Impunity Watch: Africa

ICC Prosecutor Seeks Rebel Arrests in Darfur

By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), asked judges for arrest warrants for three Sudanese rebel leaders on November 20.  The rebels have been accused of a deadly attack against African Union peacekeepers in northern Darfur. 

Moreno-Ocampo said the rebel leaders planned and led an attack of 1000 rebels in September 2007.  The attack, against the Haskanita camp in Darfur, left 12 peacekeepers dead and another eight wounded.  Moreno-Ocampo accused the rebels of committing war crimes, including pillaging, murder and attacking peacekeepers.  The suspects names were not released.

“They know who they are,” Moreno-Ocampo said in an Associated Press interview.

African Union peacekeepers said that at the time of the attack, they suspected splinter group from the Sudan Liberation Army, SLA-Unity, was behind the attacks.  The announcement was welcomed by rights groups.

“Civilians rely on peacekeepers for protection, and any hope for restoring security for civilians in Darfur depends on peacekeepers being able to do their job,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. 

SLA-Unity leaders denied their group’s involvement.  Suleiman Jamous, an SLA-Unity leader, said his group is innocent and, if necessary, would go to court to prove it. 

“If we are asking (Sudanese President Omar) al-Bashir to hand himself in, then there is no reason we should stand in the face of justice when it is our turn,” Jamous said from Slovenia.  “We have evidence to prove that the government did it,” Jamous said.

According to a summary of the case, the rebels ransacked and looted the camp.  Moreno-Ocampo’s request comes after a July appeal for an arrest warrant for President al-Bashir.  Moreno-Ocampo asked judges to issue the warrant on genocide charges, accusing him of orchestrating atrocities including rape and murder of civilians in refugee camps.

Moreno-Ocampo’s request is the first against the rebels in Darfur and the ICC’s first case accusations of violence against peacekeepers.  To date, approximately 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in the five year conflict in Darfur. 

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Int’l Court Prosecutor Seeks Darfur Rebels’ Arrest – 20 November 2008

BBC – ICC Seeks Rebel Arrests in Darfur – 20 November 2008

CNN – Sudan Rebels Wanted Over Peacekeepers’ Deaths – 20 November 2008

Reuters – UN Probes Reports of Violations in Darfur Ceasefire – 20 November 2008

World Food Programme Signs Deal to Provide Aid to Starving Zimbabweans

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Amid a burgeoning food catastrophe, the World Food Programme (“WFP”) announced Wednesday that it has signed a deal that would allow the UN to provide over three hundred and fifty tons of grain to the needy people of Zimbabwe.  According to a spokesman, the agreement is scheduled to run until April 2010, and should provide food relief to the poverty-stricken country over that time period.   WFP estimates suggest that ,by January, at least five million people will require food aid – over half of the country.

As the crisis in the wake of the disputed presidential election has intensified, Zimbabwe has experienced massive inflation and major issues with food production.  The national demand for Maize in the country typically is around two million tons. Last year, according to government officials, only eight hundred thousand tons were produced.

Feeding the poor has already been underway.  Bahre Gessesse, The Zimbabwean representative  for the WFP, said that the agency was already feeding millions, and expected that number to rise in the coming months.  According to Gessesse, the WFP expects to reach out to over 2.5 million hungry citizens this month.

Food aid has not reached remote areas of the poverty-stricken country yet, however, as many are experiencing the “food catastrophe” firsthand.  For example, Katy Phiri, a seventy year old woman, told reporters she hadn’t eaten for three days and was attempting to subsist on corn kernels that had fallen from a truck taking the corn to market.  Other Zimbabweans have begun using sticks to draw termites out of termite mounds, then sweeping the termites into a bag for their evening meal.

Michael Zava, a trader in strife-torn town of Mhangura, says that he witnesses burial parties going out on a daily basis to bury those who have died of hunger.  Many also become gravely ill and die, because there is no treatment available at the now-closed hospital in the district. 

In addition, Zava “said he has seen villagers plucking undigested corn kernels from cow dung to wash and eat. A slaughtered goat is eaten down to everything but hooves, bones and teeth. Crickets, cicadas and beetles also can make a meal.”  Further, villagers now have to compete with the wildlife for roots and wild fruits, which many hide in dung to keep it safe from the sun and foraging animals. 

According to the 70 year old Phiri, "There's nothing else I can do. . . I have never gone this hungry before."

