Killings, rape in DR Congo - UN

2005-02-24 08:06

Kinshasa - More than 100 civilians were killed and twice as many were raped in December and January in fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UN investigators said on Wednesday.

Mass killings, summary executions and systematic rape have been committed, often in all impunity, in the four parts of Nord-Kivu province - Rutshuru, Masisi, Walikale and Lubero - where the United Nations has carried out its investigation.

Regular army troops, mutinous ex-soldiers and local militia fighters were all responsible for killings and atrocities in the area, the team of human rights investigators from the post-war UN mission in DRC (Monuc) has found.

In December, regular army soldiers clashed in the area with mutinous troops - former members of the Rwandan-backed ANC rebel movement who were taken into the armed forces following the DRC's 1998-2003 war.

Fighting has simmered on in the region, and there have been widespread reports of atrocities committed against the civilian population.

"The security situation is worrying in Rutshuru, with an increase in the number of armed attacks and looting," the UN team coordinator Sonia Bakar said.

She said the crimes were committed not only by the Interahamwe, a Rwandan Hutu militia, and by the Mai-Mai, a pro-government militia, but also by the mutineers.

Bakar told reporters that the mutineers had been using "rape as a means of terrorising the population."

They also carried out mass killings in Buramba, in the Rutshuru area, where UN observers confirmed at least 30 civilian deaths. Thirty-three rapes were reported in the same area.

60 summary killings

Further west in the Masisi area, the UN found evidence of "60 summary killings and several dozen rapes" committed by "ex-ANC rebels (the mutineers) and, to a lesser degree by armed Hutu civilians."

No one has been brought to justice for the crimes committed in either of the areas, Bakar said.

Dozens of murders and rapes have also been recorded in the Walikale and Lubero areas. Both regular and mutinous troops are guilty of systematic looting and large-scale rape around the town of Kanyabayonga, in Lubero, the UN said.

Monuc recorded 55 cases of rape committed by regular army troops, Bakar said, adding that in both Walikale and Lubero, the army had taken disciplinary action towards soldiers suspected of committing atrocities.

Early this month, a military court sentenced 21 soldiers to death for looting, rape and refusal to obey orders, all crimes committed in December when they were sent as combat reinforcements to Kanyabayonga.

- AFP