11 09 12 HRW: M23 Rebels Committing War Crimes
(Goma, September 11,
2012) – M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are responsible
for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced
recruitment, Human Rights Watch said today. Thirty-three of those executed were
young men and boys who tried to escape the rebels ranks.
Rwandan officials may be complicit
in war crimes through their continued military assistance to M23 forces, Human
Rights Watch said. The Rwandan army has deployed its troops to eastern Congo to
directly support the M23 rebels in military operations.
Human Rights
Watch based its findings on interviews with 190 Congolese and Rwandan victims,
family members, witnesses, local authorities, and current or former M23 fighters
between May and September.
“The M23 rebels are committing a
horrific trail of new atrocities in eastern Congo,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg,
senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “M23 commanders should be held
accountable for these crimes, and the Rwandan officials supporting these abusive
commanders could face justice for aiding and abetting the crimes.”
The
M23 armed group consists of soldiers who participated in a mutiny from the
Congolese national army in April and May 2012. The groups senior commanders
have a well-known history of serious abuses against civilians. In June the
United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, identified five
of the M23s leaders as “among the
worst perpetrators of human rights violations in the DRC, or in the
world.” They include Gen. Bosco
Ntaganda, who is wanted on two arrest warrants by the International Criminal
Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ituri district, and
Col. Sultani Makenga, who is implicated in the recruitment of children and
several massacres in eastern Congo.
Based on its research, Human Rights
Watch documented the forced recruitment of at least 137 young men and boys in
Rutshuru territory, eastern Congo, by M23 rebels since July. Most were abducted
from their homes, in the market, or while walking to their farms. At least seven
were under age 15.
Witnesses told Human Rights Watch
that at least 33 new recruits and other M23 fighters were summarily executed
when they attempted to flee. Some were tied up and shot in front of other
recruits as an example of the punishment they could receive.
One young recruit told Human Rights
Watch, “When we were with the M23, they said [we had a choice] and could stay
with them or we could die. Lots of people tried to escape. Some were found and
then that was immediately their death.”
Since June, M23 fighters have
deliberately killed at least 15 civilians in areas under their control, some
because they were perceived to be against the rebels, Human Rights Watch said.
The fighters also raped at least 46 women and girls. The youngest rape victim
was eight years old. M23 fighters shot dead a 25-year-old woman who was three
months pregnant because she resisted being raped. Two other women died from the
wounds inflicted on them when they were raped by M23 fighters.
M23 rebels have committed abuses
against civilians with horrific brutality, Human Rights Watch said. Just after
midnight on July 7, 2012, M23 fighters attacked a family in the village of
Chengerero. A 32-year-old woman told Human Rights Watch that the M23 fighters
broke down their door, beat her 15-year-old son to death, and abducted her
husband. Before leaving, the M23 fighters gang-raped her, poured fuel between
her legs, and set the fuel on fire. A neighbor came to the womans aid after the
M23 fighters left. The whereabouts of the womans husband remain unknown.
Local leaders, customary
chiefs, journalists, human rights activists and others who spoke out against the
M23s abuses – or are known to have denounced the rebel commanders previous
abuses – have been targeted. Many received death threats and have fled to
Congolese government-controlled areas.
M23 leaders deny that they or their
forces have committed any crimes. In an interview with Human Rights Watch on
August 8, Col. Makenga, one of the M23s leaders, denied allegations of forced
recruitment and summary executions, claiming those who joined their ranks did so
voluntarily. “We recruit our brothers, not by force, but because they want to
help their big brothers…. Thats their decision,” he said. “They are our little
brothers, so we cant kill them.” He described the repeated reports of forced
recruitment by his forces as Congolese government propaganda.
Rwandan military officials have
also continued to recruit by force or under false pretenses young men and boys,
including under the age of 15, in Rwanda to augment the M23s ranks. Recruitment
of children under age 15 is a war crime and contravenes Rwandan law.
On June 4, Human Rights Watch reported
that between 200 and 300 Rwandans were recruited in Rwanda in April and May and
taken across the border to fight alongside M23 forces. Human Rights Watch has
since gathered further evidence of forced recruitment in Rwanda in June, July,
and August with several hundred more recruited. Based on interviews with
witnesses and victims, Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 600 young men
and boys have been forcibly or otherwise unlawfully recruited in Rwanda to join
the M23, and possibly many more. These recruits outnumber those recruited for
the M23 in Congo.
Congolese and Rwandans, including
local authorities, who live near the Rwanda-Congo border told Human Rights Watch
that they saw frequent troop movements of Rwandan soldiers in and out of Congo
in June, July, and August in apparent support of M23 rebels. They said that
Rwandan army soldiers frequently used the footpath near Njerima hill in Rwanda,
close to Karisimbi volcano, to cross the border.
