UN releases controversial report on conflict in DR Congo (2nd Roundup)

Oct 2, 2010, 0:19 GMT

Nairobi/Geneva - A controversial report on a decade of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo released Friday by the United Nations has angered Rwanda and Uganda by accusing the nations, and others, of committing atrocities against civilians.

Both Rwanda and Uganda reacted furiously to a version of the report leaked by the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), threatening to pull out of international peacekeeping missions in response.

The 550-page report details the involvement of at least 21 armed Congolese groups in more than 600 human rights violations - comprising the rape, murder and mutilation of tens of thousands - as well as operations by the military forces of eight other states.

Produced with the aid of testimony from more than 1,200 witnesses and victims, the report covers conflicts in DR Congo, formerly known as Zaire, between 1993 and 2003. It encompasses the 1998-2003 war, which sucked in other countries and led to the deaths of more than 5 million people, according to the UN.

The period it covered 'is probably one of the most tragic chapters in the recent history of the DRC,' the report said. 'This decade was marked by a string of major political crises, wars and multiple ethnic and regional conflicts that brought about the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people.'

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the report was the first step in helping Congolese society come to terms with its past.

'While it neither aims to establish individual responsibility, nor lay blame, the report - in full candour - reproduces the often shocking accounts by victims and witnesses of the tragedies they experienced,' she said.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the United States 'strongly supports accountability for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law around the world, including in the DRC.'

'It is crucially important that we remain focused on the tens of thousands of victims in the DRC. Accountability is an important step toward ensuring that further such incidents do not occur,' he said in a statement.

The main controversy surrounds the accusations against Rwanda in the report.

Rwanda's armed forces are accused of butchering thousands of Hutus who fled to DR Congo after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which militant Hutus slaughtered an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The report says the 'apparent systematic and widespread attacks' against civilians could be classed as genocide.

The accusations incensed Rwanda, which only backed off from its threat to pull out of peacekeeping missions after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Kigali and the report's release was delayed by a month to allow concerned nations to comment on its contents.

In comments published alongside the report, Rwanda said it complied with international law governing the use of force during its campaign to disarm Hutu rebels in DR Congo, and accused the authors of using flawed methodology and failing to take the context of the genocide into account.

'It is despicable that civilians were used as a weapon of war, and that innocent Rwandan lives were lost as collateral damage in a military campaign to disarm combatants,' Rwanda's response said.

'However, to characterize this use of force now as war crimes, crimes against humanity, or even genocide ignores all of the realities surrounding the combat in Zaire.'

The report accuses the Ugandan Army of committing war crimes while backing Congolese rebels who overthrew dictator Mobuto Sese Seko in 1997. It says Uganda was complicit in the massacres and torture of civilians and the destruction of property.

In its response, Uganda called the report a 'compendium of rumours' culled from groups and individuals with suspect motives.

'Such sinister tactics undermine Uganda's resolve to continue contributing to, and participating in, various regional and international peacekeeping operations,' Uganda said.

Uganda is a major contributor to the African Union peacekeeping mission in war-torn Somalia, while Rwanda provides thousands of troops to the joint AU-UN mission in Sudan's restive Darfur province.

Angola and Burundi, which were both involved in DR Congo's conflicts and are accused of human rights violations, also rejected the report.

Pillay said she hoped the report would stimulate debate and concrete changes in DR Congo.

'Because - as the recent horrific mass rapes in August, of hundreds of women and girls, and some men and boys, has so starkly illustrated - significant and lasting change is desperately needed in the DRC,' she said.