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Atrocities in Congo could be "genocide": U.N. report
1 of 2. War-orphan Faustin Mugisa, 8, who has machete scars on his head and body, stands at the Kizito orphanage in Bunia in northeastern Congo February 24, 2009. Mugisa was left for dead in a pile of corpses when ethnic Lendu militiamen hacked to death his mother and seven siblings in 2003. Mugisa's father discovered him alive and took him to the bush to recover, but his father was later hacked to death by the same militia group. Ethnic violence has simmered for years in northeastern Congo, part of broader civil and regional conflict currently uprooting hundreds of thousands of Congolese fleeing massacres and reprisal killings by various armed groups roaming the country's vast and lawless wilds.
Credit: Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly
DAKAR |
DAKAR (Reuters) - Crimes committed by Rwanda's army and Congolese rebels in Congo during the 1990s could be classified as genocide, a leaked draft U.N. report says, a charge that will stir tensions between Kigali and the U.N.
A Congo expert said diplomats were wrangling over whether to include the highly sensitive genocide accusation in the final version of the document.
The report details crimes committed in the former Belgian colony between 1993 and 2003, a period that saw the fall of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and a five-year conflict involving six foreign armies, including Rwanda's Tutsi-led force. Millions of people died, most from hunger and disease rather than violence.
After quashing the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda, Kigali's army invaded Congo, ostensibly to hunt down Hutu fighters who had taken part in the killings and then fled into the east of Congo, known then as Zaire.
In the process, Rwandan forces swept the Congolese AFDL rebels of Laurent Kabila to power in Congo. Both forces have been accused of a string of rights abuses against Hutu soldiers and civilians across the country.
"The systematic and widespread attacks (against Hutus in Congo) described ... reveal a number of damning elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide," said the report, seen by Reuters on Thursday.
"The extensive use of edged weapons ... and the systematic massacres of survivors after (Hutu) camps had been taken show that the numerous deaths cannot be attributed to the hazards of war or seen as equating to collateral damage."
France's Le Monde newspaper said Kigali had threatened to withdraw peacekeepers from Sudan over the charges, but Rwandan officials were not available for comment to Reuters.
A spokesman for the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), which drafted the 545-page report, said the leaked document was a draft, and had some errors.
ROCKING RWANDA?
The report details some 600 serious crimes committed by various forces from a number of nations but Congo expert and author Jason Stearns said Rwanda comes off worst.
"The allegation that the Rwandan army could be guilty of acts of genocide against Hutu refugees will greatly tarnish the reputation of a government that prides itself of having brought to an end the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda," he said.
The final report is due to be presented next week by the UNHCHR, but Stearns said that there was still debate over the inclusion of the genocide accusation, which risked hurting Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who has just won re-election but faces unprecedented dissent within the Tutsi elite.
"While most of the dissenting officers were also involved in these alleged massacres in the Congo, this report could further rock the regime," he said.
The report was intended as a mapping exercise of the most serious crimes committed in Congo, which is still seeking political stability, battling economic woes and debating the future role of U.N. peacekeepers ahead of elections next year.
Congo's President Joseph Kabila, who took over when his father Laurent was assassinated, wants U.N. troops out of the country next year but also regularly calls on them to help his weak army face down local and foreign rebels still active there.
It is intended as a historical document to detail the most serious crimes and provide the Congolese authorities with information that they can use to seek justice.
Congo's last main war, which ran from 1998-2003 and at times turned into a scrap for the vast nation's minerals, inflicted so much damage it became known as Africa's World War.
(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva); editing by Andrew Roche)
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The only Tutsi or Hutu or Twa elite that Kagame threatens are the corrupt and dishonest, whose grafting and sweetheart deals hurt the development of the country. These “dissenters” are only bitter for having to relocate to Burundi and the DRC or elsewhere in Francophone Africa where they can steal freely and broadcast their fury. You will heard word like “Oppression” and “Persecution” for the reasons of their running away, but never the truth: that they are furious that their net worth has gone down and that anyone in Rwandan have the audacity to chastise and punish them when they got caught red-handed trying to jar open the lid of the government cookie jar.
And how convenient that Le Monde is the one breaking the story about Rwanda’s threat to pull out peacekeepers in Sudan… gee, I wonder who leaked this “draft” of the 600 page report.
The amount of lives that Kagame and his men saved is unfathomably large. The amount that they are even “accused” of having taken retribution is absurdly paltry in comparison.
Rwanda is the safest, cleanest, most progressive country in Africa. This will remain the case, regardless of what the actual, unadulterated, non-leaked UN report truly documents.
The only Tutsi or Hutu or Twa elite that Kagame threatens are the corrupt and dishonest, whose grafting and sweetheart deals hurt the development of the country. These “dissenters” are only bitter for having to relocate to Burundi and the DRC or elsewhere in Francophone Africa where they can steal freely and broadcast their fury with words like “Oppression” and “Persecution” in Rwanda, You won’t hear the truth: they are livid because their net worth has gone down and that anyone in Rwanda have the audacity to chastise and punish them when they got caught red-handed trying to bilk the government out of money.
And how convenient that Le Monde is the one breaking the story about Rwanda’s threat to pull out peacekeepers in Sudan… gee, I wonder who leaked this “draft” of the 600 page report.
The amount of lives that Kagame and his men saved is unfathomably large. The amount that they are even “accused” of having taken retribution is absurdly paltry in comparison.
Rwanda is the safest, cleanest, most progressive country in Africa. This will remain the case, regardless of what the actual, unadulterated, non-leaked UN report truly documents.
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