Wednesday, 16 December 2009

• Army Rape Kill 1400 Civilians : Armed Fed Transported Funded by UN Peacekeepers

  The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is collaborating with known human rights abusers as it backs a brutal Congolese military operation that has led to the deliberate killing of at least 1,400 civilians and a massive surge in rapes, according a report by the group Human Rights Watch.
  
  The 183-page report, the fullest accounting so far of the operation, is a chronicle of horrors. It describes civilians being tied together before their throats are slit, gang rapes, massacres, and village burnings, much of it carried out by a Congolese army being fed, transported, and otherwise supported by the United Nations.
  
  The report calls for the UN peacekeeping mission to "immediately cease all support" to the Congolese army until the army removes commanders with known records of human rights abuses and otherwise ensures the operation complies with international humanitarian laws.
  
  "Continued killing and rape by all sides in eastern Congo shows that the UN Security Council needs a new approach to protect civilians," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.
  
  The Security Council is scheduled to meet this week to discuss the Congolese peacekeeping mission's mandate, which is the United Nations ' largest and most expensive.
  
  A mission spokesman said officials are studying the report, and declined to comment. The United States also has a small military team in Congo assisting the Congolese army.
  
  The Congolese military operations began in January, and were intended to root out abusive Rwandan rebels who have lived mostly by force among Eastern Congolese villagers for years, fueling a long-running conflict that is the deadliest since World War II.
  
  The rebels - known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR - include some leaders accused of participating in the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. The initial phase of the military operations were backed by Rwandan troops. But as the Rwandans departed in February, UN peacekeepers stepped in, supplying attack helicopters, trucks, food, and other logistical support to a Congolese army known as one of the world's most abusive militaries. At the time, the head of the UN mission, Alan Doss, said that the operations were necessary and that some civilian casualties were inevitable.
  
  But the Human Rights Watch report details a chilling pattern of deliberate civilian killings by Congolese and Rwandan soldiers and the rebels they are fighting.

  Boston Globe 12-15-09

  • 12:30 PM
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