Rights Groups Call for Action on Army in DR Congo

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The call to action by the Congo Advocacy Coalition said 1,000 civilians have been killed, 7,000 women and girls have been raped, and nearly 900,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since January.

That is when the Congolese army began an operation called Kimia II to disarm and disband the militia group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, an organization of Rwandan Hutus, some whose leaders participated in the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda.

Though most abuses are still committed by the FDLR, the Congolese army has also killed, raped, looted, arbitrarily arrested and forced into labor innocent civilians in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, the coalition says.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, has backed the Congolese army since March, and much of the statement’s criticism was directed at the perceived indifference of the U.N. peacekeepers to the civilian costs of the operation.

"U.N. peacekeepers, who have a mandate to protect civilians, urgently need to work with government forces to make sure civilians get the protection they need or discontinue their support," Oxfam’s Marcel Stoessel said in the statement.

The U.N. peacekeepers provide tactical expertise, transport and medical support, and food and fuel to the army. The groups said the U.N. should use its influence to demand that the army protect communities and the rights of civilians, in particular by requesting the removal of commanders with "known track records of human rights abuses".

Source: Allafrica