Amnesty berates Rwanda for alleged abuses in the east

The human rights organisation Amnesty International on Tuesday called on the various combatants in eastern DRC to halt further killings and other mass human rights abuses against unarmed civilians. Tens of thousands of Congolese civilians have been unlawfully attacked, killed and beaten by Rwandan government and Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma) forces since Rwanda’s second armed intervention in the DRC in 1998, according to a new Amnesty report entitled “Rwandan-controlled eastern DRC: Devastating human toll”. An estimated 2.5 million people had died in eastern DRC from war-related causes in the last four years, the organisation said. Amnesty also highlighted what it termed “the increasing recruitment of children into the fighting forces, police, and armed civilian paramilitary”, and the “constant practice” of arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions. “Many of the killings have occurred in areas rich in minerals, where the gains of economic exploitation fuel the fighting,” according to Amnesty. “Women, children and the elderly who have been unable to flee have often been victims of such attacks. The troops have frequently engaged in sexual violence, including against very young girls and old women. Many women have also died because of lack of health services destroyed by the war,” the organisation added. The killing of thousands of Congolese civilians trapped in this destructive fighting could not be justified by the Rwandan government or the allied RCD-Goma on the basis of security threats to Rwanda’s borders, according to Amnesty. The abuses could neither be justified by the Rwandans nor by the Burundian Hutu-dominated armed opposition groups and Congolese Mayi-Mayi militia who were fighting to throw out the Rwandan and their RCD-Goma allies, it added. [for more details, go to: http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/news.nsf/thisweek?openview]