Democratic Republic of the Congo – Fighting in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least sixty-eight people dead and the numbers could be much higher according to a UN report leaked to the BBC.

Budu Dia Kongo is a political and religious group that has its own militia and accuses the central government of corruption. The group wants to establish its own authority in the west. Currently, more than 300 members of the BDK are missing.

A Congolese army captain was killed last month and it is alleged that BDK is responsible for the killing. Since this date, the Congolese police have been destroying BDK churches and houses believed to be owned by members of the group.

Many members of BDK have been seen at local hospitals for gunshot and machete wounds alleging they were tortured by police.

The governor of Bas-Congo, Simon Mbatshi Mbatsha, estimated that 24 civilians had been killed on 4 March 2008 during fighting between police and the BDK.

Mbatsha blames the government for causing violence because people are killed with firearms and there houses are burnt down.

While there are over 200 UN peace keepers in the area, they have been unable to maintain the peace.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Deadly clashes in west DR Congo – 16 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Congo-Kinshasa: Fears Over Increasing Sect-Related Violence in Southwest – 6 March 2008

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – Researchers for the international organization Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) claim in a new report that the ethnic violence that tormented Kenya following December’s disputed presidential elections was organized by local leaders. The report says that the planning of the violence was done at the local level, but that the role of national leaders must be investigated further. “What we found, far from being spontaneous was that it (the violence) was organized as elders and youth met,” said HRW spokesman Ben Rawlence.

The eighty-eight page report, entitled “Ballots to Bullets: Organised Political Violence and Kenya’s Crisis of Governance,” documents serious abuses of power in the worst affected areas of Nairobi, Nyanza, Rift Valley and western provinces of Kenya.  It focuses on the use of excessive force by police, vividly describing unlawful killings in response to demonstrations and the organization of the violent acts.  For example, a fifteen year old boy described how he was shot in the leg, as he was running from a police car. The report also detailed many instances of officers opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The most serious cases of extrajudicial police violence occurred in Kisumu, a stronghold of opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga.  The report credits police for the deaths of eighty-one people, mostly from opposition strongholds. The police deny any wrongdoing, but have agreed to look into any alleged wrongdoing by officers.

The report uses eyewitness testimony to show that local leaders organized the violence. In the town of Eldoret, located in the Rift Valley attacks on Kikuyu homes were planned in advance of the election results. The elders in the town “said that if there is any sign that Kibaki is winning, then the war should break… they were coaching the young people how to go on the war.” Reprisal attacks against non-Kikuyus were also organized by local leaders. In Naivasha and Nakuru, the violence allegedly followed meetings with local businessmen and politicians, which mobilized youths in their attacks.

Further investigations are required to determine the extent to which the national leadership had a hand in planning the violence and mobilizing the local leaders.

HRW also suggests that Kenya faces a repeat of this violence if the government and international community fail to punish those responsible. The report alleges that western powers looked on, while successive governments in Kenya “failed to tackle the land and poverty issues at the root of the trouble, exploited by politicians to incite violence, without fear of real punishment.” HRW ultimately calls for the new coalition government to prosecute those responsible, a move it claims is necessary to stabilize the country. Georgette Gagnon, African director at Human Rights Watch said “Inciting violence along ethnic lines almost destroyed Kenya. The new government now has a chance to repair those fractures.”

More than one thousand died, and over six hundred thousand were displaced in riots and attacks following the disputed December 2007 election. The bloodshed saw militias burn civilians alive, forcibly circumcise foes and hack victims with machetes,  is “Kenya’s darkest moment since independence from Britain in 1963.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Kenya poll violence ‘was planned’ – 17 March 2008

Human Rights Watch – Kenya: Justice Vital to Stability – 17 March 2008

Voice of America – Rights Group Describes Planned Post-Election Violence in Kenya – 17 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Human Rights Watch Urges Inquiry Into Post-Election Violence – 17 March 2008

AfricaNews – HRW: Election violence Kenya was planned – 17 March 2008

Reuters – Kenya faces repeat of violence if impunity stays – 17 March 2008

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – Researchers for the international organization Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) claim in a new report that the ethnic violence that tormented Kenya following December’s disputed presidential elections was organized by local leaders. The report says that the planning of the violence was done at the local level, but that the role of national leaders must be investigated further. “What we found, far from being spontaneous was that it (the violence) was organized as elders and youth met,” said HRW spokesman Ben Rawlence.

The eighty-eight page report, entitled “Ballots to Bullets: Organised Political Violence and Kenya’s Crisis of Governance,” documents serious abuses of power in the worst affected areas of Nairobi, Nyanza, Rift Valley and western provinces of Kenya.  It focuses on the use of excessive force by police, vividly describing unlawful killings in response to demonstrations and the organization of the violent acts.  For example, a fifteen year old boy described how he was shot in the leg, as he was running from a police car. The report also detailed many instances of officers opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The most serious cases of extrajudicial police violence occurred in Kisumu, a stronghold of opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga.  The report credits police for the deaths of eighty-one people, mostly from opposition strongholds. The police deny any wrongdoing, but have agreed to look into any alleged wrongdoing by officers.

The report uses eyewitness testimony to show that local leaders organized the violence. In the town of Eldoret, located in the Rift Valley attacks on Kikuyu homes were planned in advance of the election results. The elders in the town “said that if there is any sign that Kibaki is winning, then the war should break… they were coaching the young people how to go on the war.” Reprisal attacks against non-Kikuyus were also organized by local leaders. In Naivasha and Nakuru, the violence allegedly followed meetings with local businessmen and politicians, which mobilized youths in their attacks.

