Rights group accuses Kinshasa of “executions”

The African Human Rights Association (AZADHO) in the DRC has claimed that it has a list of the names of “several dozen” civilians and soldiers from Kivu executed by the Kabila government three months ago. According to Radio France International (RFI) last Friday, “AZADHO particularly feels that it has facts and even witnesses to establish the execution of Major [Anselme] Masasu [Nindaga]”, who was reportedly killed in Pweto, Katanga Province, on 24 November . The report noted that Masasu was a civilian from Bukavu who had been promoted to the rank of major by Kabila after helping the latter to power in Kinshasa in May 1997. The deputy chairman of AZADHO, Pascal Kambale, as quoted by the radio, said his association had tried in vain to obtain information on the whereabouts of Masasu from official quarters, including a written inquiry addressed to Kabila, to which it had received no reply. AZADHO had therefore “decided to make public what it knows about Maj Masasu’s disappearance”, he said. However, Kambale’s allegations were described by a senior officer of the DRC armed forces as “brimming with lies”. General Sylvestre Lwetcha was quoted by Reuters as denying that Anselme Masasu Nindaga “and several others had been executed”. Lwetcha was quoted as saying in a statement on Saturday that Masasu Nindaga “and other soldiers concerned were under arrest and would be judged by a military court”. Later, on Sunday, RCD officials, headed by the director of the group’s legal department, Moise Nyarugabo, called for an international investigation into crimes allegedly committed by Kabila. According to the German news agency (dpa), the call “follows the alleged summary execution of Commander Masasu and 34 of his colleagues” and the “continued persecution persecution of members of ethnic groups from eastern [DR] Congo. The report also quotes the officials as saying that another 17 people had been arrested in Kinshasa last Friday.