In addition to deploying
reinforcements and recruits to support military operations, Rwandan military
officials have been providing important military support to the M23 rebels,
including weapons, ammunition, and training, Human Rights Watch said. This makes
Rwanda a party to the conflict.
“The Rwandan governments repeated
denials that its military officials provide support for the abusive M23 rebels
beggars belief,” Van Woudenberg said. “The United Nations Security Council
should sanction M23 leaders, as well as Rwandan officials who are helping them,
for serious rights abuses.”
The armed conflict in eastern Congo is bound
by international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, including Common Article
3 and Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibit summary
executions, rape, forced recruitment, and other abuses. Serious laws-of-war
violations committed deliberately or recklessly are war crimes. Commanders may
be criminally responsible for war crimes by their forces if they knew or should
have known about such crimes and failed to prevent them or punish those
responsible.
A United
Nations Group of Experts that monitors the arms embargo and sanctions violations
in Congo independently presented compelling evidence of Rwandan support to the
M23 rebels. Its findings were published in a 48-page addendum to the Groups
interim report in June 2012. The Rwandan government has denied these
allegations. The UN sanctions committee should immediately seek additional
information on M23 leaders and Rwandan military officers named by the Group of
Experts with a view to adopting targeted sanctions against them, Human Rights
Watch said.
In July and
August, five donor governments – the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany,
the Netherlands, and Sweden – announced the suspension or delay of assistance to
Rwanda in light of the evidence presented by the Group of Experts. Although
Rwandan military support for the M23, and M23 abuses have continued unabated, on
September 4 the United Kingdom Department for International Development
announced it would disburse around half the assistance it had withheld.
The renewed hostilities by the M23,
the Congolese army, and various other armed groups have resulted in the
displacement of over 220,000 civilians who have fled their homes to seek safety
elsewhere in Congo or across the border in Uganda and Rwanda.
“Congolese civilians have endured
the brunt of wartime abuses,” Van Woudenberg said. “The UN and its member states
should urgently step up their efforts to protect civilians, and donor
governments providing aid or military assistance to Rwanda should urgently
review their programs to ensure they are not fueling serious human rights
abuses.”
For more information on
violations of the laws of war committed by the M23, other armed groups, and
Congolese armed forces, as well as Rwandan military support to the M23, please
see the below text and visit:
http://www.hrw.org/drc
To view a map of the area in eastern Congo
controlled by the mutineers, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/node/110050
For more information, please
contact:
In London,
Anneke Van Woudenberg (English, French): +44-207-713-2786; or +44-771-166-4960
(mobile); or woudena@hrw.org
In Kinshasa, Ida Sawyer (English,
French): +243-99-86-75-565 (mobile); or +243-81-33-78-478 (mobile); or
sawyeri@hrw.org
In London, Carina Tertsakian (English,
French): +44 207 713 2764; or +44-790-350-3297 (mobile)
In Stuttgart, Géraldine
Mattioli-Zeltner (French, English): +49-711-722-300-90; or +49-151-4650-8928
(mobile); or mattiog@hrw.org
In New York, Philippe
Bolopion (French, English): +1-212-216-1276; or +1-917-734-3201 (mobile); or bolopion@hrw.org
Background
on the M23 and Its Leadership
The soldiers who took
part in a mutiny from the Congolese army between late March and May and formed
the M23 group were previously members of the National Congress for the Defense
of the People (CNDP), a former Rwanda-backed rebel group that integrated into
the Congolese army in January 2009.
General Ntaganda led the mutiny
following Congolese government attempts to weaken his control and increased
calls for his arrest and surrender to the ICC, in accordance with Congos legal
obligations to cooperate with the court. He was joined by an estimated 300 to
600 troops in Masisi territory, North Kivu province. Ntagandas forces were
defeated by the Congolese army, which pushed the rebels out of Masisi in early
May. Around the same time, Col. Makenga, a former colleague of Ntaganda in the
CNDP, announced he was beginning a separate mutiny in Rutshuru territory. In the
days that followed, Ntaganda and his forces joined Makenga.
The new armed group called itself
the M23. The soldiers claimed their mutiny was to protest the Congolese
governments failure to fully implement the March 23, 2009, peace agreement
(hence the name M23), which had integrated them into the Congolese
army.
Some of the M23s senior commanders have well-known histories of
serious abuses, committed over the past decade in eastern Congo as they moved
from one armed group to another, including ethnic massacres, recruitment
of children, mass rape, killings,
abductions, and torture. Before the mutinies, at least five of the current
M23 leaders were on a UN blacklist of people with whom they would not
collaborate due to their human rights records.
Ntaganda has been wanted
by the ICC since 2006 for recruiting and using child soldiers in Ituri district
in northeastern Congo in 2002 and 2003. In July, the court issued a second
warrant against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity, namely murder, persecution based on ethnic grounds, rape,
sexual slavery, and pillaging, also in connection with his activities in Ituri.
