Congo Kinshasa
Congo rebels step up abuse of activists

afrol News, 21 August - New reports from eastern Congo Kinshasa (DRC) indicate that the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma), a rebel group based in the area, has stepped up its "abuse of civil society activists."

According to information presented by the US group Human Rights Watch today, the eastern rebel groups are persecuting civil society activists at a larger scale than ever. The US group earlier has earlier published many reports critical to the pro-Rwandan side of the war in Congo Kinshasa. 

According to international treaties, civil society leaders are set to play an important part in the inter-Congolese dialogue meant to bring peace to the war-torn Congo Kinshasa. 

As preparatory discussions for the dialogue opened yesterday in Gaborone (Botswana), Human Rights Watch denounced the rebel authorities for having detained, beaten, and threatened leaders of civil society. RCD-Goma also initially delayed, but later authorized the departure of Gervais Chirhalirwa, leader of a coalition of civil society groups in Bukavu, who was to attend the meeting. 

- Just as the international community is inviting Congolese leaders of civil society to say what they think is needed for peace, the RCD is trying to shut them up, said Alison Des Forges, Senior Advisor for the Great Lakes region with the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. 

According to the US group, agents of the RCD Department of Security and Intelligence abducted Pastor Claude Olenga, head of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Kisangani, on 9 August, and "took him to their office where they forced him to disrobe and beat him severely." 

- They interrogated him about the content of radio and television programs that he had broadcast on Amani, a station owned by the Catholic Church, and about contacts with other activists and the Archbishop of Kisangani, the US group claims. "When released later that day, Olenga was ordered to keep silent about his ordeal." 

Some Congolese activists have campaigned for the demilitarisation of Kisangani, the second largest Congolese city. RCD troops have thus far refused to quit the city as called for by the UN Security Council, delaying the arrival there of UN peacekeeping forces known as MONUC. On the other hand, the UN peacekeepers will have no military strength to get control over the root of the conflict, the Congo Kinshasa supported Interahamwe and ex-FAR (the groups responsible for the genocide on Rwandan Tutsis), which is based in eastern Congo.

Kisangani has suffered dramatically from the war in Congo. In 2000, Rwanda, which backs the RCD, and Uganda fought for the control of Kisangani, killing hundreds of civilians and causing great property damage. Kisangani activists are demanding that the two governments pay reparations. The US group demands a UN takeover of the strategic town, saying it "may serve as the site for the inter-Congolese dialogue." 

Activists in opposition to RCD control of Kisangani have delivered information about human rights abuses by the RCD to visiting foreign dignitaries, including the UN Special Rapporteur for the DRC and the Belgian Prime Minister. In addition, they have called repeatedly for an international court to prosecute war crimes committed in the Congolese war. 

To silence and isolate critical activists, local RCD authorities denounced them on the radio and in public rallies as informants and agents of hostile foreigners, according to Human Rights Watch. They also prohibited activists from travelling and sent soldiers to intimidate them with nightly visits to their homes. 

RCD authorities in Uvira, South Kivu, have also detained, beaten, and threatened local leaders whom they charge with supporting the Mai-Mai, a local militia fighting to expel foreigners from the Congo, according to the US group.

When opponents of the RCD disrupted a rally meant to celebrate the third anniversary of the start of the rebellion on 2 August, local authorities allegedly detained scores of Mai-Mai accomplices, among them staff of Elimu and the Action Committee for Integrated Development, local civil society groups. "At least two of the detainees were beaten, one so severely as to require hospitalisation. Prominent activists were soon released, but others remain detained in harsh conditions," the group claims. 

- If the inter-Congolese dialogue is going to work, said Des Forges, "activists - like leaders of the political opposition - must be free to talk to each other, to express their ideas publicly, and to travel from place to place. RCD-Goma must guarantee these basic rights, even to those who hold opinions different from their own."

Human Rights Watch called on the RCD-Goma to put an immediate end to the harassment and threats of civil society and rights activists, and in particular to immediately release those still detained for no reason other than their opinion and activities they undertook in fulfilment of the mandate of their organizations. "The RCD-Goma should investigate all reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees and hold those responsible accountable."

The US group has however been careful in denouncing human rights abuses by the Kinshasa government, which is not democratically elected. Severe abuses of the Kinshasa press are on the other hand regularly denounced by the French group Reporters Without Borders. The Kinshasa government is also charged of military support for pro-genocide groups attacking Rwanda, forced recruitment of child soldiers and hindering the opposition and civil society groups of organising themselves.

Sources: Based on Human Rights Watch and afrol archives

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