05.10.10 CONGOLESE STUDENTS’ ORGANISATIONS AND NGOs IN SOUTH AFRICA on UN Mapping Report

Johannesburg, 5
October, 2010

1. Congolese student organisations and the Forum of NGOs (FOCAS) in
   South Africa express complete satisfaction on the publication, this 1st of
   October 2010, of the “Report on the Mapping Project concerning the most serious
   Human Rights and international humanitarian law violations committed in the
   territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between March 1993 and June
   2003”. It supports the 220 NGOs which collaborated in the collection of the
   facts conveyed to the investigators and wishes to contribute to the
   implementation of the recommendations.

 

1. “The Mapping Report provides the most exhaustive description
   to date of the most serious violations of Human Rights and international
   humanitarian law committed in the DRC between 1993 and 2003. By enumerating
   these incidents, province by province and in chronological order, it reveals the
   suffering inflicted on this country by years of instability and conflict. In so
   doing, the Mapping Report aims to honour the memory of the victims of the
   conflict and contribute to reiterating the importance of ensuring that the
   perpetrators of the Human Rights violations committed in the past are brought to
   book”, said the South African Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human
   Rights, on the publication of the said Report.

 

1. The Report concerns the DRC. It assesses the international law
   violations that may have been committed, to the extent that the most serious
   crimes committed against a civilian population may not only constitute crimes
   according to Congolese law, but also according to international law. The Report
   notes that the vast majority of the serious incidents described “reveal the
   commission of multiple violations of Human Rights and/or international
   humanitarian law, which could constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes,
   indeed often both at once. In certain cases, it even cites the possibility that
   acts of genocide may have been committed”.

 

1. The Ambassador of the DRC to the United Nations, Mr Christian
   ILEKA ATOKI, speaking on behalf of the country, which offered its cooperation
   throughout the Mapping Project, declared that “this Report is detailed, it is
   credible. We welcome its publication. This Report is heartbreaking. The
   Congolese government and I myself, in my personal capacity, are dismayed at the
   unspeakable horror and extent of the crimes endured by the Congolese people…
   The Congolese victims deserve justice. They deserve to have their voices heard.
   For a long time those voices were stifled. I sincerely hope that this time they
   will be heard, not only by us, their leaders, but also by the international
   community as a whole…”

 

1. The official declarations were in response to the 220 Congolese
   NGOs, many of which had worked together with the investigating team. On 3
   September, these NGOs had already endorsed the draft report and applauded the
   diligence with which the inquiries had been conducted and the professionalism
   which had guided the methodology of the investigations. In their statement, they
   declared: “The NGOs therefore challenge the government of the DRC and those
   of the countries in the region concerned by the facts cited in the Report, in
   particular Rwanda, Uganda, Angola and Burundi, to seize this opportunity to
   acknowledge the atrocious suffering and injustice inflicted on the vast majority
   of the Congolese people and other victims of the criminal acts and massive Human
   Rights violations detailed in the said Report.”

 

1. Human Rights Defenders throughout the DRC widely supported the
   Report. “We believe it is important to do justice to the victims who lie
   buried in the many communal graves discovered by the UN investigators in the
   different provinces, including Maniema, South Kivu, North Kivu, Orientale and
   Equateur; those victims seem to have been targeted not for what they may have
   done, but for what they were: people belonging to the Rwandese and Congolese
   Hutu community”, said the Lotus Group from Kisangani. For its part, ASADHO,
   based in Kinshasa, declared that the Report corroborated many of its own
   investigations and came as a response to the advocacy that had long been
   conducted with the aim of restoring the moral balance of Congolese society based
   on the noble ideals of justice, equity, peace, fraternity and national
   solidarity.

 

 

1. The war in the
   DRC had left more than 6 million dead; more than 300,000 cases of rape, ie more
   than 55% of the cases registered in the whole world[1] and severely pillaged natural
   resources and state property; immense material and environmental
   damage.
2. In 1996,
   Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi invaded the DRC under the banner of the Alliance of
   Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL – Alliance des Forces
   Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo) ; in 1998, Rwanda, Uganda and
   Burundi attacked the DRC under the banner of the Congolese Rally for Democracy
   (RCD – Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie); since 2003, Rwanda is
   present in the DRC under the name of the National Council for the Defence of the
   People (CNDP – Conseil National pour la Défense du
   Peuple).