Backgrounder on the DRC (Congo)
Backgrounder on the Democratic Republic of the
Congo
Human Rights Watch, January 2001 http://www.hrw.org/index.html
Joseph
Kabila has promised to return to a state based on law, but
that means that people must be held accountable for their
abuses.
Joseph Kabila, newly installed
president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has
inherited an intractable war, a near void of civil
institutions, and a legacy of human rights abuses committed
under the rule of his father, the late President Laurent
Kabila. The new president has tried to spark renewed peace
discussions and has stirred hope for improvements on the
domestic political front. He has promised new respect for
civil liberties and has ordered legislation to be drafted
recognizing political parties. He has established a
commission to set terms for the national dialogue with other
political forces, as specified in the Lusaka Accords. During
his nearly four years in power, former President Kabila
regularly and ruthlessly violated the human rights of the
Congolese people, killing, torturing, imprisoning, and
causing the "disappearance" of any who he thought threatened
him or his regime. Among those who suffered most were
political opponents, leaders of civil society, human rights
activists, and journalists. Joseph Kabila has promised to
return to a state based on law but has not yet initiated any
reform of civilian justice. Part of the action on this
urgent question should include a review of persons currently
detained in prison and the prompt release of those held
without charge or credible suspicion of guilt. The new
president has promised improvements in the military justice
system. The commission of inquiry established to investigate
the assassination of the elder Kabila may show how likely
this effort is to succeed. The assassin, reportedly shot
dead immediately after the crime, was said to have been part
of the Kadogo unit and several other soldiers from that unit
have been arrested. Kadogo, a term which means child
soldier, refers to a unit of soldiers recruited when they
were very young, many of them from the eastern provinces of
the Kivus. If Kabila can ensure an orderly, transparent
inquiry into the sensitive issue of his father's death, his
commitment to improving military justice will gain
credibility. A number of sometimes competing security
services operated during the time of the elder Kabila.
Joseph Kabila reportedly forced the resignation of the heads
of these services for their "incompetence and failures" in
preventing the assassination of his father. He should also
order investigations of how these services violated the
basic rights of ordinary Congolese, particularly by making
arbitrary arrests and by ill-treating and torturing
detainees. For the rule of law to materialize, those
responsible must be held accountable for their abuses.
Kabila has ordered a tightening of military discipline, but
it is not clear if this involves new orders for troops to
henceforth observe the Rules of war. During the 1996-1997
war which put Laurent Kabila in power, Congolese soldiers
and their Rwandan and Ugandan allies attacked tens of
thousands of civilians, slaughtering, raping, and otherwise
injuring them, and driving hundreds of thousands from their
homes. The U.N. made two efforts to document these war
crimes but failed to complete their work, in part because of
obstruction by the elder Kabila. After the team of experts
appointed by the Secretary General delivered a report
implicating Congolese and Rwandan soldiers in crimes against
humanity and possible genocide, the U.N. Security Council
charged the Congolese and Rwandan governments with carrying
forward the investigation. Neither did so. Were Kabila to
signal clear readiness to facilitate the work of a new
international investigation, he would begin to substantiate
his proclaimed commitment to justice. Presumably any new
international investigation would also address violations of
international humanitarian law during the current conflict.
During the course of the war, some of the national
belligerents have meddled in local ethnic-based conflicts,
often delivering the arms and military training that made
such combat even more lethal. Because Rwandan and Ugandan
troops in eastern Congo are seen as hostile occupying forces
by many Congolese, ethnic groups identified with these
outsiders have become increasingly vulnerable to attack by
their neighbors. Kabila could play a major role in reducing
ethnic tension by speaking out firmly about the common
citizenship and rights of all Congolese, regardless of
ethnic group or region of origin.
ENDS