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Subject:

AI open letter about RECRUITING CHILDREN

Sun, 20 Sep 1998 18:35:28 퍭

"serv. informazioni Congosol" <congosol@skyol.it> To:
Recipient List Suppressed:;

Please find below an Open Letter that Amnesty International has sent to SADC and OAU leaders regarding the human rights situation in the DRC. This is a public document for general distribution.

Best wishes,

Godfrey Byaruhanga
Researcher, Central Africa

10 September 1998 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO -

President Nelson Mandela, Chair of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)
President Robert Mugabe, Chair of the SADC Organ for Politics, Defence and Security
Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the Organization for African Unity (OAU)
Mr Sam Ibok, Head of the Management Division of the OAU

On the occasion of the SADC Heads of State or Government Summit in Mauritius,
>from 9 to 13 September 1998, and the meeting of Ministers of Defence on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) taking place under the auspices of the OAU on 10 September 1998, Amnesty International calls upon the OAU and SADC to take urgent measures to prevent further human rights abuses in the DRC. Both the OAU and SADC have pledged themselves to uphold human rights and should therefore make sure that those of its member states that are involved in the conflict abide by international human rights and humanitarian law.

Since the start of the armed conflict in the DRC on 2 August 1998, forces on both sides of the conflict have blatantly violated international humanitarian standards as laid down in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I.

Military operations in western DRC, including in the capital Kinshasa, are currently reported to be carried out under Zimbabwean command; this includes foreign troops as well as the DRC national army, the Forces Armes Congolaises (FAC). Zimbabwean and Angolan troops, which are supporting President Kabila, have reportedly killed civilians during indiscriminate shelling of Kinshasa suburbs, in particular in the populous districts of Masina, Kimbanseke, Ndjili, Kingasani and Mikonga. Dozens of unarmed civilians suspected of being rebels have reportedly been deliberately and arbitrarily killed by the FAC or with their acquiescence. There are also reports of killings of dozens of unarmed civilians by the FAC in Kisangani, Kalemie as well as in other parts of the country.

The armed opposition group fighting the government of President Kabila, the Rassemblement congolais pour la dmocratie (RCD), supported by troops from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, is responsible for killing hundreds of civilians since 2 August 1998. For example, in and around Kasika, South-Kivu province, more than 280 unarmed civilians were killed on 24 August 1998 and during the following days by members of the RCD. Members of the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) reportedly participated in some of the atrocities in Kasika. The killings were apparently carried out as a "reprisal" following fighting between the Mai-Mai armed opposition group and the RCD, during which many RCD military officers were killed. More than 300 unarmed men were reportedly killed in villages around Kazimia, South-Kivu province, on 27 August 1998, by members of the RCD, after they sustained heavy casualties during fighting against DRC government troops.

Both the DRC Government and the RCD are recruiting children as young as 11 years old to take part in combat activities, who are likely to take part in killings. This is a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which the DRC has ratified, and is also contradictory to the letter and the spirit of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which the OAU adopted in July 1990, and which is yet to come into effect.

The security forces of several foreign countries involved in the conflict have committed serious human rights violations in the past and have failed to investigate them. The Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwean army was responsible for killing many thousands of civilians between 1981 and 1986 in the Matabeleland region in Zimbabwe. The Angolan, Burundian, Rwandese and Ugandan governments provided military assistance to Laurent-Dsir Kabila in 1996 and 1997 when his armed opposition group, the Alliance des forces dmocratiques pour la libration du Congo-Zaire (AFDL), committed gross human rights violations in the DRC, killing tens of thousands of unarmed civilians. The security forces of Rwanda, Burundi and Angola have also been responsible for grave human rights violations in their own countries, including killings of thousands of unarmed civilians.

Amnesty International is concerned that so far, the military operations of SADC member states have ignored the principles set out in its June 1996 protocol, in particular the "observance of human rights". Amnesty International calls upon President Mandela and President Mugabe, in their respective roles as chair of SADC and chair of the SADC Organ for Politics, Defence and Security, to make sure that SADC members states involved in the conflict abide by international humanitarian standards as laid down in the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I, in particular by protecting the lives of unarmed civilians, and investigate reports of human rights violations committed by their security forces. Amnesty International also calls upon SADC to ensure that any transfers of military, security or police equipment to the conflicting parties in the DRC which might contribute to further human rights violations, be immediately halted.

Amnesty International supports calls by Southern African non-governmental human rights organizations - which were denied access to the SADC Summit in Mauritius - to make the SADC Organ more functional, transparent and accountable, so that it can better fulfill its role to protect human rights.

The response of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution to the deteriorating human rights situation in DRC has also been inadequate. On 10 August 1998, the OAU sent a fact-finding mission to DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Uganda, but its results have not been made public and its impact seems to be negligible. Amnesty International calls upon the OAU to make the results of the fact-finding mission public, and to take a more proactive role in preventing further human rights abuses in the context of armed conflict in DRC, by publicly condemning human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict and stating that perpetrators would be brought to justice. It should also call on all parties to abide by international humanitarian law and instruct their troops accordingly. The OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution should work closely with the UN Security Council in making recommendations to prevent and stop further human rights abuses. Any negotiated settlement brokered by either SADC or the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution should contain human rights guarantees which include mechanisms for monitoring the human rights situation in the DRC, guarantees that those responsible for human rights abuses in the context of the armed conflict in DRC are brought to justice, and provisions for the establishment of effective national institutions for human rights protection.

Any negotiated settlement brokered by either SADC or the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution should contain human rights guarantees which include mechanisms for monitoring the human rights situation in the DRC, guarantees that those responsible for human rights abuses in the context of the armed conflict in DRC are brought to justice, and provisions for the establishment of effective national institutions for human rights protection.

With regard to the recruitment of children, Amnesty International requests SADC and the OAU to urge all leaders of forces fighting in the DRC to order their commanders not to recruit children under the age of 18 years and to exclude them from within their ranks.

Pierre San
Secretary General
Amnesty International

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