GENOCIDE WATCH

THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END GENOCIDE

GENOCIDE EMERGENCY: ITURI, EASTERN CONGO

Genocidal massacres have cost thousands of lives in Ituri, Eastern Congo in the past three years. Genocide Watch, Coordinator of the International Campaign to End Genocide, a coalition of twenty human rights and religious organizations in nine countries, declared a Genocide Alert for Ituri province in February, 2000. Since then, the genocidal massacres have only gotten worse. With the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the province under the Congolese peace accords, a power vacuum has been created. Ethnic militias organized by extremists from both the Hema and Lendu groups have committed genocidal massacres during the past month that have taken at least a thousand lives.

The United Nations Observer Mission in the Congo (MONUC) lacks a mandate and the personnel and resources to intervene to stop the killings. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for a “coalition of the willing” to send heavily armed infantry to the province to intervene, to be authorized by U.N. Security Council Chapter VII mandate. France has agreed to lead the intervention and the European Union and African Union are also considering whether to send troops. The operation will require both financial and military resources.

All the warning signs for genocide that were present in Rwanda in 1994 are present in Ituri. In fact the Hema and Lendu are groups that have similar antipathies that the Tutsi and Hutu had in Rwanda. Genocide Watch sees all eight stages of the genocidal process now underway in Ituri. The population is classified into rival groups. Their identities are symbolized through local knowledge of who belongs to which group. Each group dehumanizes the other and expresses that in the hate speech they use and the destruction of the bodies of those slain. Both are organized into armed militias. The militias have polarized the society, driving other groups to ally with one side or the other. Genocidal massacres have prepared the way for larger killings, because they have been carried out with complete impunity. Extermination of part of the other group is already under way. Those supporting the militias, including Uganda and Rwanda, deny their involvement.

The Genocide Convention defines genocide as “the intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” The killings in Ituri are genocidal because the victims are targeted solely because of their ethnic identity.

Genocide Watch calls upon France, members of the European Union and the African Union, and the United States, as well as other members of the world community to contribute troops, airlift, communications and logistical support, and financing for an immediate intervention to establish peace in Ituri province, under a Chapter VII United Nations Security Council mandate.

Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Campaign to End Genocide

P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 703-448-0222 Fax:703-448-6665

E-mail:info@genocidewatch.org Web: www.genocidewatch.org