For more information, please see:

AFP – Zimbabwe Extends Food Deal with WFP – 19 November 2008

CNN  – Zimbabweans in Remote Area Eat Termites to Survive – 19 November 2008

Reuters – WFP Extends Food-Aid to Crisis-Hit Zimbabwe – 19 November 2008

Rebel Troops Pull Back to Allow Humanitarian Aid to Reach Suffering Civilians

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

GOMA, DR Congo - Rebel troops were ordered by leader Laurent Nkunda to pull back outside of the strategic town of Kabasha and the city of Goma, two days after Nkunda told a UN special envoy that he wanted to negotiate a ceasefire with the government.  Despite their withdrawl, the rebels continued their siege outside of the cities. 

The rebels say they are withdrawing in order to give peace a “new chance” in the war-torn country, adding that they wanted the UN peacekeepers in the area to be able to provide humanitarian aid and police support in the zone they abandoned.  In a statement released Tuesday, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (“CNDP”) said that UN forces need to "take charge of the security of these separation zones and ensure that no other force occupies them."

The UN peacekeeping force, for its part, says it had yet to receive formal contact from the rebels, but that the announcement was a “step in the right direction.”  To assist the current force, the French Foreign Ministry has begun circulating a draft resolution trying to increase the peacekeeping force in the Congo by 3,000 troops.

However, the UN stated that more peacekeepers may be able to stabilize the region, but will not be able to bring peace by itself.  According to Alan Doss, head of the UN peacekeeping mission "[r]einforcements are not going to resolve all the problems. . . (though they) will allow us to do something about the situation, which has deteriorated fast, help us to stabilize the situation a bit, and allow the political and diplomatic process to go forward."

Meanwhile, fears continue to mount over the fate of the more than 250,000 civilians displaced since fighting began in mid-August.  Tuesday, civilians faced yet another looting rampage by the military, which has become a common theme through the conflict.  Many homes were burned, with their doors showing that they were forcibly opened.

Civilians who returned found their homes empty, with many of their possessions and livestock missing.  Others only came back because they “didn’t know where else to turn.”  One woman came back Tuesday after fleeing to the bush on Friday only because she had been chased out of hiding by gunfire.  Another, who had attempted to flee to Kenya, told of how she was raped by sixteen soldiers.  She had only returned home to try and see a doctor.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Rebels Withdraw from Two DR Congo Frontlines – 18 November 2008

CNN  – Rebel Leader Orders Troops Out of Town – 18 November 2008

Associated Press – Congo Rebels to Pull Back to Allow Talks – 18 November 2008

Reuters – More Peacekeepers Won’t Bring Peace to Congo – UN – 18 November 2008

Congolese Rebel Forces Seize New Territory Despite Ceasefire Promise

By Dahee Nam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

GOMA, DR Congo - Congolese rebel forces said on Monday that they had seized new territory.  This report comes only one day after renegade general Nkunda promised to ceasefire during talks with the UN special envoy Obasanjo.

"Our troops control all of the Rwindi zone," 125 kilometers north of Goma, in eastern Nord Kivu province, the AFP quotes Nkunda’s spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa as saying.  Bisimwa also told the AFP that government troops had been pushed back to Vitshumbi, north-east of Rwindi.  "We are going to... silence the government forces. We are going to impose a ceasefire on them," he added. 

UN reports that one Indian peacekeeper was wounded during the attacks and that the rebel groups have continued to advance further north.

In talks with Obasanjo on Sunday, Nkunda promised to support a peace process with the Congolese government and also to individuals to monitor a ceasefire, as long as no UN peacekeepers, whom he accuses of lacking neutrality, are included.

"This shows they're not respecting their own ceasefire they've declared," AP quoted Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) spokesman.  But rebel forces claims that they have respected the ceasefire they promised earlier in October and that any clashes have been in response to attacks by government forces.

Twenty rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the UN’s Human Rights Council on Monday to hold a special session on this crisis in order to prevent further deterioration of the situation.  Aid agencies are also expressing their concern of a worsening humanitarian crisis with an estimated 250,000 people forced from their homes by weeks of fighting between rebel forces and government troops.

Meanwhile, four government soldiers werw sentenced to life in prison on Monday by a military court in Goma for rape, deserting their posts, and looting, AFP reports. 

For more information, please see:

AFP - DR Congo Rebels Claim New Territorial Advance - 17 November 2008

AP - Congo Rebels Advance Despite Cease-fire - 17 November 2008

BBC (Africa) - Congo Rebel Advance Breaks Truce - 17 November 2008

Impunity Watch - UN Envoy in Congo for Peace Talks amid Renewed Fighting - 15 November 2008

Activists Pursuing Justice for Zimbabwe Rape Victims; Power-Sharing May be in Trouble

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe - According to a spokesman for the Movement of Democratic Change (“MDC”), the long-awaited power-sharing deal may be on the verge of collapse, and a new wave of violence orchestrated by Robert Mugabe may be in the works.  The sticking point in the talks continues to be control of the ministries, especially the home affairs ministry, which controls the police.