On September 4, the ICC renewed its request to the Congolese government
to arrest Ntaganda immediately and transfer him to The Hague. Human Rights Watch
has documented numerous
war crimes and crimes against humanity by troops under Ntagandas command
since he moved from Ituri to North Kivu in 2006.
According to research by UN human
rights investigators and Human Rights Watch, Col. Makenga is responsible for
recruiting children and for several massacres in eastern Congo; Col. Innocent
Zimurinda is responsible for ethnic massacres at Kiwanja, Shalio, and Buramba,
as well as rape, torture, and child recruitment; Col. Baudouin Ngaruye is
responsible for a massacre at Shalio, child recruitment, rape, and other attacks
on civilians; and Col. Innocent Kayna is responsible for ethnic massacres in
Ituri and child recruitment.
Ntaganda and Zimurinda are also both on a UN
Security Council sanctions list. Under the UN sanctions, all UN member states,
including Rwanda, are obligated to “take the necessary measures to prevent the
entry into or transit through their territories of all persons” on the sanctions
list. Both Ntaganda and Zimurinda have traveled to Rwanda since April, former
M23 fighters who accompanied Ntaganda and people present during meetings
Zimurinda attended in Rwanda told Human Rights Watch.
Publicly, the M23 maintains that
Ntaganda is not part of its movement. However, several dozen former and current
M23 fighters and others close to the M23s leadership told Human Rights Watch
that Ntaganda has played a key command and leadership role among the M23 rebels,
operating from the Runyoni area, and that he participated regularly in meetings
with the M23s high command and Rwandan army officers.
The same people also told Human
Rights Watch that there were tensions between Ntaganda and Makenga due to past
differences over Ntagandas 2009 putsch against the CNDPs then-leader Laurent
Nkunda. But these differences, they said, have been put aside to focus on the
rebellion against the Congolese army. As one M23 fighter explained to Human
Rights Watch, “Many of us have bad memories of Ntaganda…but we need to
prioritize the war against the FARDC [the Congolese army] first. The war against
Ntaganda will come later.”
Since July, Ntaganda appears to
have been keeping a lower profile and, according to M23 defectors interviewed by
Human Rights Watch, is closely protected by dozens of
bodyguards.
Killings and Rape by M23
Forces
Human Rights Watch investigations found that M23 fighters
deliberately killed at least 15 civilians, wounded 14 others, and raped at least
46 women and girls in areas under their control in June, July, and August. At
least 13 of the rape victims were children. Some were attacked because they
resisted forced recruitment or refused to contribute food rations to the M23.
Others were targeted because they were perceived to be against the M23, or had
fled to government-controlled areas and tried to return home in search of food.
In June, for example, M23
fighters killed a 50-year-old Hutu man, Nsabimana Rwabinumwe, who had fled when
the M23 arrived in his village but came back to look for food at his farm. A
friend who buried him told Human Rights Watch, “They [M23 fighters] used a hoe
and beat him on the back of the head. …When you leave the areas controlled by
the government and then come back, they punish you. …They killed [my friend]
because he had been in the government area.”
In early August, an elderly couple
who lived near Runyoni left their home to flee to government-controlled areas
when a group of M23 fighters stopped them. The M23 fighters grabbed the woman
and tore off her clothes. Her husband tried to protect her, but some of the
fighters started beating the 60-year-old man with their rifles, while others
gang-raped his wife. The man lost consciousness when he saw his wife being
raped. He was later taken to a hospital, where he told relatives, “I want to
die. I have no desire to live after what I have seen. It is only animals who
could have done this.” Two weeks later he died of his wounds.
A
15-year-old girl from Muchanga told Human Rights Watch that she had gone to
their farm with her mother and younger sister on July 10 when an M23 fighter
approached them and demanded money. They gave him the money they had with them
which they were saving to pay school fees, and then the fighter told them to get
down on the ground. “He started by letting my mother and little sister go and
telling them to run quickly. I was left alone with the fighter. He took me 500
meters from the farm and then he raped me.”
On August 24, two M23 fighters
raped a 12-year-old girl. They broke into her home, threatened her mother and
aunt, and told the young girl to go outside. Some meters from the house, near
the familys latrine, they gang-raped her. “[She] was in a lot of pain, she
cried out loudly, but these criminals had no heart or pity for anyone,” a
witness told Human Rights Watch. “They continued to rape her until they were
satisfied.”
In addition to
the 15 civilians deliberately killed by the M23, at least another 25 civilians
were killed in July during combat between the M23 and their supporters against
Congolese army soldiers and UN peacekeepers. At least 36 other civilians were
wounded. In a number of cases neither the M23 nor the Congolese army made
sufficient efforts to avoid civilian deaths or to permit civilians to flee the
combat zone safely.
