Peace Accord Fails to End Killing of Civilians

Murder, Rape, Looting Continues Six Months After Goma Agreement

(Brussels, July 21, 2008) – The killing and rape of civilians in the eastern province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues at a horrifying rate despite the signing of a peace accord six months ago, Human Rights Watch said today. The agreement was supposed to stop such attacks.

In a recent 10-day mission to the most affected territories of Masisi and Rutshuru in eastern Congo, Human Rights Watch researchers documented more than 200 killings of civilians and the rape of hundreds of women and girls since January by all armed groups, including Congolese army soldiers.

“Six months after the peace agreement was signed there has been no improvement in the human rights situation and in some areas it has actually deteriorated,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “While the parties to the peace agreement attend talks in Goma, their troops continue to kill, rape, and loot civilians.”

On January 23, 2008, after weeks of talks, the Congolese government signed a peace agreement in Goma, North Kivu, with 22 armed groups committing all parties to an immediate ceasefire, disengagement of forces from frontline positions, and to abide by international human rights law. Following the signing, the Congolese government set up a peace program, called the Amani Program, to coordinate peace efforts in eastern Congo. Yet the government and international donors have provided limited funds to carry out that work.

The agreement failed to halt the fighting. United Nations officials have documented some 200 ceasefire violations since January 23, the majority between the forces of renegade general Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and a loose coalition of combatants from the Mai Mai Mongol, the Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO), and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan armed group whose leaders participated in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The FDLR was not a party to the Goma agreement.

Human Rights Watch also found credible evidence that soldiers from the Congolese national army were supporting the PARECO, Mai Mai Mongol, and FDLR coalition, questioning the government’s commitment to the peace process.

Many of the worst human rights abuses were committed in and around the Bukombo administrative area in western Rutshuru, where some 150 civilians were killed between February and May 2008. PARECO and Mai Mai Mongol combatants, many of whom are untrained and poorly equipped, held the area from December to March, supported by FDLR combatants. According to dozens of people interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the fighters repeatedly raided villages for cattle, goats and other goods, raping women and girls, and killing civilians who opposed their activities or whom they accused of being collaborators of their enemies.

For example, on February 9, PARECO combatants raped Marie, a 24-year-old woman from Bukombo who was four months pregnant. “They told me that if I didn’t allow them to rape me, they would kill me,” she told Human Rights Watch. “They grabbed my legs and cut my lower right leg with a machete to show me they weren’t joking.” The rape was so violent that she miscarried her child. The attackers then killed Marie’s brother, cutting him up with machetes behind the house. After the attackers killed at least two others in the village and raped four more women, they fled to a nearby Congolese army position.

In March and April, CNDP combatants launched a military offensive to dislodge PARECO and Mai Mai Mongol fighters from the Bukombo area killing some 100 civilians as they indiscriminately fired on more than a dozen villages. According to information gathered by Human Rights Watch, many of the dead were the elderly or very young who were unable to flee in advance of the attacks.

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