FOR SOUTH KIVU CITIZENS, HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000896 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM KDEM CG SUBJECT: FOR SOUTH KIVU CITIZENS, HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS CONTINUE REF: A. KINSHASA 875 ¶B. KINSHASA 666 ¶C. KINSHASA 337 ¶D. 05 KINSHASA 2029 ¶E. KINSHASA 582 ¶1. Summary. MONUC, human rights organizations, humanitarian groups, and civil society leaders in and around Bukavu, South Kivu province agree that the three most serious human rights issues facing the area are violent crime by the Congolese army, impunity for soldiers, and FDLR attacks on civilians. End summary. ¶2. Embassy PolOff and DRL Human Rights Officer met with a range of non-governmental and international organizations in Bukavu, South Kivu June 27-29 including: MONUC Bukavu; the provincial director of the High Media Authority, reporters from Radio Okapi and Radio Mandaleo; a traditional chief from Walungu Territory; the dean of the Catholic university; the director of Panzi Hospital; and NGO representatives from CEPOST (reconciliation),BVES (child soldiers),and human rights groups Heritiers de la Justice, Ligue des Droits de la Personne dans la Region des Grands Lacs, and Reseau de Droits de l'Homme. We found complete agreement on the most serious human rights issues in the area: armed and undisciplined Congolese army (FARDC) soldiers, a failing justice system that results in impunity for human rights violations, and continued attacks by the Rwandan Hutu (FDLR) or Rasta militia on civilian populations in northern South Kivu. -------------- Too Many Guns, Not Enough Barracks -------------- ¶3. Insecurity in Bukavu and surrounding areas comes predominantly from the uncontrolled circulation of weapons, a coalition of seven human rights organizations told us June ¶28. These weapons are used by men in uniform to kill, rape, kidnap, and pillage with near total impunity. According to a MONUC-Bukavu Human Rights Officer, 90 percent of the weapons in Bukavu are in the hands of the military, with most of the rest held by civilians or demobilized soldiers. The complicating factor, he said, is the complete absence of military camps (ref A). Soldiers live in and around the city, receive no salary, and have weapons. ¶4. Several journalists told us at a June 28 roundtable that the flood of guns in Bukavu played a role in the murder of Radio Okapi journalists Serge Maheshe (ref B). The murder took place in a quarter of Bukavu where military harassment ;was common. Residents of the area had sent a letter to the provincial government only a week before Maheshe's death listing dozens of local residents whose possessions had been stolen or who had been physically threatened or injured by FARDC soldiers. A Radio Okapi journalist told us he thought Maheshe was a victim of generalized insecurity, not targeted for being a journalist. He said a soldier had robbed another journalist and his wife on a street near where Maheshe was killed only weeks earlier; they had not resisted and were not harmed. ¶5. MONUC and South Kivu civil society and provincial government representatives met June 27 to discuss a system for registering and tracking arms. According to a MONUC officer, they proposed establishment of a depot from which soldiers would sign out and return arms and munitions for daily duties. The depot would be controlled by military police with MONUC's assistance and would permit the tracking of guns used in crimes as well as the chance to count bullets used by each soldier. The provincial government must now solicit funds from the central government in Kinshasa. -------------- -------------- Judicial Impunity: The Other Half of the Problem -------------- -------------- ¶6. Insecurity is made worse by judicial impunity. Human rights activists told us June 29 that the law on the independence of judges was the first step toward improving the judicial system on the civilian side. On the military side, they explained that too often the accused holds a higher grade than the military judge, who is then deemed incompetent to try a superior officer. With neither the civilian nor military judicial systems functioning effectively, the population resorts to "popular justice." One day earlier, for example, one of the presumed killers of KINSHASA 00000896 002 OF 003 a South Kiva woman was burned alive by a crowd of vigilantes. ¶7. A MONUC Bukavu Child Protection Officer told us June 27 impunity affected NGOs' ability to separate child soldiers and end their recruitment. She cited "Colonel 106" as a "warlord" responsible for recruitment of child soldiers. Colonel 106, according to her, is "protected politically," and even the 10th Military Region Commander has told her it is "not the moment" to arrest him. Because of this, children who escape from his ranks fear retribution. ¶8. The director of a child soldier NGO in Bukavu said another notorious child soldier recruiter remains free in North Kivu. Commander Jean-Pierre Biyoyo, who is the only Congolese soldier ever convicted of recruiting children, escaped from Bukavu's prison in June 2006, three months after being incarcerated. The director claimed the escape was organized by Biyoyo's military colleagues. He returned to South Kivu in March as part of a FARDC delegation, and had since been promoted to Lt. Colonel (ref C). The