Rwandan Support to
the M23
In July,
several hundred Rwandan army soldiers, possibly more, were deployed to eastern
Congo to assist the M23 take the strategic border post town of Bunagana,
Rumangabo military base, the towns of Rutshuru, Kiwanja, and Rugari, and
surrounding areas. Local residents and M23 defectors reported earlier Rwandan
army deployments in which Rwandan soldiers came for short periods to support the
M23 in key battles, withdrew, and then returned when needed. A UN peacekeeping
officer in North Kivu corroborated regular surges of support for M23. He told
Human Rights Watch, “Whenever [the M23] make a big push, they have additional
strength.”
Local residents
and escaped M23 fighters told Human Rights Watch that on July 5 and 6, during an
attack on Bunagana, several hundred Rwandan army soldiers from Gen. Emmanuel
Ruvushas division based in Gisenyi (northwestern Rwanda) were deployed to the
area to reinforce the M23. Defectors told Human Rights Watch they recognized the
divisions officers. M23 rebels coordinated their offensive with the Rwandan
forces against the Congolese army, who were supported by UN peacekeepers.
UN peacekeepers present
during the attack told Human Rights Watch that the forces that attacked Bunagana
were well-equipped and spoke English, and that their behavior was markedly
different from that of Congolese soldiers, leading them to conclude that the
attacking forces included Rwandan soldiers.
Many Rwandan army soldiers
deployed to support the M23 passed directly from Rwanda into Congo, using
various footpaths, including near Njerima and Kanyanje. Others reportedly passed
through Ugandan territory to enter Congo, including via a path on the Ugandan
side of Sabyinyo volcano. M23 defectors and local residents told Human Rights
Watch that Rwandan soldiers used Ugandan territory and Ugandan vehicles to enter
Congo.
Congolese and Rwandans, including local authorities who live near
the Rwanda-Congo border, also told Human Rights Watch that they saw significant
numbers of Rwandan soldiers crossing from Rwanda into Congo in June, July, and
August. They had also seen Rwandan soldiers later returning to Rwanda from
Congo.
In early July, just before the M23 rebels attacked Bunagana with
support from Rwandan troops, a Congolese farmer from Hehu hill, near Kibumba,
was visiting a friend in Kasizi, Rwanda, when he was taken by Rwandan soldiers
and forced to carry boxes of ammunition.
He told Human Rights Watch that
he had counted seven army trucks filled with Rwandan soldiers, weapons, and
ammunition. “The soldiers took me, my friend, and other civilians… and forced us
to carry boxes of ammunition to Njerima [near the Congo border]. I was forced to
do three trips and then I managed to get away. The soldiers were well-armed and
wearing military uniforms… I asked one of the soldiers walking next to me where
we were going. He replied that they were going to fight in
Congo.”
In late July, people in
Congo near Kasizi again reported seeing large numbers of Rwandan army soldiers
passing into Congo from Rwanda. On August 3, two Rwandans, including a local
village chief, told Human Rights Watch that they saw a large group of Rwandan
army soldiers crossing from Rwanda into Congo, on a footpath near Karisimbi
volcano.
Some people noticed Rwandan soldiers coming out of Congo. A
journalist who traveled from Ruhengeri to Kinigi in early August told Human
Rights Watch he saw two groups of at least 100 soldiers walking from the
direction of the Congolese border toward the main road between Ruhengeri and
Kinigi in Rwanda. He described the soldiers as “visibly tired and dirty” and
said “some were limping, their boots were muddy, and they were clearly very
tired.”
Rwandan forces in Congo appear to have coordinated their actions
with the M23, often playing commanding roles, local residents and M23 defectors
told Human Rights Watch. One former M23 combatant told Human Rights Watch he saw
a Rwandan General, Emmanuel
Ruvusha, on Tshanzu hill, one of the M23s main bases, during the fighting in
Bunagana, apparently commanding and overseeing military
operations.
Another defector who commanded a unit of M23 fighters said he
received his orders from Rwandan army officers during the attack on Bunagana.
Other M23 defectors were also able to identify Rwandan officers by name that had
been at M23 positions in Congo. They claimed that these officers had directed,
or helped to direct, military operations, provided weapons, or supervised the
training of new recruits.
Many of the M23 defectors and escaped recruits
from both Congo and Rwanda interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that their
training had been conducted by Rwandan army soldiers at training camps in
Bukima, Tshanzu, and Rumangabo, in Rutshuru territory, Congo.
A Rwandan M23 defector who used to
be an officer in the CNDP told Human Rights Watch he recognized the Rwandan army
officers training the new M23 recruits because he himself had been trained by
them in Rwanda while he was with the CNDP. “I knew them well because I had taken
their courses in Rwanda,” he said. “I recognized them.”
Human Rights Watch tried to contact
the Rwandan military spokesperson for a response to the above allegations
without success.
