ICRC repatriates 177 prisoners of war

On Friday and Saturday, following agreements between the governments of DRC, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Namibia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acted as a neutral intermediary to repatriated 177 former prisoners of war (POWs) of Rwandan, Zimbabwean and Namibian nationality who had been detained by the various belligerents in the DRC conflict. The POWs had all been registered and regularly visited by the ICRC during their captivity, a Red Cross press release stated. An ICRC aircraft brought 35 Zimbabweans and 11 Namibians from the Rwandan capital Kigali to the DRC capital Kinshasa on Friday afternoon, before returning to Kigali with 88 former POWs from Rwanda. Another plane took the 35 Zimbabweans onward to Harare, and an additional 43 Rwandan Rwandans from Harare to Kigali, the ICRC stated. Red Cross officials were on board all the flights, and the ICRC would continue to make its services available for such exchanges as they became possible, it added. Meanwhile, DRC Human Rights Minister Leonard She Okitundu on Friday criticised Rwanda for failing to repatriate a single Congolese prisoner, but only those of Zimbabwe and Namibia, despite Kinshasa having repatriated tens of Rwandan POWs. It was inconceivable that no Congolese soldiers had been taken prisoner, and Rwanda had a moral and legal duty to account for the fate of such POWs, he said on Congolese television. Okitundu also expressed concern at the alleged deportation of Congolese nationals by Rwanda to “aggressor countries” and reprisal attacks against civilians - in violation of the Geneva Conventions.