Executive Summary – Inventory of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law

Mapping Report > Executive Summary > I. Most serious violations 

I. Inventory of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed on the territory of the DRC between March 1993 and June 2003

The period covered by this report is probably one of the most tragic chapters in the recent history of the DRC. Indeed, this decade was marked by a string of major political crises, wars and multiple ethnic and regional conflicts that brought about the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. Very few Congolese and foreign civilians living on the territory of the DRC managed to escape the violence, and were victims of murder, mutilation, rape, forced displacement, pillage, destruction of property or economic and social rights violations. Aside from its historical contribution to documenting these serious violations and fact-finding during this period, the ultimate purpose of this inventory is to provide the Congolese authorities with the elements they need to help them decide on the best approach to adopt to achieve justice for the many victims and fight widespread impunity for these crimes.

The Mapping Exercise report is presented chronologically, reflecting four key periods in the recent history of the DRC, each preceded by an introduction explaining the political and historical background in which the violations were committed. Each period is organised by provinces and sometimes subdivided into groups of victims and presents a description of the violations committed, the groups allegedly involved and the approximate number of victims.

A. March 1993–June 1996: Failure of the democratisation processes and regional crisis

The first period covers violations committed in the final years of the regime of President Mobutu and is marked by the failure of the democratisation process and the devastating consequences of the Rwandan genocide on the declining Zairian state, in particular in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. During this period, 40 incidents were listed. The most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law documented, were concentrated for the most part in Katanga, North Kivu and in the city-province of Kinshasa.

B. July 1996–July 1998: First Congo War and the Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo-Zaire (AFDL) regime

The second period concerns violations allegedly committed during the First Congo War and the first year of the regime established by President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. With 238 listed incidents, this period has the greatest number of incidents in the whole of the decade under examination. The information available today points to the significant role of other countries in the First Congo War and their direct implication in the war, which led to the overthrow of the Mobutu regime.18 At the start of the period, serious violations were committed against Tutsi and Banyamulenge civilians,19 principally in South Kivu. This period was then characterised by the apparently relentless pursuit and mass killing (104 reported incidents) of Hutu refugees, members of the former Armed Forces of Rwanda (later “ex- FAR”) and militias implicated in the genocide of 1994 (Interahamwe), allegedly by the Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo- Zaïre (AFDL). A proportion of the AFDL’s troops, arms and logistics were apparently supplied by the Armée patriotique rwandaise (APR), the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) and by the Forces armées burundaises (FAB) throughout the Congolese territory. Hutu refugees, who it appears were often rounded up and used by the ex-FAR/Interahamwe as human shields during their flight, began a long trek across the country from east to west towards Angola, the Central African Republic or the Republic of the Congo. This period was also marked by serious attacks on other civilian populations in all provinces without exception, in particular allegedly by the Forces armées zaïroises (FAZ) retreating towards Kinshasa, the ex-FAR/Interahamwe driven back by the AFDL/APR and the Mayi-Mayi.20

C. August 1998–January 2000: Second Congo War

The third period concerns the inventory of violations committed between the start of the Second Congo War in August 1998, and the death of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. This period includes 200 incidents and is characterised by the intervention on the territory of the DRC of the government armed forces of several countries, fighting alongside the Forces armées congolaises (FAC) (Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia) or against them, and also the involvement of multiple militia groups and the creation of a coalition under the banner of a new political and military movement, the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD), which would later split on several occasions. During this period the DRC was racked by numerous armed conflicts: “Some […] international, others internal and […] national conflicts that became internationalised. Participants in these conflicts include at least eight national armies and 21 irregular armed groups”.21 In spite of the signing of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement on 10 July 199922 by all the parties,23 which called for the respect of international humanitarian law by all parties and the definitive withdrawal of all foreign forces from the national territory of the DRC, the fighting continued, as did the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law allegedly by all parties to the conflict. On 16 June 2000, the UN Security Council, in its Resolution 1304 (2000), called for all parties to cease hostilities and demanded that Rwanda and Uganda withdraw from the territory of the DRC. It was not until the signing of two new agreements with Rwanda (Pretoria Agreement) and Uganda (Luanda Agreement) in 2002, that these foreign forces began to withdraw from the country.24

This period was marked by attacks on civilians believed to be Tutsi, in particular in Kinshasa, Katanga, Orientale Province, East and Kasai Occidental, Maniema and North Kivu. Within the context of the war and the conflicts across the whole of the territory, civilian populations were broadly speaking the victims of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law allegedly by all parties in the conflicts and throughout the territory, but especially in North Kivu and South Kivu, Orientale Province (in particular in Ituri), Katanga, Équateur and also Bas-Congo.

