Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08KINSHASA150
2008-02-11 14:21:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Kinshasa
Cable title:  

IOM reports continued Angolan abuse of Congolese expellees

Tags:  PREF PHUM PGOV PREL AO CG 
pdf how-to read a cable
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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

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.

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