Democratic Republic of Congo

Kabila Security Forces Facing Probe

Parliamentary commission will look into accusations that Kabila government is responsible for human rights abuses.

By Ewing Ahmed Salumu in Kinshasa (AR No. 200, 4-Feb-09)

The parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, is to investigate alleged human rights abuses by government security forces, but there are some doubts over how effective the probe will be.

Luete Katembo, who monitors defence and security issues for the Congolese National Assembly, said that parliament had established an 11-member commission in January to investigate the alleged abuses.

“If there are allegations that weren’t known [by] the Congolese parliament, the [commission] will find them,” he said, adding that the inquiry will begin in March.

Katembo’s announcement follows a November 2008 report by watchdog group Human Rights Watch, HRW, which accused security forces loyal to President Joseph Kabila of widespread rights abuses against his perceived opponents.

Congolese state security forces have killed an estimated 500 people and detained about 1,000 more, many of whom have been tortured during the past two years, said the HRW report.

The abuse began during the 2006 election in which the president assumed power, and has continued to the present, said HRW.

HRW said Kabila set the tone and direction for the government by giving orders to “crush” or “neutralize” the “enemies of democracy”, implying it was acceptable to use unlawful force against them.

Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher in the Africa Division of HRW, said that the repression of the opposition has been overlooked in DRC, where international attention remains fixed on the conflict which has been raging between militias and government forces for years in North Kivu, and which escalated last year.

“While everyone focuses on the violence in eastern Congo, government abuses against political opponents attract little attention,” she said.

“Efforts to build a democratic Congo are being stifled not just by rebellion, but also by the Kabila government's repression.”

The HRW report drew an angry response from the Kabila government.

“We do not agree with this report,” said Kudura Kasongo, spokesman for Kabila. “[It] does not respect the work we’re doing. There are too many exaggerations, too much excess….

“We have great respect for HWR’s work. Their reports help us think about things and balance them, but this one is too excessive.”

After the 2006 polls – the first democratic elections to be held in the country for decades – Kasongo said that the government tried to talk with supporters and personal guards of defeated challenger Jean-Pierre Bemba.

“We did everything to negotiate with [them],” he said, adding that they encountered resistance.

Bemba fled the DRC after the election, eventually settling in Brussels, where he was recently arrested on charges of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, ICC, in connection with acts committed by his militia in the Central African Republic, CAR.

Bemba’s defence lawyer Karim Khan agreed with the accusations in the HRW report and described what President Kabila is doing in Congo as a “tyrannous pogrom against his own people”.

Khan said that because Kabila is the “man of the West”, the international community ignores the excesses of his government. Unlike other countries, DRC has handed over suspects to face trial at the ICC.

Khan also suggested that the ICC had been manipulated by Kabila to get rid of his opponents.

“ICC is being unwittingly used by Kabila to clear the pitch so that he can continue his campaign of intimidation,” he said.

Khan was suspicious of the timing of Bemba’s arrest, which came shortly before the accused was reportedly due to return to Congo to become spokesman for the opposition to Kabila’s government.

“Bemba is the one man with enough support to be a viable opposition and to keep Kabila in check,” said Khan.

Others who say they’ve been oppressed by government agents include followers of Etienne Tshisekedi, head of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, UDPS, and a long-time opponent of the government who boycotted the 2006 election.

Alexis Mutand, a Kinshasa-based member of the UPDS, said the party has asked the Kabila government to release nine of its members who are reportedly being detained in the Kin-Maziere prison in Kinshasa. Others opposition members have been imprisoned in the capital’s Makala jail, according to sources.

Most of the accusations against the government centre on the activities of the National Intelligence Agency, ANR, as well as the Maison Civile du Chef de L’Etat, which, apparently, is the president’s secret service.

Katembo said that Kabila was opposed to the parliamentary investigation.

Katembo said he was unsure how effective the parliamentary investigation would be. He noted that Kabila was opposed to the probe and that parliament was controlled by the Alliance of the Presidential Majority – a coalition of 11 political parties, including Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy. The alliance controls 332 seats in the 500-member assembly.

Ewing Ahmed Salumu is an IWPR-trained reporter currently based in The Hague.