Genocide Watch

UN Congo report offers new view on genocide
by Howard W. French, The New York Times
27 August 2010

A forthcoming United Nations report on 10 years of extraordinary violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo bluntly challenges the conventional history of events there after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, charging that invading troops from Rwanda and their rebel allies killed tens of thousands of members of the Hutu ethnic group, including many civilians.

Rwandan refugees passed a body in a refugee camp in Congo in 1997. United Nations-administered camps housed roughly one million Hutu who had fled the genocide in Rwanda.

The 545-page report on 600 of the country’s most serious reported atrocities raises the question of whether Rwanda could be found guilty of genocide against Hutu during the war in neighboring Congo, but says international courts would need to rule on individual cases. (Read more)

U.N. report accuses Rwanda of massacre in Congo
by Josh Kron, For CNN
27 August 2010

Goma, Democratic Republic Of The Congo (CNN) -- The Rwandan military and an allied rebel group massacred ethnic Hutus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, says a leaked draft report commissioned by the United Nations.

The report states that it is not making a definitive conclusion on whether the slayings in Congo amounted to genocide, and that a competent judiciary would have to try the cases.

Commissioned by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the report says "tens of thousands" of Hutu civilians were slaughtered with knives, bludgeoned with hammers and burned alive as the Rwandan army and the Allied Democratic Liberation Forces swept across Congo -- then called Zaire -- leading to the toppling of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. (Read more)

UN Congo report leaked: Crime of genocide against Hutu refugees in 1996 - 1997 alleged
by Jason Stearns, congosiasa.blogspot.com
26 August 2010

Over a year after its completion, the UN mapping report has finally been leaked to the press. The report was mandated by the UN to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Congo between 1993 and 2003 in the hope that there could be accountability for the violence. To date, almost nothing has been done to bring those responsible to justice.

The report is huge, spanning 545 pages, and deals with war crimes committed by the security forces of Angola, Mobutu's Zaire, Uganda, Chad, Laurent Kabila's government, Joseph Kabila's government, Zimbabwe, the ex-FAR and Interahamwe (and later the FDLR), the Mai-Mai and the many other rebel groups. I will speak at length about the massacres carried out by these forces in later postings. Here, I will speak about the most controversial claim: the massacres carried out by the Rwandan army (RPA) together with the AFDL rebellion (led by Laurent Kabila) against the Hutu refugees in 1996-1997. (Read more)

U.N. Knew of Rebels in Area of Congo Rapes
by Josh Kron, The New York Times
25 August 2010

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo -- The United Nations knew Rwandan rebels were occupying villages in eastern Congo at the time the rebels raped nearly 200 women there, United Nations and aid officers said Wednesday, raising questions about why peacekeepers failed to move to protect villagers.

Between July 30 and Aug. 3, hundreds of soldiers from two rebel groups took over the villages, raping at least 179 women. Many of the attacks were gang rapes by two to six men. The humanitarian group that documented the rapes, International Medical Corps, said that it first notified the United Nations of the attacks on Aug. 6. The United Nations claims the group told it about the rapes on Aug. 12 for the first time. The U.N. made its first public comments on the rapes Sunday. (Read more)