Human rights group says impunity perpetuates abuses

Impunity lies at the heart of violence and armed insurrection in the Republic of Congo (ROC), the London-based human rights group Amnesty International (AI) said in a report on Wednesday. The report, entitled "Republic of Congo: A past that haunts the future", highlighted the ongoing deliberate targeting of civilians by both government forces and "Ninja" armed rebels. "From March 2002, dozens of unarmed civilians were killed, tens of thousands displaced, and tens of thousands denied humanitarian assistance in the context of armed clashes between government forces and 'Ninja' combatants," the report said. AI said it was "gravely concerned" that the ROC government had failed to take adequate measures to bring to justice those responsible for the violations. Testimonies gathered by AI in 2002 confirmed that several hundred Congolese who fled Brazzaville in 1998 "disappeared" at the hands of the security forces when they returned in mid-1999. "Up to 353 refugees returning to Brazzaville from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in May 1999 were extrajudicially executed and their bodies displosed of," AI said. AI also accused the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of failing "on numerous occasions" to protect refugees and asylum-seekers returning to ROC. The report alleged a "lack of transparency" in the provision of assistance to refugees, which had created a "climate of suspicion and even hostility" towards UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies in ROC. The UNHCR denied the allegations of failing to protect refugees returning to ROC. Millicent Mutuli, UNHCR spokesperson in Geneva, told IRIN it was "very unfair" to say the UNHCR did not take appropriate protection measures. Referring to the disappearance of 353 returnees in 1999, Mutuli said: "When we got reports of disappearances of returnees on the beach at Brazzaville, we wrote a letter of protest to the ROC government and suspended the [repatriation] operation. Once adequate monitoring was in place, we resumed the operations, and then there were no more disappearances." Mutuli said UNHCR consistently gave adequate information for refugees to make informed decisions over their return to ROC. She added that the responsibility to ensure the safety of nationals rested with the government of ROC.