Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER III. The Second War > B. Attacks on other civilian populations > 7. Ituri

In mid-August 1998, UPDF soldiers arrived in Ituri and quickly took control of the district without encountering any real resistance. Like the rest of Orientale Province, Ituri was placed under RCD administration. Following the movement’s split, in March 1999, into a pro-Rwandan branch (RCD-Goma) and a pro-Ugandan branch (RCD-ML), Ituri was integrated into the RCD-ML zone and administered from Kisangani. The key man on the ground in Ituri, however, was the UPDF Chief of Staff, General Kazini. He applied a policy that supported autonomy for the region in relation to the rest of Orientale Province and openly favoured the interests of the Hema community, thus reviving former conflicts over land.

The Hema-Gegere farmers⁶⁰⁰ who, a few years previously, had acquired new concessions from the land registry in the Djugu region, took advantage of the new political situation to enforce their rights. As the Lendu from the Walendu Pitsi⁶⁰¹ community, who held the customary rights to the land concerned, disputed the value of their title deeds, the Hema-Gegere farmers appealed to the courts and had the Walendu Pitsi expelled from the concessions they wanted. The latter refused to leave, however, and clashes broke out with the police officers who had come to remove them. Several senior Lendu, including the leaders of the Walendu Pitsi and Walendu Djatsi communities, were arrested for vandalism. In April 1999, the Hema-Gegere concession-holders paid UPDF and APC soldiers to attack the Lendu villages located in the disputed concessions.⁶⁰²

In this climate, the appointment in June 1999 of Adèle Lotsove, a Hema woman from the Djugu region,⁶⁰³ as Governor of the new province of Kibali-Ituri,⁶⁰⁴ was seen by the Djugu Lendu as a provocation. Her arrival in Ituri was accompanied by a deployment of Ugandan soldiers to the disputed concessions and the withdrawal of the police forces from the majority of the Djugu region. The Walendu Pitsi organised themselves into self-defence forces and confronted the UPDF soldiers and Hema self-defence forces created by the concession-holders in the Walendu Pitsi, Walendu Djatsi, Walendu Tatsi and Ndo Okelo communities. The Lendu and Hema self-defence forces quickly transformed themselves into community militias and people living in the Djugu region were subjected to a first campaign of ethnic cleansing, which resulted in hundreds of deaths. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• Between June and December 1999, UPDF and APC soldiers killed an unknown number of Lendu civilians in villages in the Djugu region close to the concessions claimed by the Hema-Gegere farmers. Villages in the Dz’na Buba, Linga, Jiba, Dhendo, Blukwa Mbi, Laudjo, Laudedjo Gokpa, Nyalibati and Gbakulu groupements were particularly badly affected. Most of the victims were Lendu but Hema were also killed during the attacks. Numerous victims died when their village was set on fire or following heavy arms fire directed at their homes. Some victims were shot dead at point-blank range.⁶⁰⁵

• Between June and December 1999, members of the Lendu militia killed several tens of Hema-Gegere in the village of Libi from the Walendu Pitsi community and in the village of Fataki from the Walendu Djatsi community. These attacks led to the displacement of almost all the Hema-Gegere living in the Walendu Pitsi community.⁶⁰⁶

• From June 1999 onwards, the Lendu self-defence groups recruited large numbers of children to their ranks and used them during their attacks on Hema locations. They most often helped them to carry pillaged property.⁶⁰⁷

• On 20 June 1999, members of the Hema militias and UPDF soldiers killed at least 25 people, including several civilians, during an attack on the village of Dhendro, in the Walendu Pitsi community, on the border with the Dhendro groupement.⁶⁰⁸

• On 14 September 1999, members of the Lendu militias from the Walendu Pitsi community used edged weapons to kill several hundred Hema-Gegere, including a majority of civilians, during widespread attacks on locations in the Dhendro groupement in the Bahema-Nord community. Members of the militias also pillaged and set fire to tens of villages. The victims were buried in mass graves. According to several sources, the massacre took place in retaliation for an attack committed on 20 June by members of the Hema militias in the village of Dhendro.⁶⁰⁹