Meanwhile, reports have intensified describing many incidents of rape and sexual violence committed on MDC supporters, allegedly perpetrated by leaders in Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party. 

The United Nations, led by former ambassador Stephen Lewis, has begun efforts to bring those to justice who committed the assaults.  AIDS-Free World, a group started by Lewis, has commenced collecting the testimony of survivors of gang rapes.  At least eight women have been interviewed by investigators thus far, many of whom provided vivid descriptions of the attacks.

For example, a 39 year old woman reported that “when they were finished with me, I could no longer stand.”  Another was raped by four Zanu-PF militia men outside of their base, stating “they took turns raping me, accusing me of supporting the opposition.”  According to the woman, if she did not rape them the soldiers informed her that they would kill her and her family.  Still another woman, from Eastern Zimbabwe, was drained of two hundred and fifty milliliters of semen after having been gang raped for three consecutive days.

These stories are being recorded by Lewis’ team, with the hopes of bringing the perpetrators to justice at the International Criminal Court.  As of now, only one man had been imprisoned for his actions, having received a sentence of twenty-two years.

Still, even with the eight women coming forward, Zimbabwean activist Betty Makoni notes there are many more out there, afraid of the consequences of coming forward.  According to Makoni, "Most women were attacked physically but also suffered spiritual damage. They are afraid of going back to their villages.”  She further added that these women are not only afraid of the army and of their security, but they also fear becoming outcasts in their own community.

Makoni also added that "the pattern of the cases is that of systematic political persecution. Testimonies from women reveal how army chiefs and Zanu PF militias deliberately embarked on a campaign against MDC supporters. We are talking of state-sanctioned violence here."

For more information, please see:

Inter Press Service – Activists Demand Justice For Politically Motivated Rapes – 15 November 2008

The Zimbabwean – Lewis Reaches Out to Women Raped for Supporting Zimbabwe’s Opposition – 11 November 2008

The Zimbabwe Times– Political Violence Returns as Talks Flounder – 16 November 2008

UN Envoy in Congo for Peace Talks amid Renewed Fighting

By Dahee Nam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

GOMA, DR Congo – While fighting has been renewed in eastern Congo on Saturday, a U.N. special envoy flew to eastern Congo for emergency peace talks with the rebels. 

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo arrived in the eastern city of Goma on Saturday, one day after meeting Congolese President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa, the capital city of Congo.   Obasanjo said President Kabila had not laid down any conditions for holding talks with the rebel leader Nkunda.   

Obasanjo said Nkunda called him asking for a meeting three days ago.  However, "nobody can say for certain what he wants.  . . .  but I will get authentically from him what he wants," AFP quotes Obasanjo.

While Obsanjo provided no details, Bertrand Bisimwa, Nkunda’s spokesman, told AP that the meeting would likely to be held on Sunday in one of the rebel-controlled towns of Rutshuru, Goma, or Bunagana, on the Ugandan border.  Since more than two weeks ago, Nkunda's troops have surrounded Goma, forcing UN peacekeepers to be reinforced to protect the city and its civilian population. 

Meanwhile, a new firefight between the army and the rebels broke out on Saturday in Kabasha, 70 miles north of Goma, a UN official reported.  Government forces told AFP that the battle had been for an hour, but UN official Jean-Paul Dietrich reported that the firing lasted only about 10 minutes.  Dietrich added that it was not clear which side started it.   

Without confirming the fighting, the rebel spokesman Bisimwa said, “There is a big movement of the government army from Kanyabayonga (15 kilometers to the west of Kabasha) toward our positions.  . . .  They have tanks, helicopters, many things.  They want to attack us."

The fighting displaced more than 250,000 people adding to around 800,000 people who had been forced to leave their homes by previous violence, UN reports.

For more information, please see:

AFP - UN Envoy in Congo Peace Bid - November 15, 2008

AP - UN Envoy in Congo for Talks amid New Fighting - November 15, 2008

BBC (UK) - UN Envoy to Meet DR Congo Rebels - November 15, 2008

CNN - U.N. Envoy in Congo for Peace Talks - November 15, 2008

Kenya Needs to Protect Somali Refugees, Rights Group Says

By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – The human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Kenyan government and the United Nations to quickly respond to the Somali refugee crisis in Kenya.   According to HRW, by the end of this year more than 65,000 Somali refugees will have sought refuge in Kenya an increase from the 19,000 who sought refuge in 2007. 

HRW reported that new arrivals face extortion and abuses when trying to cross Kenya’s officially closed border.  Once they do make it across, they face terrible conditions in underserviced and overcrowded refugee camps. 

