Washington-based rights organization Human Rights Watch has urged the DRC government to immediately arrest Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese army general being sought by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
The watchdog says since January 2010 Gen. Ntaganda ,who reportedly lives and moves about freely in Goma, in eastern Congo, has been implicated in the assassinations, arbitrary arrests, abductions and disappearances of over a dozen people reportedly opposed to him, living in eastern DRCongo and neighboring Rwanda .
The rights watchdog further states that despite well documented evidence of Ntaganda’s abuses, the Congolese government has not arrested him because it regards him as essential to the "peace process" in eastern Congo.
"Ntaganda should be arrested and made to answer for his crimes, rather than being allowed to walk freely in Goma," Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior
researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote and added: "He is a threat to the people of eastern Congo and is making a mockery of the Congolese government's policy of zero tolerance for human rights abuses."
According to HRW, the majority of those targeted by Ntaganda are family members or supporters of the former rebel leader Gen. Laurent Nkunda, whom Ntaganda ousted from the leadership of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebel group in January 2009, with the help of military authorities in Rwanda.
After taking over the leadership of the CNDP, Ntaganda announced that he was ending the rebellion. He said he would integrate the rebel troops into the
Congolese national army to carry out joint operations with Rwandan armed forces against the predominantly Rwandan Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Consequently, Ntaganda secured a position for himself as a general in Congo army and the government there said it would not execute the ICC arrest warrant against him in the interest of maintaining peace, arguing that Ntaganda is instrumental in keeping the former CNDP troops integrated in the Congolese army.
Available information indicates that Ntaganda's putsch, and the subsequent arrest and detention of Nkunda in Rwanda deeply divided the CNDP movement, with a number of the latter’s supporters taking up positions in the Congo forces hesitantly.
Officer assassinated
On September 14, Lt. Col. Antoine Balibuno, a well known and respected former member of Nkunda's inner circle, was shot dead in the center of Goma after reportedly being called to a meeting at a bar with two close confidants of Ntaganda, Lt. Col Kennedy Kabakule and Lt. Col. John Asiki.
After meeting at the bar it is said that at Kabakule and Asiki lured Balibuno into accompanying them, but that Balibuno complained that the two were taking him to Ntaganda’s house against his wish. "You said we were going to Dallas [a nightclub in Goma], but now we're going to Bosco's house... This isn't what we agreed to. Now there's a jeep full of soldiers blocking the road. I don't understand.
Are you going to kill me here?" a friend who reportedly talked to Balibuno on phone shortly before he met his death told Human Rights Watch in an interview.
Later, Balibuno’s bullet-riddled body was found outside the old VIP restaurant in the center of Goma. In a related development, months prior to his assassination, Balibuno had repeatedly told Human Rights Watch and others that he had been threatened by Ntaganda for refusing to support the latter’s leadership of the CNDP. And, less than a week before his assassination, Balibuno told Human Rights Watch that Ntaganda had instructed Kabakule to form a "commando unit" to carry out assassinations and kidnappings of those opposed to Ntaganda.
But despite leads to those involved in Balibuno’s murder, judicial officials told Human Rights Watch they were reluctant to follow up on the case and effect arrests, fearing reprisals from Ntaganda. "President Kabila claims that Ntaganda is necessary for the peace process, but Ntaganda's brutal targeting of opponents and blatant disregard for Congolese law and basic human rights is no way to achieve peace," Van Woudenberg said.
Rwanda linked to murders
An independent investigations by The Newsline established that Gen. Ntaganda is working closely with Rwanda’s security forces to dismantle Gen. Nkunda’s group and ‘curtail a possible re-organisation of the FDLR’, a DRC-based rebel outfit fighting the Kigali regime.
“He (Ntaganda) works closely with Col. Joseph Nzabamwita who coordinates intelligence gathering in Gisenyi, and carry out political assassinations together,” a
credible source in Rwanda’s intelligence services told The Newsline, on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, at least seven people with family or other connections to Nkunda have been assassinated in the past four months, reportedly with the full knowledge of Rwandan security. One of the assassinations documented by Human Rights Watch is that of Ntare Semadwinga that took place in Gisenyi, a town in Rwanda bordering Goma, in which Rwandan state agents may have assisted in the killing.
It is said that on June 20, a group of men, including at least one known bodyguard of Ntaganda and other individuals (whom witnesses described as Rwandan security agents), killed 77-year old Semadwinga, an influential former member of the CNDP with close ties to Nkunda and witnesses said that despite repeated calls by neighbors and family members to the Rwandan police for help, no officers arrived for at least two hours.
Friends and family members say that Semadwinga was targeted because he had been opposed to Ntaganda's leadership of the CNDP and that before his murder he had been called in for questioning by the Rwandan security services over his support for Nkunda. According to reports received by Human Rights
Watch, Semadwinga may also have been in contact with renegade Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, an opponent of the Rwandan president Paul Kagame.
In June 2010, Nyamwasa narrowly escaped a murder attempt in South Africa and individuals in Rwanda suspected of having links with Nyamwasa have also received threats.
Arbitrary arrests
In addition to those assassinated, seven other civilians and army officers critical of Ntaganda have been arbitrarily arrested on Ntaganda's orders since
January, according to interviews with victims and other credible reports received by Human Rights Watch. Most are said to have been detained at the military intelligence prison in Goma but in three cases, judicial authorities investigated the alleged charges but found no evidence that the men were connected to any offense. According to reports however, the judicial authorities informed the detainees they could not release them ‘because of Ntaganda's involvement’. Some detainees later paid a bribe for their release and fled into exile.
Others with no connection to the CNDP or Nkunda, but who had criticized Ntaganda, have also been targeted. Sylvestre Bwira Kyahi, the civil society
president of Masisi territory, was abducted in Goma on August 24, most likely on Ntaganda's order, and held for a week in an underground prison. Bwira had been in hiding since late July following a threatening phone call from Ntaganda's "secretary" about a public letter Bwira had written to the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, denouncing, among other things, abuses by troops under Ntaganda's command and calling for Ntaganda's arrest on the basis of the ICC arrest warrant.
Human Rights Watch received information about another four arbitrary arrests and disappearances in Gisenyi and Cyangugu, Rwandan towns bordering eastern Congo, in which members of the Rwandan security forces and possibly soldiers loyal to Ntaganda may have been involved. Those who disappeared include Sheikh Iddy Abbasi, a former supporter of Nkunda who was abducted outside his home in Gisenyi in March 2010 and has not been seen since.
"We urge the Rwandan authorities to investigate the killings and disappearances which occurred on Rwandan territory and bring to justice those responsible," Van Woudenberg is quoted saying.
Author:Didas Gasana
Source: Newsline
No comments:
Post a Comment