1. Sud-Kivu

Since the 1980s, the issue of the nationality of Tutsis living in South Kivu, like that of the Banyarwanda in North Kivu, had been a matter of controversy. Most Tutsis in South Kivu declared themselves to be Zairian Banyamulenge,¹⁵⁴ the descendants of Tutsis from Rwanda and Burundi who had settled on the Hauts Plateaux in the Uvira and Fizi territories before the colonial partitioning of 1885. The other communities, on the other hand, were of the opinion that most Tutsis living in South Kivu were political refugees and, as economic migrants who had arrived in the country in the twentieth century, they could not, therefore, claim Zairian nationality. The decision taken in 1981 by President Mobutu to repeal the law of 1972, by which Zairian nationality had been granted collectively to peoples of Rwandan and Burundian origin present in the Zairian territory before 1 January 1950, strengthened the position of the so-called “indigenous” communities. Since then, there had been widespread suspicion over the true nationality of the Tutsis in South Kivu and no Tutsi members of parliament had been elected in the province. Moreover, as in North Kivu in 1989, controversy over the uncertain nationality of the Tutsis in the province had led to the postponement of elections. Despite all that, in the absence of major conflict over land, and in view of the relatively small size of the Banyamulenge and Tutsi community in the province, in South Kivu the political liberalisation of the regime after 1990 did not result in the same degree of violence and tribalist manipulation of the political debate that was rife in North Kivu. From 1993, however, the arrival in the province of Burundian¹⁵⁵ and Rwandan¹⁵⁶ Hutu refugees and armed groups, and the integration after July 1994 of many Banyamulenge and Tutsis from South Kivu in the army and the administration of the new Rwandan regime,¹⁵⁷ stirred the anti-Banyamulenge and anti-Tutsi sentiment in many South Kivuans. Accused of being agents of the Rwandan and Burundian Governments, many Tutsis, and also some Banyamulenge, lost their jobs and were subject to threats and discrimination. On 28 April 1995, the transition parliament (HCR-PT) in Kinshasa officially rejected all claims of the Banyamulenge to Zairian citizenship and recommended to the Government that they be repatriated to Rwanda or Burundi, on the same basis as the Hutu refugees and Tutsi immigrants. In the months that followed, the provincial administration seized many Banyamulenge properties. In a memorandum released on 19 October 1995, the authorities of the Uvira territory stated that the Banyamulenge ethnic group was unrecognised in Zaire and that, with the exception of a dozen families, all Tutsis living in South Kivu were “foreigners”. On 25 November, in Uvira, the signatories of a petition denouncing the persecution of the Banyamulenge by the Zairian authorities were arrested by the security forces. In the Hauts Plateaux and Moyens Plateaux in the Uvira, Fizi and Mwenga territories, the Bembe, long-time foes of the Banyamulenge,¹⁵⁸ took advantage of the situation to set up armed groups and step up their cattle raiding activities and acts of intimidation against the Banyamulenge. In response to this situation, an increasing number of young Tutsis and Banyamulenge left for Rwanda to pursue military training in the APR. Some returned quickly to Zaire and created a self-defence militia in the Hauts Plateaux and the Moyens Plateaux of the Mitumba mountains. Others remained in Rwanda, where they helped form a Banyamulenge rebellion that would allow the APR to neutralise the ex-FAR/Interahamwe and enable the Tutsis of South Kivu and North Kivu to obtain full and official recognition of their Zairian citizenship by a new regime in Kinshasa. From July 1996 onwards, as Banyamulenge/Tutsi armed units began operations to infiltrate South Kivu, the situation for Banyamulenge and Tutsi civilians in general became extremely precarious. On 31 August 1996, when members of the FAZ intercepted Rwandan soldiers at Kiringye, sixty kilometres north of Uvira, the zone commissioner Shweka Mutabazi called on local youths to enlist in fighting militias and ordered FAZ soldiers to arrest all Banyamulenge and Tutsis¹⁵⁹ living in the Uvira territory. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• On 9 September, while the people of Uvira mounted a demonstration calling on the Tutsis to leave Zaire, FAZ members arrested an unknown number of Tutsi/Banyamulenge and looted several buildings, including religious institutions and the offices of local Banyamulenge-led NGOs.¹⁶⁰

• On 17 September 1996, with the aid of FAZ soldiers, Bembe armed units killed an unknown number of Banyamulenge civilians in the village of Kabela in the Fizi territory. Only the men were killed. Although they were spared, most of the women were raped.¹⁶¹

