By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
NEW YORK, New York– United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have suspended support for units of the National Armed Forces (FARDC) due to evidence showing their operations have contributed to human rights violations in the conflict ridden region.
In January the Congolese and Rwandan governments began joint military operations against a Rwandan Hutu militia, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), in a five-week operation known as Umoja Wetu. It was followed in March by a second military operation, Kimia II, conducted with the support of the UN peacekeepers, which continued until this month.
A reported 1,400 civilians between January and September 2009 had been killed by Congolese or Rwandan troops and by rebels in eastern DRC as a result of the Kimia II military operations launched with the cooperation of the UN Mission in DRC, known as MONUC. The report is based on 23 Human Rights Watch fact-finding missions this year and interviews with over 600 victims, witnesses, and family members.
The Congolese government said the military operations were intended to bring peace and security to this volatile region. UN peacekeepers made important efforts to protect civilians in this complex and difficult terrain, Human Rights Watch said. But the peacekeeping force’s role as a joint player in the military operations, providing substantial support to the Congolese army, has implicated peacekeepers in the abuses and undermined the mission’s primary objective, which is to protect civilians.
Congolese army soldiers and FDLR rebel combatants have attacked civilians, accused them of being collaborators, and “punished” them by chopping many to death with machetes. Both sides also shot civilians as they tried to flee or burned them in their homes. Some victims were tied together before their throats were, according to one witness, “slit like chickens.” The majority of the victims were women, children, and the elderly.
“Continued killing and rape by all sides in eastern Congo shows that the UN Security Council needs a new approach to protect civilians,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. Over the first nine months of 2009, the UN recorded over 7,500 cases of sexual violence against women and girls across North and South Kivu in eastern Congo, nearly surpassing the figures recorded during all of last year, and probably representing only a fraction of the total. Most of the women and girls were gang raped, some so violently that they later died. Many women and girls were held as sex slaves by both the Congolese army and the FDLR for weeks or months at a time; they were raped repeatedly and some were mutilated and then killed by machete or shot in the vagina.
“Many UN Security Council ambassadors have visited Congo and expressed outrage at the massive sexual violence,” said Van Woudenberg. “Yet rape is increasing – not decreasing – in eastern Congo. That outrage needs to be translated into bold and effective action to help protect these women and girls.”
In responding to the UN’s recent suspensions, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated, “MONUC continues to give the highest priority to the protection of civilians, which is something I strongly value. We have always acted in accordance with the mandate provided by the Security Council.” “Unfortunately, the Kimia II operation has been proved to be where many civilian casualties have happened, and that is why we have immediately suspended our military operations and cooperation with some parts of the Congolese national forces.”
The Secretary-General pointed out that MONUC’s mandate is to help the Congolese Armed Forces, but stressed: “I made it, and we made it, quite clear that whenever there [are] grounds for violation of the human rights situation, then we will suspend these military operations.” “There is an overall important mission that MONUC has to carry out in accordance with the Security Council mandate to preserve peace and security and to protect the civilian population,” said Ban Ki-moon. “I am not sure whether it is desirable to suspend the whole peacekeeping operation there. That is what the Security Council has to decide, in closely following the situation, as well as assessing the situation there.”
For more information, please see:
UN News Service – UN Has Suspended Cooperation With Army Units Accused of Rights Abuses – 14 December 2009
Human Rights Watch – UN – Act to End Atrocities in Eastern Congo – 12 December 2009
Institute for War & Peace Reporting – Lubumbashi Tackles Abusive Officers – Better Training and Working Conditions Seen as Key to Ending Police Violations – 11 December 2009
Reuters – U.N. suspends support to Congo army units in east – 2 November 2009
