Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER III. The Second War > A. Attacks directed at Tutsi civilians > Katanga

In early August 1998, after the outbreak of the second war, the District Commissioner for Tanganyika organised a meeting at the stadium in Kalemie, during which he called on the population to enlist in so-called “Volunteer” paramilitary groups and attack the Tutsis living in the district.

• At the beginning of August 1998, FAC members and groups of “Volunteers” arrested Tutsis living in Kalemie. The men were held in the central prison and the women in houses on the SNCC hill [Société nationale des chemins de fer du Congo – Congo National Railway Company] During the days that followed, many tens of Tutsi men were taken out of the central prison to “Camp Marin”, close to the airport. The FAC then allegedly summarily executed them and threw their bodies into a mass grave. Having taken control of Kalemie on 26 August 1998, senior officials in the RCD released the women and children who were still in the prison. They also arranged for the exhumation of over 70 bodies from Camp Marin and had them taken by boat to Uvira, where a monument has been built in their memory.⁴⁹²

As mentioned previously, in the early 1970s a sizeable Tutsi community from the Minembwe plateaux in the Fizi region in South Kivu had settled in the Vyura region, 150 kilometres from Moba, in the Tanganyika district. During the 1990s, the relationship between the Vyura Tutsis (known as Banyavyura) and the rest of the population, most of whom were Tabwa, had deteriorated significantly, particularly following the execution, in April 1997, of the Tabwa traditional leader by AFDL/APR troops.⁴⁹³ Following the outbreak of the second war, in August 1998, the District Commissioner for Tanganyika, in a public address given in Kalemie, called on the local population to “wipe Vyura off the map”. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• On 15 August 1998, in Vyura, members of the FAC arrested over 2,000 Tutsis and killed an unknown number of them. On 16 August, soldiers killed around ten influential members of the local Tutsi community. The men were held at the Kansalale camp, in a church and in the house of Chief Kabugora. Women and children were held in a church and in the primary school in Kasanga. The arrests were accompanied by pillaging of Tutsi property. On 18 August 1998, a group of around 300 Tutsis, who had managed to escape and arm themselves with spears and knives, launched a counter-attack on the FAC. During the fighting, the FAC killed around 60 Tutsis, including Chief Kabugora, set fire to every house they passed, pillaged property and stole Tutsi cattle. The total number of killings is difficult to establish. Several sources indicate that over 100 Tutsis died in Vyura during August 1998. On 15 September, ANC and APR troops took control of Vyura and helped the 8,000 to 10,000 Tutsi survivors to leave for Kalemie. Some settled in South Kivu, whilst others sought refugee status in neighbouring countries.⁴⁹⁴
• In Moba, in August 1998, FAC troops, aided by residents, shot and killed around 40 members of the Tutsi community, mainly shopkeepers and students.⁴⁹⁵

At the beginning of 1998, over 1,000 young recruits, including several hundred young Tutsis, had just completed their military training under Tanzanian instructors at the cadet college on the Kamina base.

• On 5 August 1998, the security forces that had remained loyal to the Government in Kinshasa allegedly killed an unknown number of young Tutsi or Rwandan military recruits at the military base in Kamina. The victims were not armed. They were reported shot dead in large hangars close to the rails, near the base’s arms store. The bodies of the victims are then thought to have been buried in the surrounding forest, or burnt. The total number of victims remains unclear but is thought to be at least 100.⁴⁹⁶

During the first half of the 20th century, encouraged by the colonial authorities, a sizeable community of people of Rwandan origin (Hutus and Tutsis) settled in the southern part of Katanga province (Lubumbashi, Likasi, Kipushi and Kolwezi) to work in the mines. This relatively quiet community had become more visible after the arrival of AFDL/APR soldiers in Lubumbashi, in April 1997.

• Alleged incidents include the following: from 3 or 4 August 1998 onwards, President Kabila’s security services in Lubumbashi, Kipushi, Likasi and Kolwezi arbitrarily arrested several hundred Tutsis, people of Rwandan origin and civilians who resembled them. Most of these people were tortured in the prisons of the Agence nationale de renseignements (ANR) [National Intelligence Agency], police or army. Several tens of them were executed. The Vangu military camp and the Kilimasimba quarry on the road between Lubumbashi and Kipushi were often cited as probable locations for summary executions. In its 1998 report, the Association africaine de défense des droits de l’homme (ASADHO) [African Association for the Defence of Human Rights) suggested a figure of over 70 victims. Most of those who were not executed were taken to the former convent of the Bakhita congregation in the Kigoma neighbourhood in Lubumbashi. Over 500 civilians, the majority of them Tutsis, lived in the Bakhita camp for over a year, in deplorable conditions. From July 1999, those held at the Bakhita convent were authorised to leave Lubumbashi and were able to resettle abroad with the help of UNHCR and the ICRC. In the area under government control, however, the hunt led by the ANR and the FAC continued in Katanga province into 2000 and resulted in an unknown number of summary executions and disappearances.⁴⁹⁷