• Some time around 21 September 1996, FAZ soldiers killed at least two Banyamulenge civilians, including the president of Uvira’s Banyamulenge community, at the Kamanyola border post, ninety kilometres north of Uvira in the Walungu territory. The victims were part of a group of Banyamulenge awaiting deportation to Rwanda. At the border post, while the group was waiting for papers for its departure into Rwanda, FAZ soldiers killed a minor who had asked them for water. The FAZ then looted their goods. When APR units arrived at the Ruzizi River border crossing, however, the FAZ soldiers fled. The President of the Banyamulenge community was executed soon after at Kamanyola by FAZ soldiers.¹⁶²
• Around 23 September, FAZ soldiers killed at least fifteen Banyamulenge/Tutsis at the Kamanyola border post. The victims were accused of being part of an armed Banyamulenge/Tutsi group infiltrating the Zairian territory.¹⁶³
• Between 22 and 24 September 1996, FAZ units publicly executed two Banyamulenge civilians at the village of Nyamugali, forty-seven kilometres north of Uvira, in the Ruzizi Plain. The victims were accused of being in contact with Banyamulenge/Tutsi infiltrated armed units. The executions took place shortly after a FAZ soldier was killed at the Rwanda ¹⁶⁴
• In September 1996, Bembe armed units killed an unknown number of Banyamulenge at Lubonja village in the Nganja sector of the Fizi territory. The victims were mostly women who had left Nganja for Minembwe. Two pastors were also killed in the same village in similar ¹⁶⁵

In Fizi territory, faced with the risk of clashes between the FAZ and Banyamulenge/Tutsi armed units in the Moyens Plateaux and Hauts Plateaux of the Mitumba mountains, several hundred Banyamulenge civilians left the village of Bibokoboko and the surrounding area to seek refuge in Baraka and Lueba. By putting themselves under the protection of the FAZ in this way, these civilians hoped not to be confused with the infiltrated groups. In spite of this, the following alleged incidents were documented by the Mapping Team:

• On 26 September 1996, with the aid of FAZ soldiers, Bembe armed units killed nearly 300 Banyamulenge civilians in the town of Baraka in the Fizi territory. The victims, including women and children, were mostly stabbed to death. Many women, including minors, were gang-raped before they were killed. The killings were carried out in front of the local population, who did not react. The victims came from villages around Bibokoboko in the Hauts Plateaux and Moyens Plateaux. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave at Baraka. In 2005, a high-ranking government official requested that the Mayi-Mayi groups operating in Baraka unearth the victims’ remains and dump them in Lake Tanganyika to erase all trace of the massacres.¹⁶⁶
• On 29 September 1996, with the aid of FAZ soldiers, Bembe armed units killed 152 Banyamulenge civilians, including many women and children, in the village of Lueba, seventy-eight kilometres south of Uvira, in the Fizi territory. Some of the victims were killed by machete blows. Others were burned alive in a house that was set on fire with a grenade. Many women, including minors, were gang-¹⁶⁷
• In the night of 29 to 30 September 1996, Bembe armed units killed nearly one hundred Banyamulenge civilians opposite the village of Mboko. The victims were mostly survivors of the Lueba masasacre who had been led away by the militiamen to be deported to Rwanda. The women and children of the group reached Rwanda but the men were bound and dumped in Lake Tanganyika. For a short time, the militiamen spared fifteen men, who were detained in a camp at Mboko. However, the militiamen claimed in front of witnesses that the fifteen men would be burned at a later date. The fifteen men have been reported missing ever since.¹⁶⁸
• Some time around 2 October 1996, local youths and FAZ units killed fifteen Banyamulenge in the village of Sange in the Uvira territory. Most of the victims were living in the Kinanira and Kajembo districts and had found temporary refuge at the home of the chef de cité. The youths and the militiamen came for them at the house of the chef de cité under the pretext of escorting them to Rwanda, but killed them en route. ¹⁶⁹

