VZCZCXRO6077
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0896/01 2111525
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301525Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6616
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000896 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KDEM CG
SUBJECT: FOR SOUTH KIVU CITIZENS, HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS 
CONTINUE 
 
REF: A. KINSHASA 875 
 
     ¶B. KINSHASA 666 
     ¶C. KINSHASA 337 
     ¶D. 05 KINSHASA 2029 
     ¶E. KINSHASA 582 
 
¶1.  Summary. MONUC, human rights organizations, humanitarian 
groups, and civil society leaders in and around Bukavu, South 
Kivu province agree that the three most serious human rights 
issues facing the area are violent crime by the Congolese 
army, impunity for soldiers, and FDLR attacks on civilians. 
End summary. 
 
¶2.  Embassy PolOff and DRL Human Rights Officer met with a 
range of non-governmental and international organizations in 
Bukavu, South Kivu June 27-29 including:  MONUC Bukavu; the 
provincial director of the High Media Authority, reporters 
from Radio Okapi and Radio Mandaleo; a traditional chief from 
Walungu Territory; the dean of the Catholic university; the 
director of Panzi Hospital; and NGO representatives from 
CEPOST (reconciliation), BVES (child soldiers), and human 
rights groups Heritiers de la Justice, Ligue des Droits de la 
Personne dans la Region des Grands Lacs, and Reseau de Droits 
de l'Homme.  We found complete agreement on the most serious 
human rights issues in the area: armed and undisciplined 
Congolese army (FARDC) soldiers, a failing justice system 
that results in impunity for human rights violations, and 
continued attacks by the Rwandan Hutu (FDLR) or Rasta militia 
on civilian populations in northern South Kivu. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Too Many Guns, Not Enough Barracks 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Insecurity in Bukavu and surrounding areas comes 
predominantly from the uncontrolled circulation of weapons, a 
coalition of seven human rights organizations told us June 
¶28. These weapons are used by men in uniform to kill, rape, 
kidnap, and pillage with near total impunity.  According to a 
MONUC-Bukavu Human Rights Officer, 90 percent of the weapons 
in Bukavu are in the hands of the military, with most of the 
rest held by civilians or demobilized soldiers.  The 
complicating factor, he said, is the complete absence of 
military camps (ref A).  Soldiers live in and around the 
city, receive no salary, and have weapons. 
 
¶4.  Several journalists told us at a June 28 roundtable that 
the flood of guns in Bukavu played a role in the murder of 
Radio Okapi journalists Serge Maheshe (ref B).  The murder 
took place in a quarter of Bukavu where military harassment 
was common.  Residents of the area had sent a letter to the 
provincial government only a week before Maheshe's death 
listing dozens of local residents whose possessions had been 
stolen or who had been physically threatened or injured by 
FARDC soldiers.  A Radio Okapi journalist told us he thought 
Maheshe was a victim of generalized insecurity, not targeted 
for being a journalist.  He said a soldier had robbed another 
journalist and his wife on a street near where Maheshe was 
killed only weeks earlier; they had not resisted and were not 
harmed. 
 
¶5.  MONUC and South Kivu civil society and provincial 
government representatives met June 27 to discuss a system 
for registering and tracking arms.  According to a MONUC 
officer, they proposed establishment of a depot from which 
soldiers would sign out and return arms and munitions for 
daily duties.  The depot would be controlled by military 
police with MONUC's assistance and would permit the tracking 
of guns used in crimes as well as the chance to count bullets 
used by each soldier.  The provincial government must now 
solicit funds from the central government in Kinshasa. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Judicial Impunity:  The Other Half of the Problem 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶6.  Insecurity is made worse by judicial impunity.  Human 
rights activists told us June 29 that the law on the 
independence of judges was the first step toward improving 
the judicial system on the civilian side.  On the military 
side, they explained that too often the accused holds a 
higher grade than the military judge, who is then deemed 
incompetent to try a superior officer.  With neither the 
civilian nor military judicial systems functioning 
effectively, the population resorts to "popular justice." 
One day earlier, for example, one of the presumed killers of 
 
KINSHASA 00000896  002 OF 003 
 
 
a South Kiva woman was burned alive by a crowd of vigilantes. 
 
¶7.  A MONUC Bukavu Child Protection Officer told us June 27 
impunity affected NGOs' ability to separate child soldiers 
and end their recruitment.  She cited "Colonel 106" as a 
"warlord" responsible for recruitment of child soldiers. 
Colonel 106, according to her, is "protected politically," 
and even the 10th Military Region Commander has told her it 
is "not the moment" to arrest him.  Because of this, children 
who escape from his ranks fear retribution. 
 
¶8.  The director of a child soldier NGO in Bukavu said 
another notorious child soldier recruiter remains free in 
North Kivu.  Commander Jean-Pierre Biyoyo, who is the only 
Congolese soldier ever convicted of recruiting children, 
escaped from Bukavu's prison in June 2006, three months after 
being incarcerated.  The director claimed the escape was 
organized by Biyoyo's military colleagues.  He returned to 
South Kivu in March as part of a FARDC delegation, and had 
since been promoted to Lt. Colonel (ref C).  The director 
also said Biyoyo visited the judge who sentenced him to 
prison while in Bukavu, but officials were afraid to arrest 
him since he was in the company of six or seven FARDC 
soldiers previously accused of war crimes.  A MONUC Goma 
Human Rights Officer confirmed to us June 29 that Biyoyo is 
serving with the FARDC in North Kivu. 
 
