Share & more
Government and rebel troops in Rwanda battling each other in the northwest of the country have given greater protection to civilians in 2001 than in previous years, Human Rights Watch reported on Thursday.
"Both sides have shown that they can make their combatants respect the rules of war when they believe it is in their interest to do so," Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said.
In its report - Rwanda: Observing the Rules of War? - the rights body said that government and rebels forces imposed new rules restricting attacks on civilians, "enforcing these through disciplinary measures". In contrast, it added, these rules did not apply to fighting by the Rwandan army and its proxies
in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Kivu region or to ALIR's forces on that territory. ALIR forces inside Rwanda also persisted in past patterns of looting and the use of child soldiers, despite its ban on the practice.
The rights body said its researchers received reports of Rwandan troops killing people who were traveling in the company of rebel combatants but no accounts of reprisals against local residents. ALIR fighters did not target civilians in general, nor Tutsi in particular. Though some of ALIR's leaders were officers in the former Rwandan army that executed the 1994 genocide, Human Rights Watch said, most fighters are of a later generation "and were not part of the genocidal forces".
The Human Rights report documents the findings of field research into combat in the northwest of Rwanda from May to July, based on interviews with civilians, combatants, and former fighters. The report can be found at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/rwanda2
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
