RCD, foreign troops accused of rights abuses

The Goma-based rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and their Rwandan and Ugandan allies have been accused of “massive human rights violations”. Reuters quoted a statement from the local rights group ASADHO as saying on Monday that the Ugandan and Rwandan forces were responsible for terrorising the population and committing arbitrary killings. The group cited an incident in Bukavu in eastern DRC in August where RCD troops killed two young men “falsely” accused of stealing a sewing machine, and a Ugandan army attack on a restaurant in Kirima, a village in the Butembo area also in eastern DRC, in which 12 people were said to have died.

ASADHO also castigated Rwandan troops for the deaths of nine people when a hand grenade was thrown into a crowd at a religious celebration in Bukavu on 26 August. “The authors of the attack are Rwandan soldiers who were seen at the celebration shortly before the explosion,” ASADHO said.