military Court (Cour de l’ordre militaire)

CNONGD Conseil national des organisations non-gouvernementales de développement

CRONGD Conseil régional des organisations non-gouvernementales de développement

CPRK Kinshasa Penal and Rehabilitation Centre

DEMIAP Detection of Unpatriotic Activities Police (Détection militaire des activités anti-patrie)

FAC Congolese Armed Forces

ex-FAR Former Rwandan Armed Forces

GSSP Special Presidential Security Group (Groupe spécial de sécurité présidentielle)

ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross

MLC Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (Mouvement pour la libération

du Congo)

MONUC United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

MPR People’s Revolutionary Movement (Mouvement populaire pour la révolution)

OAU Organization of African Unity

OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

PALU Unified Lumumbist Party

PDSC Democratic Social Christian Party

PIR Rapid Intervention Police (Police d’intervention rapide)

RCD Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie)

RCD/ML Congolese Rally for Democracy/Liberation Movement (Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie/Mouvement de libération)

RCD/Goma Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie)/Goma

REFECO Regroupement des femmes congolaises

RTNC Congolese National Radio and Television Corporation (Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise)

SADC Southern African Development Community

SCEPDHO Structure de culture, d’éducation populaire et des droits de l’homme

SOPROP Solidarité pour la promotion sociale et la paix

UDPS Union for Democracy and Social Progress

UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNITA National Union for the Total Independence of Angola

VSV Voix des sans Voix

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