In an
interview with Belgian newspaper Le
Soir on August 29, the Rwandan defense minister, James Kabarebe,
denied that the Rwandan army supported the M23. “Everyone knows that Rwanda does
not have a single soldier amongst the M23 and does not give it any support.”
When asked if uncontrolled Rwandan soldiers could be acting in support of the
M23, he said that the Rwandan army was “solid, well-organized, well-commanded,
well-disciplined” and that there could not be any “uncontrolled elements” within
it.
Forced Recruitment in Congo by the
M23
Since early July, M23 rebels have stepped up recruitment
activities in Rutshuru territory, eastern Congo, after the group took control of
the areas around Bunagana and later Rutshuru, Kiwanja, Rumangabo, and Rugari.
M23 commanders held meetings in villages and towns under their military control
to convince the population to support their activities by providing recruits and
food rations. When few joined voluntarily, M23 combatants quickly began to take
young men and boys by force.
Human Rights Watch research found
that at least 137 young men and boys were forcibly recruited in Rutshuru
territory between early July and late August, including at least 20 children
under 18, seven of whom were under age 15.
These are in addition to the
149
young men and boys recruited in Masisi territory in April, as reported by
Human Rights Watch on May 16. The total number of young men and boys forcibly
recruited by the M23 in Congo, known to Human Rights Watch, stands at 286; of
whom at least 68 were children under 18, 24 of them under 15.
New
recruits were taken to military training centers set up by the M23 in Bukima,
Tshanzu, Runyoni, and Rumangabo. Recruits who managed to escape told Human
Rights Watch that they were given military uniforms and taught how to use a
rifle and other basic military tactics. The recruits also told Human Rights
Watch that Rwandan army officers frequently led the training.
The forced
recruitment created a climate of fear, leading many young men and boys to flee
to government-controlled areas or across the border to Uganda or
Rwanda.
On July 16 and 17, M23 fighters forcibly recruited at least 60
young men and boys from the Rugari and Kisigari areas. They told the recruits
that they needed help transporting their belongings, collecting firewood and
drawing water, and said they would be released afterward. Instead the young men
and boys were taken to military training centers at Bukima and Tshanzu and
briefly given military training.
One 20-year-old man who was
forcibly recruited in the Kisigari area along with three other young men on July
21 later managed to escape. He told Human Rights Watch that he and the others
were taken to a training camp at Bukima. “There, we spent an entire night in a
hole with water up to our hips, like a pool,” he said. “The M23 soldiers told us
that that was the start of the military training, to teach us how to get used to
the cold.”
A 19-year-old Congolese
youth was abducted on July 23 in Bugina on his way home from his fields.
Witnesses said three M23 fighters forced him to carry their belongings, then
inducted him into their rebel group. His family saw him in Rutshuru on July 25
in military uniform with a rifle, fighting alongside the M23 against the
Congolese army.
One man who
had gone to visit a relative in Tshanzu who had joined the M23 told Human Rights
Watch that during his visit he saw a group of 70 to 80 new recruits undergoing
training. The man recognized four of the recruits as children from his home
village who were still in primary school and were around 13 or 14. The man told
Human Rights Watch that many others of roughly the same age were among the
recruits.
Any recruitment
by armed groups of children under 18 is prohibited by the Optional Protocol to
the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in
armed conflicts, ratified by Congo and Rwanda. Under the ICC treaty, the
recruitment of children under 15 is a war crime.
Rwandan Recruitment for the M23
Rwandan military
authorities continued recruiting for the M23 in Rwanda between June and August,
as they had in previous months, either by force or under false pretenses.
Information collected by Human Rights Watch indicates that an estimated 600 were
recruited in these circumstances in Rwanda. These recruits outnumber those
recruited by the M23 in Congo. They included young Rwandan men and boys with no
previous military experience and Congolese Tutsi refugees living in refugee or
transit camps in Rwanda. Others targeted for recruitment included demobilized
soldiers from the Rwandan army, the CNDP, and demobilized fighters from the FDLR
who had returned to Rwanda. The FDLR are a largely Rwandan Hutu militia group
operating in Congo, some of whose members participated in the 1994 genocide in
Rwanda.
According to recruits interviewed by Human Rights Watch who were
able to escape and reports from other sources, Rwandan authorities recruited
dozens of young men and boys from camps for Congolese refugees in Kibuye and
Byumba, as well as the Nkamira Transit Center. Many were forcibly taken from the
camps at night by men in civilian clothes who drove them to the Rwandan military
camp at Kinigi. There they were given uniforms, weapons, ammunition, and other
materials to transport, and were escorted by Rwandan army soldiers to Congo.
Others joined voluntarily, after being told that supporting the M23 would help
their families return to Congo.
A Tutsi student, 22, who studied
near Kitchanga, in Congo, told Human Rights Watch that he had fled to the
Nkamira Transit Center in Rwanda in May to escape forced recruitment in Congo.
