RCD guilty of "grave violations of human rights" - UN

MONUC, the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has accused the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement of "grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law" in the eastern DRC city of Kisangani, where the RCD is the de facto administrative authority.

"In light of overwhelming evidence, and even though a mutiny appears to be at the origin of the reprisals committed by the RCD, MONUC considers the exactions to have been unjustifiable and unacceptable," the UN mission said on Thursday in a preliminary report on a mutiny within RCD-Goma in Kisangani from 14 to 21 May.

While still compiling a definitive list of victims, MONUC has, so far, recorded the deaths of at least 23 people, including civilians, which occurred when hostilities erupted early on 14 May. On 15 and 16 May, executions took place on Kisangani's Tshopo Bridge and at the UNIBRA pier. MONUC personnel reported seeing corpses floating in the Congo River, some of which had been mutilated and stuffed into plastic bags. Twenty other corpses were found in a mass grave to the east of the airport.

On Wednesday, a UN spokesman said there had been no casualties among the group of 53 police officers who had been pre-selected for eventual training as police instructors. "I can confirm that they are alive," Fred Eckhard said at a news briefing in New York. "The UN mission did tell us that four officers had been killed in the last week, but they were not part of the pre-selected officers," he added.

In an interview with Voice of America radio on Wednesday, RCD-Goma spokesman Kin Kiey Mulumba said his organisation was calling for the establishment of an international independent commission of inquiry.

"Killing a man, whether he is a Tutsi or Hutu or Muntu, is an atrocity. We must condemn these atrocities wherever they come from. Now RCD is accused, but I wonder, in what interest would our movement engage in a diabolic operation that would eventually mar its image? And who would profit by these sombre events?" he said.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative in the DRC and the head of MONUC, Amos Namanga Ngongi, had travelled to Kisangani on Wednesday as the UN mission in the country persevered with its investigation to establish the number of victims of last week's mutiny in the strategic city, UN News reported. Ngongi met a high-level delegation from RCD-Goma, as well as Bishop Konsego, who said the demilitarisation of Kisangani was a prerequisite to restoring peace to the city.

On Tuesday, Ngongi had reported that arrests and executions were continuing in Kisangani. "A week later, we are still receiving worrying reports of serious human rights abuses," said Ngongi, who had just attended a meeting of the UN Security Council on the Great Lakes. He appealed to RCD-Goma to restore calm to the city and said that since it was the de facto authority there it was its responsibility to ensure the population's safety.

As a result of last week's fighting, he added, the Security Council might take stronger action to back its resolutions for the demilitarisation of the city. Until now, he said, the Council had "almost unanimously" resisted proposals to change MONUC's mandate from peacekeeping to peace enforcement.