State forces kill 500 over two years, says rights group

Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed some 500 political opponents over the past two years, with the full knowledge of the highest echelons of power, according to Human Rights Watch. The Kinshasa government rejected the allegations.



A 96-page report, ‘We Will Crush You’: The Restriction of Political Space in the Democratic Republic of Congo, also reported the detention of 1,000 people and claimed many of these had been tortured.



“The brutal repression against perceived opponents began during the 2006 elections that carried President Joseph Kabila to power, and has continued to the present,” said Anneke van Woudenberg, senior researcher in the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, at the report’s launch in Kinshasa.



The report alleged that Kabila himself set the tone and direction of the abuse by giving orders to “crush” or “neutralise” the “enemies of democracy”, implying it was acceptable to use unlawful force against them.



“Efforts to build a democratic Congo are being stifled not just by rebellion [in the east] but also by the Kabila government’s repression,” Van Woudenberg said.



“While everyone focuses on the violence in eastern Congo, government abuses against political opponents attract little attention,” she added.



The report said several organs of state security, including the paramilitary Republican Guard, a “secret commission”, the Simba police battalion, and the intelligence services, had been used to crack down on perceived opponents in Kinshasa and in Bas Congo province.



Government spokesman Lambert Mende rejected the idea that any killings or other human rights abuses could be attributed to the government.



“We in DRC have so many enemies these days. We are a victim of our [resource] wealth. Everyone is taking away our riches, everyone wants to prove that the DRC government is incapable of managing the country and that it must therefore be dismembered, and for that, justification must be found,” the spokesman added.



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