Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER II. First Congo War > C. Attacks against other civilian populations > 10. Bas-Congo

Under President Mobutu’s regime and until its fall, in May 1997, the various Zairian security services, in particular the Civil Guard, committed many acts of violence, especially rape, and tortured many civilians with complete impunity. An illustrative case has been heard in the Rotterdam District Court (Netherlands).

• In October 1996, at Matadi, the Civil Guard commander Colonel Sébastien Nzapali, nicknamed “King of the Beasts” on account of his notorious brutality, had a customs officer working at the Matadi port tortured. On 7 April 2004, Colonel Nzapali was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by the Rotterdam District Court (Netherlands) for these crimes. Nzapali had been living in the Netherlands since 1998 but his application for political asylum was denied.⁴⁵⁷

From the start of 1997, the Angolan government made contact with the Rwandan and Ugandan authorities and lent its support to the AFDL/APR/UPDF operation aimed at removing President Mobutu from power. The FAA (Forces armées angolaises) soldiers took advantage of their presence in Kinshasa alongside AFDL/APR/UPDF troops to step up their crackdown on Cabindan populations who had taken refuge in the province of Bas-Congo.

• From June 1997, in the Bas-Fleuve district in Bas-Congo province, FAA units allegedly arrested and forced the disappearance of an unknown number of refugees originating from Cabinda. In 1998, the FAA set up an operations centre at Tshela, from where they led several crackdown operations. The Congolese security forces also reportedly arrested several natives of Cabinda accused of having separatist designs and transferred them to various detention sites in Kinshasa.⁴⁵⁸

At the end of May 1997, after the capture of Kinshasa, the AFDL/APR soldiers arrived in the province of Bas-Congo. They reportedly inflicted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment on a large number of civilians, in public, for often minor offences. Several people who were tortured with the chicotte died from internal bleeding caused by being whipped on the stomach.⁴⁵⁹

The AFDL/APR soldiers also raped a large number of women. By way of example, the Mapping Team has been able to document the following alleged incidents:

• From June 1997, in the Lisanga (Missioni) camp at Matadi, AFDL/APR units, later the FAC/APR, raped an unknown number of wives of ex-FAZ soldiers left alone when their husbands were sent to the Kitona military centre to be “re-educated”. They forced a large number of them to carry out domestic chores for them.⁴⁶⁰

• In the same period, FAC/APR/UPDF units also raped several women at the Redjaf military camp at Matadi.⁴⁶¹

After President Laurent-Désiré Kabila came to power, between 35,000 and 45,000 FAZ soldiers from all over the country were sent to the Kitona military base, in the town of Moanda, to be “re-educated”. The base could only accommodate around 10,000 people and was in an advanced state of disrepair. The Mapping Team has been able to document the following alleged incidents:

• From June 1997, the ex-FAZ present at the Kitona base were kept in conditions likely to cause considerable loss of human life, in particular due to lack of food, unhygienic conditions and a lack of access to appropriate medical care. FAC/APR units allegedly carried summary executions of several ex-FAZ soldiers. They submitted others to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, such as whipping and public torture. The total number of deaths is hard to determine but many witnesses have claimed that during the first two months of operation at the Kitona centre, between five and ten people died every day.⁴⁶²
• In July 1997, FAC/APR units secretly executed ex-FAZ soldiers who had rebelled in protest against the living conditions enforced on them at the Kitona base. From October 1997, living conditions at the base improved and the soldiers began to receive their pay.⁴⁶³