director also said Biyoyo visited the judge who sentenced him to prison while in Bukavu, but officials were afraid to arrest him since he was in the company of six or seven FARDC soldiers previously accused of war crimes. A MONUC Goma Human Rights Officer confirmed to us June 29 that Biyoyo is serving with the FARDC in North Kivu. ¶9. Several human rights activists told us the recent death of Serge Maheshe has renewed interest in the delayed trial of the killers of Pascal Kabungulu, a human rights activist murdered in Bukavu in 2005. Two FARDC officers were arrested for the murder and subsequently freed by the deputy regional military commander. Former South Kivu Governor Didace Kaningini and Lt. Colonel Jules Thierry, arrested for obstruction and possible involvement in the murders, were arrested December 11, 2005 and released the next day by then-Governor Deogratias BuhambaHamba after protests in Bukavu (ref D). The military court subsequently ruled it could not judge officers and postponed the case until a higher-ranking judge arrived. Two years later, neither the accused murderers nor the accused accomplices have been brought to trial. -------------- Beyond the Congolese Army: FDLR Depredations -------------- ¶10. The Congolese army and a dysfunctional judiciary are the main human rights problems in the province. However, for many people in the north and west, the Rwandan FDLR militia surpass both in level and breadth of violations. On the night of May 26-27, FDLR/Rastas (armed men believed to be Congolese and perhaps ex-FDLR, affiliated with the FDLR) attacked three villages in Kanyola, Walungu territory, killing 19 and injuring 24 (ref E). The victims, including women and children, were killed in their beds with machetes, axes, bayonets, and sticks. An additional 12 people were abducted and taken into the nearby Mugaba forest. According to MONUC, the assailants left letters addressed to the Walungu Territorial Administrator saying the attacks were a reprisal for joint MONUC-FARDC military operations conducted against them. This is consistent with Rasta behavior since the group was formed. ¶11. This massacre capped a series of attacks by the FDLR and Rastas throughout the first four months of the year. According to MONUC human rights officers, at least 75 villagers were abducted by FDLR from South Kivu villages from January through April. More than ten were killed. MONUC reported that FARDC soldiers were often stationed less than 200 meters from the villages attacked but did nothing. MONUC has used mobile operating bases to try to protect targeted villages, but dwellings are scattered in a several kilometer radius and must be protected individually. Even local militias have not been successful in deterring attacks. Members risk death in notifying the village of the arrival of FDLR. ¶12. Those abducted were most often women and girls, who were then subjected to horrific sexual violence. MONUC reported that on the night of February 19-20, a woman was raped in Kafukiro in the presence of her husband. Another woman abducted at the same time was gang-raped by 11 assailants. A woman abducted from Miramade in April told MONUC that FDLR militia held women and girls in the Kalonge forest and each day selected several from the group and proceeded to rape KINSHASA 00000896 003 OF 003 them repeatedly. ¶13. The doctor in charge of Panzi hospital, South Kivu's only sexual violence clinic, told us June 28 that the sexual violence problem in South Kivu did not exist prior to the wars which started in 1996. He said the level of violence used by the FDLR results in permanent disabilities, including fistula, mutilated sexual organs, and internal damage. He said FDLR do not just rape women, they terrorize entire communities by making women into sex slaves or raping them in public. The women are so traumatized that they refuse to return home, and their families are so traumatized that they flee as well. He said he has seen rape used to destroy the social fabric of entire villages. More than 15,000 women have been cared for at Panzi hospital since 2000 when it opened. ¶14. PolOff and HROff met with a group of more than 200 of these women at Panzi hospital, a few of whom told their stories. One was tied up along the side of the road and raped by ten men. Another saw her three children plus ten other neighbors killed before she was raped and fled naked to a nearby village. A third said the FDLR killed her two adult sons, raped her, and pushed a piece of wood into her ear, permanently wounding her. One woman told us, "the FDLR kill our husbands, children, brothers; they rape us, burn our homes, take all our things; help us to chase these people from us." -------------- Comment: -------------- ¶15. Ironically, South Kivutians tell us the level of violence has actually decreased in the past few years. The majority of the human rights violations are not politically motivated, but the work of uncontrolled militia and undisciplined soldiers abetted by a dysfunctional judiciary. Despite initial enthusiasm for the new. democratically-elected government, people in Bukavu and surrounding areas are growing weary of politicians unable to reclaim control of the military or reestablish secure Congolese borders. Their impatience and anger has increasingly turned toward President Kabila and MONUC. End comment. MEECE