Two weeks later, he was taken by force from the transit camp along with 13 other
young men. He said men in civilian clothes assembled them and forced them into a
vehicle with tinted windows. They were taken to
Ruhengeri, given salt to carry and forced to march to the Congolese border,
escorted by Rwandan army soldiers.
At the border, the group was met by
M23 fighters, who escorted them to Runyoni, where they were given military
training within days of arriving. “They [the M23] would beat us,” the student
said. “They told us we had to eliminate our ‘sense of being a civilian. They
said we were going to take North Kivu.”
In another case at Nkamira
Transit Center, an 18-year-old Rwandan youth went to visit his sister at the
camp on June 6. He said that the same night, he was picked up by
civilian-clothed men who rounded up 28 young men in the camp and brought them in
three vehicles to the Rwandan military camp in Kinigi. The young men were each
given fuel canisters to carry and were escorted on foot toward the M23 military
position in Runyoni, Congo, accompanied by Rwandan army soldiers.
Rwandan military authorities also
mobilized local authorities to help with the recruitment. In Rwerere, Rwanda,
near the Kasizi village border crossing with Congo, Rwandan military authorities
called local leaders to a meeting on June 27 and told them that each leader with
responsibility for 10 houses (known as the nyumbakumi) should find five recruits to
send to Congo to support the M23. Two people who were at the meeting and were
later interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were instructed to “give
priority to young demobilized soldiers” and to tell the youth that they should
go to Congo “to secure Rwanda because the Congolese government was supporting
the FDLR.”
According to the
same local leaders, on July 4 over 300 new recruits mobilized by the local
authorities were taken to Kabumba, close to the border with Congo. They were
then escorted by Rwandan army soldiers across the Congolese border to Runyoni to
join the M23.
Another
nyumbakumi from the area in
Rwanda bordering Congo near Kasizi told Human Rights Watch that in a meeting on
August 24, Rwandan civilian and military authorities again called on local
leaders to recruit youth to join the M23. They told them that “all of the Kivus
should come back to Rwanda because it is ours” and that they should collect
money from their populations to pay the youth and encourage them to join.
An M23 combatant who spoke
to Human Rights Watch was candid about the recruitment in Rwanda. “We have a
small number of soldiers, and Rwanda has many,” he said. “We recruit everywhere
in Rwanda. We look especially for those with families in Congo, former CNDP
fighters, or demobilized soldiers. The street children are also very susceptible
to recruitment.”
Rwandan
military and civilian officials who recruit children under the age of 15 for the
M23 are responsible for war crimes. Recruitment of children under the age of 18
for military service is also prohibited under Rwandan law.
Summary Executions and Mistreatment of
Recruits
The M23 has treated its new recruits harshly. Beatings
and cruel or degrading treatment were regular occurrences. Human Rights Watch
research found that at least 33 M23 rebels and recruits who attempted to escape
and were captured were summarily executed.
A Rwandan man, 18, who escaped
after being forcibly recruited in Rwanda told Human Rights Watch that he
witnessed the execution of a 16-year-old boy from his M23 unit who had tried to
flee in June. The boy was captured and beaten to death by M23 fighters in front
of other recruits. An M23 commander who ordered his killing then allegedly told
the other recruits, “He wanted to abandon us,” as an explanation for why the boy
had been killed.
A
Congolese Hutu man, 28, who was forcibly recruited in Karuba, Masisi, in early
May, told Human Rights Watch that because he resisted becoming a fighter, the
M23 detained him in a makeshift prison in a hole in the ground at the M23
military camp in Runyoni, along with 25 other Hutu recruits who were being
punished for disobedience. A Rwandan recruit told Human Rights Watch: “We were
mistreated at the [Runyoni] camp. …They often beat people so badly that they
couldnt recover and got sick. …I wanted to flee.”
Within days of being recruited,
many young men and boys were sent into battle. With little or no military
training or experience, the new recruits are frequently among the first killed.
A 17-year-old Rwandan boy who was recruited in June in Ruhengeri, Rwanda, told
Human Rights Watch, “There are lots of children with [General] Ntaganda now, and
they send us to the front lines so were the first to die. Its as if they take
us to kill us.”
One man
from Rugari, Congo, told Human Rights Watch that his 15-year-old nephew was
forcibly recruited in mid-July by the M23 while walking to his fields. Days
later, the boy was killed in a battle on a hill near Rugari. After the battle,
the M23 rebels forced a group of civilians, including the boys uncle, to bury
the dead. “I saw my [nephew] there, dead, with a bullet in his chest,” the uncle
said. The uncle participated in the burial of at least 60 bodies that day. Many
appeared to be children.
Intimidation and Threats Against Human Rights
Activists, Journalists, Local Leaders
Local leaders, customary
chiefs, journalists, human rights activists and others who spoke out against the
M23s abuses or are known to have denounced the rebel commanders previous
abuses have been targeted. Many received death threats and have fled to
government-controlled areas.