¶9.  Several human rights activists told us the recent death 
of Serge Maheshe has renewed interest in the delayed trial of 
the killers of Pascal Kabungulu, a human rights activist 
murdered in Bukavu in 2005.  Two FARDC officers were arrested 
for the murder and subsequently freed by the deputy regional 
military commander.  Former South Kivu Governor Didace 
Kaningini and Lt. Colonel Jules Thierry, arrested for 
obstruction and possible involvement in the murders, were 
arrested December 11, 2005 and released the next day by 
then-Governor Deogratias BuhambaHamba after protests in 
Bukavu (ref D).  The military court subsequently ruled it 
could not judge officers and postponed the case until a 
higher-ranking judge arrived.  Two years later, neither the 
accused murderers nor the accused accomplices have been 
brought to trial. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Beyond the Congolese Army:  FDLR Depredations 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  The Congolese army and a dysfunctional judiciary are the 
main human rights problems in the province.  However, for 
many people in the north and west, the Rwandan FDLR militia 
surpass both in level and breadth of violations.  On the 
night of May 26-27, FDLR/Rastas (armed men believed to be 
Congolese and perhaps ex-FDLR, affiliated with the FDLR) 
attacked three villages in Kanyola, Walungu territory, 
killing 19 and injuring 24 (ref E).  The victims, including 
women and children, were killed in their beds with machetes, 
axes, bayonets, and sticks.  An additional 12 people were 
abducted and taken into the nearby Mugaba forest.  According 
to MONUC, the assailants left letters addressed to the 
Walungu Territorial Administrator saying the attacks were a 
reprisal for joint MONUC-FARDC military operations conducted 
against them.  This is consistent with Rasta behavior since 
the group was formed. 
 
¶11.  This massacre capped a series of attacks by the FDLR and 
Rastas throughout the first four months of the year. 
According to MONUC human rights officers, at least 75 
villagers were abducted by FDLR from South Kivu villages from 
January through April.  More than ten were killed.  MONUC 
reported that FARDC soldiers were often stationed less than 
200 meters from the villages attacked but did nothing.  MONUC 
has used mobile operating bases to try to protect targeted 
villages, but dwellings are scattered in a several kilometer 
radius and must be protected individually.  Even local 
militias have not been successful in deterring attacks. 
Members risk death in notifying the village of the arrival of 
FDLR. 
 
¶12.  Those abducted were most often women and girls, who were 
then subjected to horrific sexual violence.  MONUC reported 
that on the night of February 19-20, a woman was raped in 
Kafukiro in the presence of her husband.  Another woman 
abducted at the same time was gang-raped by 11 assailants.  A 
woman abducted from Miramade in April told MONUC that FDLR 
militia held women and girls in the Kalonge forest and each 
day selected several from the group and proceeded to rape 
 
KINSHASA 00000896  003 OF 003 
 
 
them repeatedly. 
 
¶13.  The doctor in charge of Panzi hospital, South Kivu's 
only sexual violence clinic, told us June 28 that the sexual 
violence problem in South Kivu did not exist prior to the 
wars which started in 1996.  He said the level of violence 
used by the FDLR results in permanent disabilities, including 
fistula, mutilated sexual organs, and internal damage.  He 
said FDLR do not just rape women, they terrorize entire 
communities by making women into sex slaves or raping them in 
public.  The women are so traumatized that they refuse to 
return home, and their families are so traumatized that they 
flee as well.  He said he has seen rape used to destroy the 
social fabric of entire villages.  More than 15,000 women 
have been cared for at Panzi hospital since 2000 when it 
opened. 
 
¶14.  PolOff and HROff met with a group of more than 200 of 
these women at Panzi hospital, a few of whom told their 
stories.  One was tied up along the side of the road and 
raped by ten men.  Another saw her three children plus ten 
other neighbors killed before she was raped and fled naked to 
a nearby village.  A third said the FDLR killed her two adult 
sons, raped her, and pushed a piece of wood into her ear, 
permanently wounding her.  One woman told us, "the FDLR kill 
our husbands, children, brothers; they rape us, burn our 
homes, take all our things; help us to chase these people 
from us." 
 
------- 
Comment: 
------- 
 
¶15.  Ironically, South Kivutians tell us the level of 
violence has actually decreased in the past few years.  The 
majority of the human rights violations are not politically 
motivated, but the work of uncontrolled militia and 
undisciplined soldiers abetted by a dysfunctional judiciary. 
Despite initial enthusiasm for the new. 
democratically-elected government, people in Bukavu and 
surrounding areas are growing weary of politicians unable to 
reclaim control of the military or reestablish secure 
Congolese borders.  Their impatience and anger has 
increasingly turned toward President Kabila and MONUC.  End 
comment. 
MEECE