Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER II. First Congo War > C. Attacks against other civilian populations > 9. Kinshasa

In the days that followed the capture of Kinshasa, the AFDL/APR (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo / Rwandan Patriotic Army) troops and their allies committed summary executions, acts of torture sometimes resulting in death, and rape. Between 18 May and 22 May 1997, volunteer teams from the national Red Cross collected between 228 and 318 bodies in Kinshasa and the surrounding area. They also evacuated over a dozen wounded to various hospitals and clinics in the city.⁴⁴³ Soldiers from the DSP were a particular target, as were the former dignitaries of the Mobutu regime. Ordinary civilians were also victims of serious violations. In particular, many people were arbitrarily arrested and detained in conditions likely to cause considerable loss of human life. In October 1997, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DRC referred over 40 cases of torture to the Government.⁴⁴⁴ In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• Between May and June 1997, AFDL/APR units, aided by the civilian population, carried out a large number of public executions. In many instances, the bodies of the victims were burned, notably in the communes of Masina and Matete, and in the Kingabwa district of the Limete commune.⁴⁴⁵
• Between May and June 1997, AFDL/APR units executed an unknown number of ex-FAZ soldiers and political opponents detained in the GLM (Litho Moboti Group) building. Every night, several people were brought out of their cells and led to the riverside, where they were executed and their bodies dumped in the water. These executions stopped after protests from human rights organisations, who were alerted by local fishermen who saw bodies rising to the river surface every day.⁴⁴⁶
• In June and July 1997, FAC/APR units detained and tortured an unknown number of people in the prisons at the Kokolo and Tshatshi camps. Many prisoners died as a result of the ill-treatment inflicted on them, malnutrition, unhygienic conditions and lack of access to medical care.⁴⁴⁷
• From November 1997, at least 24 wounded ex-FAR soldiers were officially reported missing, most likely executed by FAC/APR units at an unknown date. Eight of them were previously at the Ngaliema and Kinoise clinics. The other sixteen had been transferred by AFDL/APR units several days after the capture of Kinshasa from Ward 11 at the “Mama Yemo” Hospital to the Kabila camp (formerly Mobutu camp). In the camp, they were threatened with death and underwent cruel and degrading treatment before they disappeared. After the loss of Orientale Province by the FAZ/ex-FAR/Interahamwe in March 1997, around one hundred wounded ex-FAR soldiers who had fought alongside the FAZ in the province had been hospitalised in several hospitals in Kinshasa.⁴⁴⁸
• After the capture of the capital, FAC/APR units, in particular many Kadogo, imposed methods of punishment in Kinshasa that were tantamount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in particular public flogging and punishment with the chicotte, a leather-thonged whipping device. Many civilians died from internal bleeding when their stomachs were whipped.⁴⁴⁹

From June 1997, the new regime’s military high command sent the ex-FAZ soldiers to the Kitona military base in Bas-Congo to follow training in “ideology and re-education”. As soon as the ex-FAZ had left for Kitona, the FAC/APR soldiers entered the camps where the soldiers of the old regime were living. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• In the CETA (airborne forces’ training centre) and Tshatshi military camps, FAC/APR units raped a large number of wives and daughters (sometimes minors) of ex-FAZ soldiers who had left for Kitona. They forced some victims to live with them as sex slaves and carry out domestic chores for them.⁴⁵⁰

• At the Kokolo camp, FAC/APR units raped a large number of wives and daughters of ex-FAZ soldiers who had left for Kitona, as well as women arrested at random in the town. Many gang rapes took place in the area of the camp known as “Camp Américain”. One girl was raped by several soldiers and then tortured. The soldiers poured hot wax over her genital area and the rest of her body.⁴⁵¹

• Over the course of the period in question, many sources report that across Kinshasa the AFDL/APR soldiers also raped and beat a large number of women, including many prostitutes.⁴⁵²

At the end of September 1997, several of Kinshasa’s districts were hit by shells fired from Brazzaville by the armed groups fighting for the control of the presidency in the Republic of the Congo. The FAC/APR reacted by firing on Brazzaville for two days with rocket launchers.

• From 29 September to 1 October 1997, shots from heavy weapons fired indiscriminately from Brazzaville reportedly caused the deaths of at least 21 people in different districts of Kinshasa.⁴⁵³

Following President Kabila’s decision to ban political party activity, the new regime’s security forces targeted the leaders and activists of the main opposition parties. During the crackdown, female members of the immediate family of arrested opponents were frequently the victims of rape. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• Between 1997 and 1998, FAC/APR soldiers frequently arbitrarily arrested and tortured PALU (Parti lumumbiste unifié – Unified Lumumbist Party) activists. On 25 July 1997, during a crackdown operation on a PALU demonstration, they killed between one and four activists and injured at least four. Several dozen PALU activists were arbitrarily arrested and tortured on this occasion. On the same day, the soldiers searched and looted the residence of the party’s president, Antoine Gizenga, in the Limete commune. During the operation, they killed a PALU activist and seriously injured six more by beating them with whips, iron bars and rifle butts.⁴⁵⁴
• Between 1997 and 1998, FAC/APR soldiers frequently arrested UDPS activists and tortured them for several months at various detention sites.⁴⁵⁵
• On 10 December 1997, FAC/APR soldiers beat and gang-raped two sisters of the President of the FSDC (Front pour la survie de la démocratie au Congo – Front for the Survival of Democracy in Congo). The FSDC President, a former dignitary under Mobutu, was finally arrested in February 1998. During his detention at the central prison and then at the Mikonga military training centre, he was frequently tortured.⁴⁵⁶