The M23 took over community radio stations
in Rutshuru territory shortly after they took control of villages and towns in
July, threatening radio operators and journalists and forcing them to hand over
equipment. One radio operator interviewed by Human Rights Watch said he was
threatened by a senior M23 official, who told him that if he refused to let the
M23 use his radio, they would kill him.
In late July, the M23 established
local security committees in Kiwanja, Rutshuru, and Rubare. M23 leaders assert
the committees are to serve as liaisons with local communities about security
matters. However, a member of one of the committees told a civil society
activist from the area that the main aims of the committees include recruiting
youth to join the M23 and reporting to the M23 hierarchy those who oppose the
movement.
Local customary
chiefs who have not shown their loyalty to the M23 have also been targeted and
some have fled to government-controlled areas.
The Rumangabo locality chief,
Manishimwe Rwahinage, was detained by the M23 on July 17. M23 leaders told Human
Rights Watch he had been taken into custody for collaborating with the FDLR and
they were “trying to change him.” He was released on August 11, after civilians
from his locality paid US$150. On September 5, Rwahinage was shot and killed in
Rumangabo, not far from an M23 military post. M23 leaders said that the FDLR may
have been responsible, while those close to Rwahinage believe he was killed by
M23 fighters. Further investigation is required to determine responsibility for
his death.
Human rights
activists in Goma said they received threatening phone calls and text messages
from people suspected of being M23 members. On July 26, one activist received
the following message: “We are now at the gates of Goma. Speak one more time
[and] we will cut your mouth. Spread this message to your other colleagues, sons
of dogs. We will end your life.”
Forced Labor, Looting, and Extortion by the
M23
M23 combatants have forced civilians to work for them, in some
cases under threat of death.
On July 26, M23 fighters forced a primary
school teacher, 32, from Gisiza locality to transport boxes of ammunition from
Kabaya to the Rumangabo military camp. When the teacher tried to return home, he
was shot in the back and injured by M23 fighters.
A local chief from the village of
Kigarama, near Rugari, who had fled to Kanyaruchinya, told Human Rights Watch
that on August 3 he went back to his farm to look for food. The next day M23
forces arrived and forced him to bring his pig to their camp, where it was
slaughtered to feed fighters. For the next six days, the chief was forced to dig
trenches, milk cows, and collect beans. He was also forced to find young women
to bring to the M23 camp; he brought three, ages 15, 20, and 25. Their fate is
not known.
Numerous other
civilians told Human Rights Watch that they were forced to hand over their
harvests, money, and other goods to M23 fighters. A man from Rugari told Human
Rights Watch that M23 commanders held a meeting in mid-July at which every
family was ordered to provide the M23 five kilograms of beans within a week. The
M23 also carried out door-to-door looting raids, attacking those who resisted.
On August 24, M23 fighters went to the homes of five traders in Rugari, attacked
them with machetes and knives, and forced them to hand over money.
As of
early September, the M23 controlled three main supply routes through Rutshuru to
Rwindi, Bunagana, and Goma, and was imposing heavy “taxes” on all vehicles
passing through their territory.
Pressure on Former CNDP Members by Rwandan
Military Officials
Senior Rwandan military officials have sought
to influence former CNDP members and their families, in both Congo and Rwanda,
to support or join the M23. Several former CNDP military officers and political
leaders told Human Rights Watch that they were under intense pressure from
Rwandan officials to join the M23. The tactics included death threats and
intimidation.
Senator
Edouard Mwangachuchu, the president
of the CNDP political party, who had publicly denounced the M23 mutiny, told
Human Rights Watch that in early May, he received a phone call from the Rwandan
defense minister, Gen. James Kabarebe, instructing him to support the M23 and
demanding that the CNDP political party withdraw from its political alliance
with the Congolese ruling coalition of President Joseph Kabila. The senator said
that when he refused, Kaberebe told him to “shut up,” and said “a lightning bolt
will strike you.” A few days later, other CNDP political party members declared
they had ousted Mwangachuchu as party president and pulled the CNDP out of
Kabilas political coalition.
The Rwandan government, in its
official response to the UN Group of Experts, said that the phone calls between
Rwandan officials and Congolese individuals had “deliberately been taken out of
context” and that those made by Kabarebe were “aimed at avoiding a return to
violence and [to] promote political dialogue.”
Congolese Tutsi
civilians, including businessmen and civilian leaders, also said they were under
intense pressure to support the M23. Some have done so voluntarily, but others
have refused and faced threats or intimidation. “Its as if they [the Rwandans]
have a knife to our throats,” one Congolese Tutsi businessman said.