D. January 2001–June 2003: Towards transition

Lastly, the final period lists 139 incidents describing the violations committed in spite of the gradual establishment of a ceasefire along the front line and the speeding up of peace negotiations in preparation for the start of the transition period on 30 June 2003. During this period, fighting that had shaken the province of Ituri, in particular the ethnic conflicts between the Lendu and the Hema, reached an unprecedented peak. The period was marked by clashes between the Forces armées congolaises (FAC) and the Mayi-Mayi forces in Katanga province. As in previous periods, the main victims of the parties involved in the conflict were civilian populations throughout the territory, particularly in Orientale Province, North Kivu, South Kivu, Maniema and Kasai Oriental provinces.

E. Legal classification of acts of violence committed in the DRC between March 1993 and June 2003

It must be stated that the vast majority of the 617 most serious incidents described in this report could, if investigated and proven in a judicial process, point to the commission of multiple violations of human rights but above all of international humanitarian law:

Crime of genocide

War crimes

Crimes against humanity

18 In an interview with Washington Post on 9 July 1997, Rwandan president Paul Kagame (then Defence Minister) recognised that Rwandan troops had played a key role in the ADFL campaign. According to President Kagame, the campaign strategy comprised three elements: a destroy the refugee camps, b destroy ex-FAR and Interahamwe structures based in and around the camps and c overthrow the Mobutu regime. According to the article, Rwanda had planned the rebellion and had participated in it by supplying arms, munitions and training facilities for Congolese rebel forces. According to Kagame, operations – in particular key operations – were directed by Rwandan mid-level commanders. “Rwandans Led Revolt in Congo”, Washington Post, 9 July 1997. See also the interview with General James Kabarebe, the Rwandan chief military strategist of the ADFL, in the Observatoire de l’Afrique Centrale: “Kigali, Rwanda. Plus jamais le Congo”, Vol. 6, No. 10, 3–9 March 2003. See also the televised interviews with the Ugandan and Rwandan presidents and General James Kabarebe explaining in detail their respective roles in the First Congo War, in “L’Afrique en morceaux”, a documentary by Jihan El Tahri, Peter Chappell and Herve Chabalier, 100 minutes, produced by Canal Horizon, 2000.
19 The term “Banyamulenge” came into popular use in the late 1960s to distinguish ethnic Tutsis historically based in South Kivu, the Banyamulenge, from those arriving from the 1960s onwards as refugees or economic migrants. Banyamulenge means “people of Malenge” and takes its name from a city in the Uvira territory with a very large Tutsi population. Over time, however, the use of the term Banyamulenge has become increasingly more generalised and has been used to designate all Zairian, Congolese and occasionally Rwandan Tutsis.
20 In the DRC, the term Mayi-Mayi is used to designate groups of armed combatants resorting to specific magic rituals such as water ablutions (“Mayi” in Swahili) and carrying amulets prepared by witchdoctors, believed to make them invulnerable and protect them from ill fate. Present mainly in South Kivu and North Kivu, but also in other provinces, the various Mayi-Mayi groups included armed forces led by warlords, traditional tribal elders, village heads and local political leaders. The Mayi-Mayi lacked cohesion and the different groups allied themselves with various government groups and armed forces at different times.
21 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DRC (A/55/403), para. 15.
22 S/1999/815, Annex.
23 The following were party to the Agreement: Angola, Namibia, Uganda, Rwanda, the DRC and Zimbabwe. The Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RDC) and the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC) rebel groups signed at a later date.
24 Pretoria Agreement of 31 July 2002 between the DRC and Rwanda, Article 8, para. 3 (S/2002/914, Annex); Luanda Agreement of 6 September 2002 between the DRC and Uganda, Article 1 (available at www.droitcongolais.info/files/0426_accord of_6_September_2002_rdc-ouganda_r.pdf).