• On 14 September 1999, during a night-time offensive on the village of Fataki, in the Walendu Djatsi community, members of the Hema militias and Hema soldiers from the APC killed several tens of civilians with edged weapons, including at least 15 minors and several women. The assailants then buried the bodies themselves. Following the attack, all the Lendu left the village and Fataki became a Hema bastion in the Walendu Djatsi community.⁶¹⁰

During the months that followed, members of the Lendu militias tried to regain control of Fataki on several occasions. For its part, the UPDF concentrated its troops on Fataki and Linga and led several offensives against Lendu militia bases in Kpandroma and Rethy, in the Walendu Djatsi community.

During the period under consideration, the Lendu militias also attacked villages in the Djugu region on the shores of Lake Albert, the majority of which were populated by Hema.⁶¹¹

• In July 1999, members of the Lendu militias from the Buba group in the Walendu Pitsi community allegedly killed over 100 Hema civilians in the fishing village of Musekere in the Bahema-Nord community. Having encircled the village at dawn and forced six APC soldiers there to flee, they massacred the population using machetes and other edged weapons. From the start of the conflict, the Lendu leaders of the Buba groupement had threatened to attack the inhabitants of Musekere on several occasions.⁶¹²

In October 1999, the RCD-ML set up a Peacekeeping and Monitoring Committee⁶¹³ and organised several inter-community meetings, which resulted in peace agreements being signed by the leaders of the different communities. Whilst the Peacekeeping Committee deployed in the north of the Djugu region succeeded in restoring calm to the region, however, confrontations broke out between Hema and Lendu militias in the south of the region in the Walendu Djatsi, Banyari Kilo, Mabendi, Mambisa and Ndo Okebo communities.

• On 1 December 1999, members of the Lendu militias confronted elements of the UPDF and members of the Hema militias over control of the mining town of Bambou, in the Walendu Djatsi community in the Djugu region. The fighting allegedly led to the deaths of over 200 members of the civilian population. Numerous victims were mutilated and the town looted. Most of the victims’ bodies were thrown into the River Chari.⁶¹⁴

At the end of 1999, Ugandan soldiers and senior members of the RCD-ML⁶¹⁵ tried to ease the conflict in the Djugu region. In November, the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, met representatives of the Ituri communities. On 16 December, Adèle Lotsove handed over her post as Governor to Ernest Uringi Padolo, a member of the Alur community, which was seen as neutral in the Hema/Lendu conflict.⁶¹⁶ The sector

commander who had made UPDF soldiers available to the Hema-Gegere concession-holders to attack the Walendu Pitsi was replaced. These initiatives helped to restore calm to the district over the course of 2000, but did not put an end to the serious violations of human rights in the Djugu region. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In January 2000, members of the Lendu militias from the Walendu Pitsi and Bahema-Nord communities attacked people living in the Blukwa groupement, killing several hundreds of Hema with edged weapons. The groupement had been the site of violent inter-ethnic confrontations since September 1999. The attack in January took place after the departure of APC troops, fleeing from the increasing violence.⁶¹⁷

• On 26 April 2000, members of the Hema militias and UPDF troops attacked the Buba groupement, in the Walendu Pitsi community, causing around 10 deaths, the majority of whom were Lendu civilians.⁶¹⁸

• Between 27 August and 12 September 2000, members of the Hema militias from Mangala, Ghele, Gele and Liko, sometimes acting with the support of the Hema APC soldiers, pillaged and set fire to several villages in the Walendu Djatsi community including Mbau (27 August), Glakpa and Gobi (28 August), Logai (29 August), the villages in the Dz’na groupement (31 August) and Mayalibo (6-12 September).⁶¹⁹