Rights group urges UN to condemn Congolese army war crimes

Nairobi/New York - The United Nations Security Council should condemn war crimes committed by UN-backed Congolese soldiers as a delegation visits the Central African nation Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said. 'The Congolese army is responsible for widespread and vicious abuses against its own people that amount to war crimes,' said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher in the Africa division at the rights group. 'During their visit to [the Democratic Republic of] Congo, Security Council members should tell President Joseph Kabila that UN peacekeepers cannot support military operations in which war crimes are being committed,' she added. Rwandan and Congolese troops joined forces in January to target the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an armed group created by Hutu militia members who took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The subsequent fighting saw around 250,000 people displaced in eastern DR Congo, as many as during heavy fighting between government troops and Tutsi rebels late last year. Hundreds of civilians were killed in reprisal attacks by the Hutu forces. While Rwanda has now left, the United Nations peacekeeping force is backing the ongoing Congolese army offensive against the Hutu militia. However, according to Human Rights Watch, Congolese government troops have repeatedly abused civilians, sometimes even in the presence of UN peacekeepers, during the operations. The rights group said government troops have attacked villages, looted homes and killed at least 19 civilians in North Kivu province, including women and the elderly, since the offensive began. In addition, 143 women and girls have been raped, more than half of all documented cases, by government soldiers in the same period, Human Rights Watch said. 'They came at night when I was asleep,' one 40-year-old woman told the rights group. 'Four soldiers then started to rape me, one after the other, while three other soldiers looted all the goods in our house.' 'I was four months pregnant, but lots of blood started to flow while they were raping me, and I've now lost the baby,' she added. According to Human Rights Watch, UN peacekeepers have tried in vain to minimize the abuses, at one point even firing over the heads of army soldiers. The rights group also demanded that the Security Council force the removal from military duty of Bosco Ntaganda, a former Tutsi rebel indicted by the International Criminal Court who is now working with the Congolese army. UN peacekeepers earlier vowed they would not work with Ntaganda, but allegations have surfaced recently that he has been advising on operations that the UN team is involved in. The peacekeeping mission denied those claims. The UN mission in DR Congo 'and the Security Council cannot turn a blind eye when known human rights abusers are in senior positions in military operations they support,' Van Woudenberg said. 'If the council fails to act, it too will be complicit in putting civilians at risk.' A 15-member delegation from the Security Council is on a four-nation tour of Africa to discuss UN activities. It is visiting Ethiopia, DR Congo, Rwanda and Liberia.