watch UN draft report calls DR Congo crimes genocide

UN draft report calls DR Congo crimes genocide


Thousands of Rwandan Hutus fled to then-Zaire, now DR Congo, after the Rwanda genocide
The BBC has seen a draft UN report that says crimes by the Rwandan army and allied rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo could be classified as genocide.

The report details how they targeted Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutus in DR Congo, from 1993-2003.

It lists human rights violations committed by security forces from all countries involved in what has been called an "African world war".

The final report should be made public in the next few days.

The draft sheds light on 10 years of atrocities committed against civilians on the Congolese territory. The country was known as Zaire until 1997.

But more importantly, it brings details to the unresolved debate over the question of alleged genocide of ethnic Hutus between 1996 and 1998.

'Rwandan pressure'
About 20 human right officers have documented, through hundreds of pages, what they call widespread and systematic attacks by the Rwandan army and the Congolese AFDL rebel movement.

Those targeted were Rwandan Hutus who had fled into Congo after the genocide against ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda.

But the report says that attacks against Hutus who were not refugees seem to confirm that all Hutus were targeted.

In some regions, it says, checkpoints were used to identify people of Hutu origin and eliminate them - estimating that tens of thousands had been killed.

According to the report, such acts suggest a premeditated and precise methodology. Moreover, many of the victims were children, women, elderly people and the sick.

The UN investigators have also gathered information on alleged crimes committed by the security forces of many of the countries and armed groups involved in what had become a regional war.

However, Congo expert Jason Stearns says this report will greatly tarnish the reputation of the current Rwandan government that prides itself on having brought to an end the genocide against Tutsis in 1994.

Sources close to the investigation say that the Rwandan authorities have put pressure on the UN to tone down the report.

But the UN High Commission for Human Rights has refused to comment until the final report is published.

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prevented the rape UN 'was not told about DR Congo mass rapes'

UN 'was not told about DR Congo mass rapes'

UN troops could not have prevented the rape of more than 150 women and boys by rebels in DR Congo because they did not know it was happening, a UN envoy said.

Peacekeepers passed through the area twice but were told only that rebels were setting up road blocks, he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "outraged" by the attacks and has sent two envoys to investigate.

The UN has called an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss a response to the violence.

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The rapes happened in Luvungi town and surrounding villages, within miles of a UN peacekeeping base, a US aid worker and a Congolese doctor have said.

Some reports say rebels occupied the area and gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days before leaving.

A UN joint human rights team confirmed allegations of the rape of at least 154 women by fighters from the Rwandan FDLR militia and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels in the village of Bunangiri.

But Roger Meece, a UN official in eastern DR Congo, said that while local people had told the UN patrols about roadblocks, they said nothing about the sexual violence. The UN was only told about it 10 days later by an aid group.

Speaking to journalists by video from Goma, Mr Meece said the villagers may have feared reprisals from the rebels or have been ashamed by the cultural stigma of rape.

But the BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN says there was clearly a serious failure in communications, made all the more significant as the peacekeepers work from a small forward operation base established to increase the UN's contact with civilians in the volatile region.

Mr Meece said the UN was now investigating ways of improving communication with local people.

One idea is for villagers to contact the base daily, "with the default being that if the communication is not made, there would be an assumption of a problem and a patrol despatched," he said.

'Must speak out'
DR Congo has a shocking reputation for sexual violence and rape is commonly used as a weapon of war.

Haunted by Congo rape dilemma
But even by normal standards, the latest attacks were particularly vicious, says our correspondent.

Mr Ban said he had met victims of "appalling crimes of sexual violence" in DR Congo last year and felt compelled to ask whether more could have been done to protect the latest victims.

"Women and children should not have to live in fear of rape. Communities should not suffer the indignity of knowing that human rights abusers and war criminals can continue to behave with impunity," he said.

"We must speak up and we must act."

The UN has previously described Congo as "the rape capital of the world", with more than 8,000 women raped during fighting in 2009.

A report released in April by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu province had been gang-raped by armed men.

More than than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes, the report said, and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians.

Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country's five-year war in 2003.

UN peacekeeping troops have been backing efforts to defeat the FDLR, whose leaders are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and who are operating in eastern DR Congo.

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Flotilla UN probe starts in Turkey

We are saw this Flotilla UN probe starts in Turkey


In parallel to the UN probe, Israel is holding its own inquiry into its naval raid on a Gaza flotilla
A UN human rights inquiry into Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla has begun with a two-week visit to Turkey and Jordan to interview witnesses and government officials.

"Technical and legal experts are accompanying the mission which intends to inspect the ship Mavi Marmara in which nine passengers died on 31 May 2010," the UN said in a statement on Monday.

The three members of the fact-finding mission flew to Turkey and will stay there until August 29, before heading to Jordan until September 4, the UN added.

The mission is due to report back to the 47-member the United Nations Human Rights Council at its next session from September 13 to October 11.

The council set up this mission to investigate the possibility that Israel violated international law when it attacked the flotilla of ships in the off the Gaza strip coast, killing nine people and injuring 30.

The council's decision to investigate the incident followed a resolution tabled by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, despite the announcement by Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general, that he was setting up an international probe.

'Biased' probe

Israeli officials have rejected the council's mission as biased and instead agreed to back the secretary-general's investigation.

Israel is also holding its own investigations. The Israeli defence force chief told one inquiry that the commandos, who dropped onto the boat from helicopters, were not ready for the violent resistance they met.

The UN experts interviewed unspecified witnesses in London and Geneva last week, and have met Turkish and Israeli ambassadors in Geneva.

The fact-finding mission is chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Desmond de Silva, the former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal, and Shanthi Dairiam, a Malaysian human rights expert, are the other members.

The boat attacked in May was part of a flotilla whose organizers, the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights, said it was taking aid supplies Gaza, which is under blockade by both Israel and Egypt.

Israel had warned it would not let the flotilla through, arguing that it could be carrying materiel likely to help Hamas armed group whom it accuses of threatening Israeli security.

The incident prompted widespread international reactions and sparked a serious deterioration of already strained links between Israel and Turkey after many years of a close relationship which included military cooperation.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/201082319435889165.html