Further investigations are required to determine the extent to which the national leadership had a hand in planning the violence and mobilizing the local leaders.

HRW also suggests that Kenya faces a repeat of this violence if the government and international community fail to punish those responsible. The report alleges that western powers looked on, while successive governments in Kenya “failed to tackle the land and poverty issues at the root of the trouble, exploited by politicians to incite violence, without fear of real punishment.” HRW ultimately calls for the new coalition government to prosecute those responsible, a move it claims is necessary to stabilize the country. Georgette Gagnon, African director at Human Rights Watch said “Inciting violence along ethnic lines almost destroyed Kenya. The new government now has a chance to repair those fractures.”

More than one thousand died, and over six hundred thousand were displaced in riots and attacks following the disputed December 2007 election. The bloodshed saw militias burn civilians alive, forcibly circumcise foes and hack victims with machetes,  is “Kenya’s darkest moment since independence from Britain in 1963.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Kenya poll violence ‘was planned’ – 17 March 2008

Human Rights Watch – Kenya: Justice Vital to Stability – 17 March 2008

Voice of America – Rights Group Describes Planned Post-Election Violence in Kenya – 17 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Human Rights Watch Urges Inquiry Into Post-Election Violence – 17 March 2008

AfricaNews – HRW: Election violence Kenya was planned – 17 March 2008

Reuters – Kenya faces repeat of violence if impunity stays – 17 March 2008

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – Researchers for the international organization Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) claim in a new report that the ethnic violence that tormented Kenya following December’s disputed presidential elections was organized by local leaders. The report says that the planning of the violence was done at the local level, but that the role of national leaders must be investigated further. “What we found, far from being spontaneous was that it (the violence) was organized as elders and youth met,” said HRW spokesman Ben Rawlence.

The eighty-eight page report, entitled “Ballots to Bullets: Organised Political Violence and Kenya’s Crisis of Governance,” documents serious abuses of power in the worst affected areas of Nairobi, Nyanza, Rift Valley and western provinces of Kenya.  It focuses on the use of excessive force by police, vividly describing unlawful killings in response to demonstrations and the organization of the violent acts.  For example, a fifteen year old boy described how he was shot in the leg, as he was running from a police car. The report also detailed many instances of officers opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The most serious cases of extrajudicial police violence occurred in Kisumu, a stronghold of opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga.  The report credits police for the deaths of eighty-one people, mostly from opposition strongholds. The police deny any wrongdoing, but have agreed to look into any alleged wrongdoing by officers.

The report uses eyewitness testimony to show that local leaders organized the violence. In the town of Eldoret, located in the Rift Valley attacks on Kikuyu homes were planned in advance of the election results. The elders in the town “said that if there is any sign that Kibaki is winning, then the war should break… they were coaching the young people how to go on the war.” Reprisal attacks against non-Kikuyus were also organized by local leaders. In Naivasha and Nakuru, the violence allegedly followed meetings with local businessmen and politicians, which mobilized youths in their attacks.

Further investigations are required to determine the extent to which the national leadership had a hand in planning the violence and mobilizing the local leaders.

HRW also suggests that Kenya faces a repeat of this violence if the government and international community fail to punish those responsible. The report alleges that western powers looked on, while successive governments in Kenya “failed to tackle the land and poverty issues at the root of the trouble, exploited by politicians to incite violence, without fear of real punishment.” HRW ultimately calls for the new coalition government to prosecute those responsible, a move it claims is necessary to stabilize the country. Georgette Gagnon, African director at Human Rights Watch said “Inciting violence along ethnic lines almost destroyed Kenya. The new government now has a chance to repair those fractures.”

More than one thousand died, and over six hundred thousand were displaced in riots and attacks following the disputed December 2007 election. The bloodshed saw militias burn civilians alive, forcibly circumcise foes and hack victims with machetes,  is “Kenya’s darkest moment since independence from Britain in 1963.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Kenya poll violence ‘was planned’ – 17 March 2008

Human Rights Watch – Kenya: Justice Vital to Stability – 17 March 2008

Voice of America – Rights Group Describes Planned Post-Election Violence in Kenya – 17 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Human Rights Watch Urges Inquiry Into Post-Election Violence – 17 March 2008

AfricaNews – HRW: Election violence Kenya was planned – 17 March 2008

Reuters – Kenya faces repeat of violence if impunity stays – 17 March 2008

Democratic Republic of the Congo – Fighting in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least sixty-eight people dead and the numbers could be much higher according to a UN report leaked to the BBC.

Budu Dia Kongo is a political and religious group that has its own militia and accuses the central government of corruption. The group wants to establish its own authority in the west. Currently, more than 300 members of the BDK are missing.

A Congolese army captain was killed last month and it is alleged that BDK is responsible for the killing. Since this date, the Congolese police have been destroying BDK churches and houses believed to be owned by members of the group.

Many members of BDK have been seen at local hospitals for gunshot and machete wounds alleging they were tortured by police.

The governor of Bas-Congo, Simon Mbatshi Mbatsha, estimated that 24 civilians had been killed on 4 March 2008 during fighting between police and the BDK.

Mbatsha blames the government for causing violence because people are killed with firearms and there houses are burnt down.

While there are over 200 UN peace keepers in the area, they have been unable to maintain the peace.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Deadly clashes in west DR Congo – 16 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Congo-Kinshasa: Fears Over Increasing Sect-Related Violence in Southwest – 6 March 2008