IOM reports continued Angolan abuse of Congolese expellees

UNCLAS KINSHASA 000150 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PHUM PGOV PREL AO CG SUBJECT: IOM reports continued Angolan abuse of Congolese expellees REF: A. 07 Kinshasa 1428 B. 07 Luanda 1221 ¶1. Summary: Angolan abuses of Congolese expellees are continuing, International Organization for Migration (IOM) officials report following a January 28-February 1 MONUC investigative mission to Kasai Occidental. IOM has requested U.S. assistance to help establish a transit center to receive Congolese expellees. End summary ¶2. Angolan government security forces continue to commit abuses against Congolese illegally living and working in Angola, although the frequency of the abuses appears to be declining. IOM officials who accompanied a January 28-February 1 MONUC investigative mission to Tshikapa and Kamako in Kasai Occidental January 28 to February 1 briefed us on the results of the mission February 4. They said that Congolese Interior Minister Denis Kalume had asked IOM for assistance and invited them to accompany MONUC on the mission. They reported that representatives of PEJEDHO, a local NGO based in Kamako, 7km from the Angolan border, and CARITAS DRC told the mission that Angolan authorities had deported 12,700 Congolese nationals to Kamako from January 2007 through January 2008, including 439 during the last month. ¶3. The NGOs noted that 60 percent of the deportees were men, 40 percent women and children. They ranged in age from 14 to 70 years of age. The NGOs confirmed 128 cases of rape, 3,462 cases of torture, 3 gunshot injuries, and 1,352 cases of acute diarrhea and malnutrition among children. To date, 12 of those deported have died as a result of torture and imprisonment in Angola, including a women expelled to Kamako over the weekend of January 26-27 who died January 28 as a result of injuries sustained while being gang-raped by Angolan security forces. ¶4. Recent deportees told the mission of being driven from their homes in mining areas of Angola and subjected to physical and psychological abuse by Angolan government security forces. Many had spent weeks and months in jail before being deported. According to IOM, the chief problem for deportees returning to the DRC is lack of food and water. IOM predicts an upsurge in the frequency of abuses and expulsions later in the year as the rainy season subsides and as Angolan elections draw closer. ¶5. Comment: IOM has requested U.S. assistance to help fund establishment of a transit center in Kamako for deportees with an initial capacity of 1,000 to meet basic human needs such as food,, shelter, and primary health care. Embassy believes this request has merit and has forwarded it to PRM. End comment. ¶6. This message was coordinated with Embassy Luanda. GARVELINK