Mapping Report > Section I. Inventory of the most serious violations > CHAPTER I. March 1993 – June 1996: Failure of the democratisation process and regional crisis > C. Kinshasa

From March 1993 to June 1996, the crackdown on the political opponents of President Mobutu’s regime was especially violent, particularly in Kinshasa. Under the direct control of President Mobutu, the security forces reportedly carried out many summary and extrajudicial executions as well as forced disappearances, tortured and raped a great number of civilians.¹³⁶ They also committed many acts of pillage. The widespread impunity they enjoyed leads to the supposition that the highest powers of government were providing cover for their actions – even encouraging them – in order to destabilise their opponents.

The security force agencies most involved in violations of the right to life were the Special Presidential Division (DSP), the Civil Guard, the FAS (Forces d’action spéciale), the FIS (Forces d’intervention spéciale) and the National Intelligence and Protection Service (SNIP). The BSRS (Special Research and Surveillance Brigade) and the SARM (Military Action and Intelligence Service) were also heavily involved in serious violations of the right to life. A special unit formed within the DSP, known as Hibou (“the owls”), was specifically responsible for spreading fear among the people by carrying out summary executions and kidnapping not only political opponents but soldiers and ordinary citizens too.

Opponents were typically detained at the Civil Guard headquarters on the Avenue Victoire in the Kasa-Vubu commune, the Civil Guard/IBTP prison, the 11^th military garrison (CIRCO), various SNIP detention centres dotted across the capital, and cells at the Lufungula, Kokolo and Tshatshi military camps. Some were imprisoned at secret detention sites. In the majority of cases, those arrested were tortured. Flogging, electric shock, suspension by the feet, whipping and sexual abuse were the most frequently used methods of torture. The detention conditions themselves amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and led to a large number of deaths. A great many victims were packed into tiny cells, without ventilation or sanitary facilities, where they received neither food nor medical treatment.

Between March 1993 and June 1996, over thirty communications regarding cases in Kinshasa were sent to the Government via mechanisms provided for by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, including the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.¹³⁷

The alleged serious violations of human rights are too numerous to be listed here in their entirety, and therefore only a few illustrative alleged cases of summary executions and torture are reported below.

• In April 1993, in Kinshasa, elements of the security forces arbitrarily arrested and tortured over 20 civilians, including political opponents, trade unionists and journalists.¹³⁸

• On 4 May 1994, elements of the security forces executed 15 people at the Tshatshi camp. The victims had been kidnapped by the security forces (notably the BSRS) two days previously at a protest march staged by the opposition. A further five individuals who had been kidnapped and transferred to the CIRCO military garrison were released after protests from human rights organisations.¹³⁹

• On 27 May 1994, Civil Guard elements executed six UDPS activists in the Maluku district in Nsele commune. Their bodies were loaded on to a boat and dumped in the middle of the river. The activists had been kidnapped that day by the BSRS and taken to the Civil Guard training centre at Mangengenge. On 27 May, the opposition had called a day of ville morte in Kinshasa to demand the return of Étienne Tshisekedi to the Premiership. Between 1993 and 1994, the security forces killed a number of UDPS activists, including minors, during their crackdown on the movement.¹⁴⁰
• On 29 July 1995, units of the Civil Guard and the Gendarmerie killed at least seven PALU (Parti lumumbiste unifié – Unified Lumumbist Party) activists at a demonstration against the extension of the transition period. Around twenty people were injured in the operation, some seriously. An unknown number of demonstrators were arrested and transferred to Civil Guard and CIRCO detention sites, and cells at the Kokolo military camp. On the same day, some time around 4am, members of the Civil Guard and the Gendarmerie raped women and beat PALU demonstrators at the residence of the party’s leader, Antoine Gizenga, in the Limete commune. On this occasion, the security forces looted and ransacked the residence, which was also PALU’s headquarters.¹⁴¹

In some densely-populated areas, like Kimbanseke, the people reacted to the violence meted out by the security forces by creating self-defence groups. These groups, in turn, allegedly committed summary executions and theft. Although the Mapping Team was unable to confirm these figures, it is estimated that over one thousand people in total were killed in Kinshasa by uniformed and plain-clothes members of the Zairian security forces during this period.¹⁴²