On 6 October 1996, Banyamulenge/Tutsi armed units reportedly killed over thirty people at Lemera in the Uvira territory, including civilians and soldiers who were being treated at the local hospital.¹⁷⁰ In response to the outpouring of emotion that followed this massacre, on 8 October the Vice-Governor of South Kivu, Lwabanji Lwasi, gave the Tutsi/Banyamulenge one week to leave the province for good, or they would be considered and treated as infiltrated armed units. On 10 October, Rwanda encouraged all Banyamulenge men to remain in Zaire and fight for their rights. Meanwhile, the Governor of South Kivu, Pasteur Kyembwa Walumona, called on all the young people of the province to enlist in militias to support the FAZ. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• On 10 October 1996, members of the FAZ killed several hundred Banyamulenge, including women and children, in the town of Bukavu. Most of the killings took place in the Panzi district and at the Zairian railway company (SNCZ) site, currently operating as a port zone. On this occasion, a number of family members of Tutsi soldiers serving in the FAZ and accused of betrayal were executed. The victims were shot or killed with machete ¹⁷¹

On 11 October 1996, the FAZ Chief of Staff, General Eluki Monga Aundu, officially accused the Banyamulenge of attacking the country with the help of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. On 18 October, Banyamulenge/Tutsi armed units launched an attack on Kiliba, for which the AFDL (Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo) immediately claimed responsibility. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• On 21 October 1996, local people killed a Banyamulenge/Tutsi civilian near the Kabindula district in the town of Uvira. The victim was decapitated and his head paraded on a stick around the town. The perpetrators then hung the victim’s testicles on a ¹⁷²

• In October or November 1996, Burundian Hutu armed units from the FDD (Forces de défense de la démocratie) publicly executed between 12 and 20 Banyamulenge/Tutsis in the village of Kamituga in the Mwenga territory. Most of the victims were from the villages of Lugushwa (Shabunda territory), Kitamba, Mero and Luliba (villages around Kamituga in the Mwenga territory), where they worked for the mining firms Société minière et industrielle du Kivu (SOMINKI) and Compagnie minière des Grands Lacs (MGL). They had recently left their villages to find refuge in Kamituga. The FDD accused them of collaborating with AFDL/APR soldiers who were advancing towards the village. The local people and the Red Cross buried the victims’ bodies in a mass grave located behind the ¹⁷³

• Over the course of November 1996, FDD and FAZ units killed around fifty Tutsi civilians by the Zalya River, a few kilometres from Kamituga-Centre, in the Mwenga territory. The killings most often took place at night. The bodies of the victims were then dumped in the Zalya ¹⁷⁴

During this period, mention was made of a number of massacres of Banyamulenge in Minembwe, in the Hauts Plateaux of the Fizi territory. The Mapping Team was not, however, able to document these cases. The members of the Banyamulenge community who were consulted claimed not to have accurate information on these events.

2. Kinshasa

After war broke out in North and South Kivu, the people of Kinshasa became increasingly hostile towards Rwandans and peoples of Rwandan origin, in particular the Tutsis, whom they systematically accused of being in collusion with the AFDL/APR.

• In late October 1996, during public demonstrations staged by students in protest of the presence of “Rwandans” in Kinshasa, men, women and children of Rwandan nationality or origin, particularly those of Tutsi derivation, were publicly humiliated and beaten. Instead of protecting these people, the security forces reportedly conducted arbitrarily arrests of a number of Rwandans, most of them Tutsis. With the cooperation of the people, they also looted and seized many of their homes. The victims were arrested and detained at various detention sites, including the Service d’action et de renseignements militaires (SARM) building in the Ngaliema commune, the Service national d’intelligence et de protection (SNIP) building opposite the Primature in the Gombe commune and the Tshatshi camp. The detention conditions themselves led to large numbers of deaths, as detainees received no food or medical care. Many victims were tortured and subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. An unknown number of people were allegedly executed by the security forces, particularly in the Tshatshi camp. Still more were reportedly deported to Rwanda and Burundi by the Zairian authorities. Others were forced to flee quickly into other countries.¹⁷⁵

3. Orientale Province

After the start of the First Congo War, and as the AFDL/APR troops advanced across Orientale Province, the Zairian security services and the people of Kisangani adopted an increasingly hostile attitude towards the Rwandans and peoples of Rwandan origin, especially Tutsis, who they systematically accused of being in collusion with AFDL/APR.

• From October 1996, the Zairian security services and civilians arbitrarily arrested several dozen civilians of Rwandan nationality or origin, as well as people resembling them, in the town of Kisangani and the surrounding area. They reportedly killed an unknown number of these people; at least one person was killed in public. Most of the victims were detained until the capture of Kisangani town by AFDL/APR troops, and several of them were allegedly tortured.¹⁷⁶