DRC: Amnesty International can do better on who is responsible for rights violations

Author: Gad Ntambara

• 2023-02-22 05:22:00

On February 17, 2023, Amnesty International released a report titled “DR Congo: Rwandan-backed M23 rebels perpetrating summary killings and rapes.” The report alleges that members of the M23 rebel group killed at least 20 men and raped at least 66 women and girls in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), mainly in Kishishe, a small town located about 100km north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Amnesty International said that this constitutes war crimes and could constitute crimes against humanity.

By simply reading the title of the report, one does not fail to see that Amnesty International wants Rwanda to be seen as sharing the same responsibility of the alleged human rights abuses with the M23, and therefore, the international community should take action against Rwanda as well as the M23.

Despite the fact that Rwanda has repeatedly denied supporting M23, the accusations still remain in the air although no tangible evidence is given to show the kind of alleged support that Rwanda offers.

Although Amnesty International claims that 20 men were killed in Kishishe by the rebels, independent investigators who visited the area and talked to the local people confirmed that only eight civilians were killed in crossfire, while 11 were combatants for the DRC government coalition.

“Kishishe residents unambiguously counted 19 people dead in their village. After the end of the fighting, the population convened to identify people who had been killed. All 19 bodies were counted and identified one by one by Kishishe residents before their burial. Eight of them were recognized as residents of Kishishe in a list they compiled and that was signed by the local leaders,” the report of independent investigators who visited the grave site revealed.

Civilian deaths during a war are inevitable. In Afghanistan, for example, about 243,000 people died of which 70,000 were civilians and they were not attributed to the Taliban.

Ironically, MONUSCO and the DRC government gave different figures of the dead, and the numbers kept changing with time. For example, on December 1, 2022, a Congolese army spokesperson said that 50 people had been killed in Kishishe. The Cabinet meeting of December 2, 2022 announced 109 people dead, while on December 5, Minister Julien Paluku said 272 people were killed.

On December 8, MONUSCO announced that 131 people were killed. It is not the first time DRC authorities have inflated the figures of the dead which are then picked by international media and organizations.

In 2020, in the so called “Kipupu Massacres” in South Kivu, Congolese provincial members of parliament announced that 220 people had been killed. The figures were taken up by DRC government officials then broadcast by international media. The number of victims was finally brought down to only 15 after a joint MONUSCO–DRC government mission visited the site on July 29, 2020.

Amnesty International also alleged that M23 fighters raped 66 women and girls.

“The scale and brutality of these mass rapes is particularly shocking. M23’s actions in the Kishishe area constitute war crimes and, to the extent that these rapes and murders are being committed by M23,” it alleged.

However, this claim is also refuted by independent investigators as false.

“No rape, sexual violence or abduction took place in either Kishishe or Bambo. No one was subjected to torture. No person is held hostage in either Bambo or Kishishe,” the report by investigators who visited the scene and talked to local residents said.

One intriguing question though is: why would Amnesty International publish such false and unsubstantiated report?

A European diplomat, who prefered anonymity, told TGLE that: “Amnesty International is an organization used as a political tool by the West to crack down on those perceived to be against the Western interests and values.”

Contrary to Amnesty International allegations against M23, various reports have cited Congolese government forces in collaboration with terror armed groups like FDLR, Mai Mai-Mai Nyatura, CODECO and others as being the ones involved in human rights abuses against civilian including rape, killing and torture especially of Rwandophone Congolese.

For a fact, the Kishishe massacres’ allegations surfaced a day after the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, issued a statement, on November 30, 2022, raising the alarm over what was really going on in the region.

She reported that “indicators and triggers contained in the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes were present in DRC including; dissemination of hate speech, widespread and systematic attacks, including sexual violence against especially the Banyamulenge community on the basis of their ethnicity and perceived allegiance with neighboring countries.”

These crimes are sponsored by the DRC government up to today. But Amnesty International prefers to find a cover-up by pointing fingers elsewhere.  

What is evident is that Amnesty International simply relied on selected informers rather than sending investigators on the ground.

But even if they did, what is clear is that Amnesty International does not rely on established facts, but has an agenda of tarnishing the image of both Rwanda and the M23 rebels in the eyes of the international community.