Abuses by Other Armed Groups in Eastern
Congo
Since the start of the M23 rebellion, the FDLR and other
Congolese armed groups, including the Raia Mutomboki militia, have also
increased their military activities, expanding their areas of control and
killing hundreds of civilians in other parts of North Kivu and South Kivu,
according to the UN and local human rights activists. These militias appear to
have taken advantage of rising ethnic tensions and the security vacuum created
by the Congolese armys focus on the M23 rebels.
Some of the militias, such as the
Mai Mai Sheka – whose leader, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, is sought on a Congolese
arrest warrant for crimes against humanity for mass rape – have also received
support from Rwandan military officials or M23 leaders to conduct military
operations against the Congolese army or the FDLR, according to UN officials and
the UN Group of Experts.
Some of the most intense fighting
has been between the Congolese armed group Raia Mutomboki (meaning “outraged
citizens” in Swahili) and the FDLR. Residents and local human rights activists
in Masisi, Walikale, Kalehe, and Shabunda territories of North and South Kivu
provinces say that hundreds of civilians have been attacked during the fighting
this year as each side accused the local population of supporting its enemies.
On August 29, Pillay,
the UN high commissioner for human rights, condemned the killings and massacres
perpetrated by both groups. “The sheer viciousness of these murders is beyond
comprehension,” she said in a statement. “In some cases, the attacks against
civilians may constitute crimes against humanity.”
The M23 has sought to
ally with some of the armed groups active in eastern Congo, providing them with
either periodic or sustained support, including weapons and ammunition, and on
occasion organizing coordinated attacks.
For example, in early
September, Mai Mai Sheka combatants attacked and took control of Pinga, a town
bordering Masisi and Walikale territories, with the support of the M23,
according to UN officials.
M23 leaders and Rwandan officials
who provided weapons, ammunition, and other support to Congolese armed groups,
either directly or indirectly, may be complicit in violations of the laws of war
committed by these groups.
Abuses by
Congolese Armed Forces
During operations against the M23 rebels,
Congolese armed forces have also committed abuses against civilians in Rutshuru
territory and Goma, including arbitrary arrests of ethnic Tutsi assumed to be
M23 supporters, in addition to the mistreatment of detainees, at least one of
whom was killed.
Some of
those detained by Congolese soldiers had no apparent connections to the M23, but
may have been targeted because they were Rwandan or were from the Tutsi ethnic
group.
Between late May
and early July, for example, Congolese soldiers detained five Rwandan children,
ages 12 to 17, in separate incidents in Kibumba and Goma, at the border with
Rwanda. The children were taken to the military prison at the headquarters of
the 802nd Regiment at Camp Katindo, in Goma. The guards told the
other prisoners, mostly army soldiers, to beat the children. One boy, 17, told
Human Rights Watch that the other prisoners said, “Since you are Rwandan, were
going to beat you to death.” At night, the children were beaten and hung from
the ceiling for hours “like monkeys.” They were deprived of food and were not
told of any charges or questioned by magistrates.
By mid-July, one of the children,
Daniel Masengesho, about 16, became very ill. “We told the prison guard that he
was very sick and would die here,” one of the boys told Human Rights Watch. “The
guard responded, ‘Shut up. He is a Rwandan. Let him die slowly.” The boys
repeatedly asked the guards to take him to the hospital, but they refused. On
July 23, Masengesho died. The next day, the army took the four other boys by
motorcycle to the Rwandan border. Congolese immigration authorities questioned
them after seeing their weak state, gave them food, and brought them to the
hospital in Goma for medical treatment.
Congolese authorities responded
promptly, and within days arrested Maj. Tharcisse Banuesize Chiragaga, the
Congolese army officer responsible for detaining the five children. On August
17, a military court convicted him and sentenced him to five years in prison for
arbitrary arrest, torture, falsification of documents, and illegal detention
leading to the death of one detainee.
Although Congolese officials tried
to return the boys to Rwanda, Rwandan government officials have refused to
accept them, saying they are unable to confirm that they were Rwandan citizens.
This has also occurred with Rwandan defectors from the M23, who continue to be
held in Congolese military prisons or in the custody of UN peacekeepers.
As the Congolese army
soldiers retreated north from their positions in Kiwanja, Rutshuru territory, on
July 25, following an M23 offensive, the soldiers took a number of detainees
with them. Human Rights Watch received several reports that four people in their
custody may have been killed by soldiers near the Congolese military position at
“Pont Mabenga.” Congolese judicial officials should urgently investigate this
incident, Human Rights Watch said.
Congolese soldiers were also
responsible for widespread looting. In Rutshuru and Kiwanja on July 8 and 25,
Congolese army soldiers looted homes and forced dozens of civilians to transport
their belongings as they retreated in the face of M23 rebel offensives.
Ida
Sawyer
DR Congo Researcher and
Advocate
Human Rights
Watch
+243 (0)99 86 75 565 | +243 (0)81 33 78
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