Sat Oct 2, 2010
Rwandan and other forces could have committed genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo between March 1993 and June 2003, a UN report says.
“The apparently systematic and widespread nature of the attacks, which targeted very large numbers of Rwandan Hutu refugees and members of the Hutu civilian population, resulting in their death, reveal a number of damning elements that, if they were proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide,” the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a report issued on Friday, the Financial Times reported.
The report details some 617 violent incidents committed by various armies and militias, including military or armed groups from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and Angola, between 1993 and 2003.
The report suggests that in 1996 the Rwandan army hunted down the Hutu militiamen responsible for the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which mostly targeted Tutsis.
Members of the Hutu tribe, including women and children, were attacked and killed by the Rwandan army during the brutal campaign in Congo.
“This detailed and thorough report is a powerful reminder of the scale of the crimes committed in Congo and of the shocking absence of justice,” said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch.
“These events can no longer be swept under the carpet. If followed by strong regional and international action, this report could make a major contribution to ending the impunity that lies behind the cycle of atrocities in the Great Lakes region of Africa,” he added.
Rwanda condemned the “manipulation of UN processes by organizations and individuals for purposes of rewriting history.”
Uganda described the report as “a compendium of rumors deeply flawed in methodology, sourcing, and standard of proof.”
The Hutu extremist group includes former Interahamwe fighters who committed the 1994 Rwandan genocide before fleeing into the lawless wilds of the eastern Congo, where they have been at the root of 15 years of unrest.
The prison gates are open... 