East “ravaged” by abuses - Human Rights Watch

The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused the Rwandan army and its Congolese rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) allies of massacring and rapid civilians in eastern DRC, and said the east of the country was “ravaged” by human rights abuses. “The UN is looking for ways to prop up the 1999 Congo [Lusaka] peace accord, but one thing must be made clear: The human rights situation in eastern Congo is disastrous, and civilians are bearing the brunt of the fighting,” said Peter Takirambudde, director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

Field visits to the region had revealed that Mayi-Mayi and Hutu [Interahamwe] armed groups were also committing atrocities against civilians, with the latter, in particular, using rape as a weapon of war, HRW reported. The organisation warned of anti-Tutsi ‘hate literature’ circulating in eastern Congo - where resentment of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), considered an army of occupation, frequently extends to all Rwandans and Congolese Tutsis - and that the abusive tactics of the RPA and RCD were “inflaming ethnic hatreds and entrenching the conflict.” Human Rights Watch also called for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to add another judicial chamber to deal with the war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed in the Congo.