Mapping Report > Executive Summary > II. Inventory of specific acts of violence committed during the conflicts in the DRC

Given that the methodology used for the first section of the report would not enable full justice to be done to the numerous victims of specific acts of violence such as sexual violence and violence against children, nor adequately reflect the scale of the violence allegedly practised by all armed groups in the DRC, nor enable an analysis of the causes of some of the conflicts, it was decided at the beginning of the Exercise to devote a part of it to these subjects. This approach has helped to highlight the recurrent, widespread and systematic nature of these types of violation and enabled a brief analysis to be produced.

A. Inventory of acts of violence committed against women and sexual violence

This section highlights the fact that women and girls paid a particularly heavy price during the decade 1993-2003, primarily as a result of their socio-economic and cultural vulnerability, which fostered the forms of extreme violence to which they were subjected. Violence in the DRC was, in fact, accompanied by the apparent systematic use of rape and sexual assault allegedly by all combatant forces. This report highlights the apparently recurrent, widespread and systematic nature of these phenomena and concludes that the majority of the incidents of sexual violence reported, could if judicially proven, constitute offences and violations under domestic law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. Furthermore, the Mapping Team was able to report allegations of massive incidents of sexual violence that had only been documented to a limited extent or not documented at all, particularly the rape of Hutu refugee women and children in 1996 and 1997. This chapter emphasises the fact that the scale and gravity of sexual violence were primarily the result of the victims’ lack of access to justice and the impunity that has reigned in recent decades, which has made women even more vulnerable than they already were. The phenomenon of sexual violence continues today as a result of this near-total impunity, even in areas where the fighting has ended; it has increased in those areas where fighting is still ongoing.

B. Inventory of acts of violence committed against children

This chapter shows that children did not escape the successive waves of violence that swept over the DRC, quite to the contrary: they were often its first victims. In fact, children are always affected when crimes under international law are committed against civilians, partly because they are particularly fragile and partly because violence takes away their first line of defence, namely their parents. Even when children are not direct victims themselves, the fact of seeing their parents killed or raped, their property pillaged and their homes set on fire leaves them deeply traumatised. Being displaced makes them more vulnerable to malnutrition and diseases. Their young age makes them the target of contemptible beliefs and superstitions, which claim, for example, that sexual relationships with children can treat certain diseases or make rapists invincible. Lastly, war generally deprives them of their right to education and thus often compromises their long-term future.³⁵ The decade 1993-2003 was also marked by the widespread use by all those involved in the conflicts³⁶ of children associated with armed groups and forces ( “child soldiers”), making the DRC one of the countries in the world where this phenomenon is most common. In the military camps, these children suffered indescribable violence, including murder, rape, torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and were deprived of all their rights. The report highlights the fact that child soldiers were sometimes also forced to commit very serious violations themselves but that in terms of justice, it is essential first to pursue the political and military leaders responsible for the crimes committed by the child soldiers placed under their command, based on the principle of hierarchical superiority and the person with most responsibility, as well as investigating to establish to what extent the children were forced to act or influenced by their adult superiors. The chapter notes that the recruitment and use of child soldiers is ongoing,³⁷ and emphasises the fact that the FAC (now FARDC) have been cited since 2002 in every report of the Secretary General on children and armed conflict for having recruited and used child soldiers.³⁸

Inventory of acts of violence linked to the exploitation of natural resources

Finally, based on the view that it was not possible to draw up an inventory of the most serious violations committed in the DRC between 1993 and 2003 without examining, if only briefly, the role played by the exploitation of natural resources in the commission of these crimes, chapter III shows that, in a significant number of events, the struggle between different armed groups for control of the DRC’s natural assets served as a backdrop for numerous violations directed against civilian populations. In this chapter, the link between the exploitation of natural resources and alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law has been analysed from three different points of view: firstly, alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by those involved in the conflict as part of the fight to gain access to and control the richest areas; secondly, the alleged violations committed by armed groups during their long-term occupation of an economically rich area; and thirdly, the huge profits generated from the exploitation of natural resources, which have apparently driven and helped fund the conflict and which are themselves a source and cause of the most serious violations. The report concludes that the abundance of natural resources in the DRC and the absence of regulation and responsibility in this sector has created a particular dynamic that has clearly contributed directly to widespread violations and to their perpetuation and that both domestic and foreign state-owned or private companies could bear some responsibility for these crimes having been committed.