05 10 13 HRW – UN Security Council: Address Rights Abuses in DR Congo [HRW]

“Civilians in
eastern Congo have suffered atrocities without end, but very few of those
responsible are ever brought to justice,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human
Rights Watch. “Security Council members should use their visit to press
governments in the region to end all support for abusive armed groups and to
arrest war crimes suspects.”

The Security Council should adopt a
resolution requiring Rwanda to end all support to the M23, an abusive armed
group responsible for numerous atrocities in eastern Congo, and imposing
sanctions on senior Rwandan officials behind the support, Human Rights Watch
said.

A woman from Rutshuru told Human Rights Watch researchers
this week that she was raped by an M23 rebel fighter who said to her, “We also
had wives, but they stayed in Rwanda. So that’s why we rape you.” After the
woman was raped, the fighter shot her in both thighs.

The
Congolese government and the M23 have held faltering peace talks in Kampala,
Uganda, since December 2012. Past agreements between the Congolese government
and other armed groups have allowed rebel commanders responsible for grave
abuses to be rewarded and integrated into the Congolese army. Many of these
commanders then carried out further atrocities against civilians while officers
in the Congolese army and later created new rebellions, Human Rights Watch said.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, should make every
effort to protect civilians from the most urgent threats the M23 and other armed
groups pose for civilians, Human Rights Watch said. It should give particular
attention to Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka’s militia group, whose fighters have killed,
raped, and mutilated dozens of civilians since May 2013. On September 27, they
attacked a series of villages in Masisi territory, killing several children,
raping women, and burning homes.

Congolese army soldiers have also
been responsible for serious abuses, including raping at least 76 women and
girls in and around Minova, South Kivu province, in November 2012. Security
Council members should press the Congolese government to investigate, arrest,
and appropriately prosecute security force officials found responsible for war
crimes and other serious human rights abuses.

For more detail,
please see attached letter to UN Security Council members.

For more
Human Rights Watch reporting on the Democratic Republic of Congo, please
visit:
http://www.hrw.org/drc

For more
Human Rights Watch reporting on Rwanda, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/africa/rwanda

For more information, please contact:
In Goma, Ida Sawyer
(English, French): +243-81-33-78-478 (mobile); or +243-99-86-75-565 (mobile); or
sawyeri@hrw.org Follow on Twitter
@ida_sawyer
In
New York, Philippe Bolopion (French, English): +1-212-216-1276; or
+1-917-734-3201 (mobile); or bolopion@hrw.org
In New York,
Daniel Bekele (English, Amharic): +1-212-216-1223; or +1-917-385-3878 (mobile);
or bekeled@hrw.org. Follow on Twitter
@DanielBekele