Rights group condemns beating of activists

The US-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday condemned the arrest and beatings of human rights activists and journalists by the Congolese rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In a news release, the group also criticised the RCD and its ally, Rwanda, for arbitrarily detaining Congolese in a container near the eastern city of Goma.

On 15 March, security officials of the Direction Provinciale de la Securite in Goma arrested and severely beat human rights activist Richard Muhindo Bayunda, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

He was arrested when he met security officials to protest against the recent detention of a journalist, and the fact that the authorities were threatening his re-arrest if he did not pay US $60, effectively a bribe, it said.

"The officials kicked Bayunda and beat him with clubs and rifle butts. When released later that day, he was vomiting blood and had open wounds on his back, buttocks and mouth," it added.

Bayunda is the head of the Centre for Research on the Environment, Democracy and Human Rights (CREDDHO) in Goma, an organisation that regularly demounces abuses to the RCD authorities, according to HRW.

"RCD authorities always tell local human rights organisations to bring reports of violations directly to them rather than informing outsiders," said Alison Des Forges, Senior Advisor to the Africa division of HRW. "And then they beat the activist who brings them such concerns to pulp."

Besides other cases of detentions and harassment, Rwandan army soldiers and the RCD - who are fighting against local Mayi Mayi militia groups - are currently detaining suspects in a cargo container in Ndosho, about 15 km from Goma, under inhumane conditions, HRW stated.

It quoted local sources as saying that Rwandan soldiers had refused to allow RCD judicial authorities to visit the container, and that detainees - some of whom have reportedly been tortured - had no access to medical or legal help, or to their families.

"The container gets very hot in the day and very cold at night," HRW said. The organisation has called on the Rwandan government and the RCD to close this illegal and inhumane detention facility.

"The detainees should either be released or charged with a recognisable offence and transferred to an officially acknowledged place of detention, in accordance with Congolese law," HRW added.