•  Home
•  Who We Are
•  What We Do
•  Media Centre
•  Publications
•  Humphrey Award
•  Reference
•  Links
•  Contact Us

Acts of Genocide in Congo-Kinshasa: investigation urgently needed

We urge the United Nations Security Council to extend the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to allow it to investigate acts of genocide and war crimes committed in Congo-Kinshasa.

Montr?al, July 16, 1998 The International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development is urging the United Nations Security Council to extend the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to allow it to investigate acts of genocide and war crimes committed in Congo-Kinshasa.

Earlier this week the Security Council condemned the massacres and other crimes against humanity committed in the former Za?re in 1996-97 but stopped short of authorizing an independent investigation and prosecution of those responsible.

"We are extremely disappointed with the attitude of the Security Council which is throwing the ball back in the court of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and asking them to investigate these crimes. We know they have already rejected these suggestions and refused to cooperate with the special UN investigators," Warren Allmand, president of ICHRDD, said today in a statement.

The Centre, along with the African Association for Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ASADHO) have issued a report on massive human rights violations in the former Za?re. The report, released last month, concluded that there had been acts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war of liberation and that those responsible must be punished to put an end to the climate of impunity in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Close to 200,000 refugees in Zaire, most of whom were ethnic Hutus, and thousands of Zairians were killed during the 1996-97 war as a result of a deliberate strategy of gradual extermination of a portion of the Rwandan population, the joint ICHRDD and ASADHO report said. In their report submitted to the Security Council, special UN investigators said the massacres and the denial of humanitarian assistance to displaced Rwandan Hutus were "systematic practices involving murder and extermination, which constitute crimes against humanity."

"The international community cannot close its eyes. This would be an insult to the memory of the millions of victims of these terrible crimes," Mr. Allmand said.

The president of the Centre added that the impunity crisis in Congo-Kinshasa underscores the need to set up a strong, independent and effective International Criminal Court so that those who have committed these crimes are brought to justice and punished. "The UN Security Council's response has just shown that we cannot rely on it to see that justice is done," he said.