“Desperate civilians escaping the devastating conflict in Somalia need help, not more danger, abuse and deprivation,” said Gerry Simpson, refugee researcher for Human Rights Watch. “They should be able to cross the border safely and then get the aid in Kenya that they urgently need.” 

In January 2007, Kenya officially closed its 682 kilometer border with Somalia, citing security concerns.  Ethiopian troops have been supporting a transitional Somali government against Islamic insurgents for the past two years and the escalating violence has forced almost 900,000 Mogadishu residents from their homes, HRW reported.  This has caused the refugee camps to become overcrowded. 

An October 2008 investigation done by HRW into the Dadaab refugee camps concluded that closing the border to refugees violated the international reguee law prohibition against forced return and has resulted in serious abuses.  HRW reported that some refugees were forced back into Kenya because they could not pay bribes to Kenyan police.  HRW reported other refugees were arrested, beaten and deported back to Somalia. 

“Kenya has legitimate security concerns and a right to control its borders, but its borders can’t be closed to refugees fleeing fighting,” Simpson said. “Closing the border has only made Somali refugees more vulnerable to abuse and lessened the government’s and UNHCR’s control over who enters Kenya and who is registered in the camps.” 

HRW estimated that despite the efforts of the camp’s staff, thousands of Somali refugees were unable to register and were turned away. 

For more information, please see:

Human Rights News – Kenya: Protect Somali Refugees – 13 November 2008

Relief Web (press release) – Committee Against Torture Begins Examination of Report of Kenya – 13 November 2008

IOL – Refugees Starving to Death – 3 November 2008

Congo Soldiers Allegedly Raping and Looting Civilians, Children are the Most Affected

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

GOMA, DR Congo - UN officials said Wednesday that Congolese soldiers have raped women, looted villages, and ransacked homes amid the fighting in the war-torn region.   Further, the ongoing conflict in the Congo, and especially in the North Kivu region, has made the country the “worst place to be a child.”  Many children are packed into refugee camps or roaming the countryside, having been displaced from their homes by the fighting.  According to reports from the aid workers in the region, hundreds of thousands of children face starvation, disease, recruitment by the warring factions and sexual abuse, among other problems.

George Graham, spokesman for Save the Children, stated that “[t]here is no question that children have been the most severely affected by the recent conflict."  UN Childrens Fund (“UNICEF”) spokesman Jaya Murthy added that "When children flee fighting they become more vulnerable to contracting diseases, to becoming malnourished, and vulnerable to predators like sexual abuse, exploitation, violence and recruitment into armed groups."

At least sixty percent of the over one million displaced persons are children, with UNICEF estimating that at least two to three thousand of these children have been forcibly recruited into armed groups.  UNICEF has also added that this recent upturn in issues for children has been part of a long-standing “silent emergency” for children in the region; an emergency that is re-exploding amid the current crisis.

There have also been multiple reports of rape and looting by Congolese soldiers this week.   Aid workers, in response, are attempting to reach many of the civilians in the high-risk areas to provide food and support to those trapped by the fighting.  At least fifty civilians were killed in a rebel assault in Kiwanja last week, up from the earlier estimate of twenty that was provided.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon expressed deep concern and called for an immediate cease-fire to allow aid to reach many of the displaced individuals.  Representatives of Human Rights Watch are skeptical of the purported success of the ceasefire, noting that a ceasefire has been declared and ignored before.  Further, the “situation for civilians is catastrophic” and requires more direct and immediate aid.

To assist in the crisis, which in recent days has subsided into “sporadic clashes”, Angola announced Wednesday that it was sending troops into the region.  According to the Angolan Deputy Foreign Minister, it is unclear whether the forces would be acting as peacekeepers or supporting forces.  This uncertainty heightens already existing fears that the conflict could spread into a region-wide crisis.

For more information, please see:

VOA News – UN Calls for Congo Ceasefire Amid Charges of North Kivu Abuse – 12 November 2008

Reuters – Conflict Makes Congo “Worst Place to be a Child” – 12 November 2008

CNN – Angola Promises Troops as Congo Peace Fades – 12 November 2008

Associated Press – Angola Says It Will Send Troops to Help Congo Gov’t – 12 November 2008

Police Crackdown on Zimbabwean Protesters, State Violence Rising

By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Dozens of students and pro-democracy activists were beaten by Zimbabwean police officers on November 11 as they held hands and marched through Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.  The protestors were marching to demand a new government to tackle the country’s worsening political and economic crisis. 

The crackdown came as the power-sharing deal agreed on in September between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai seems unlikely to end the deteriorating political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.  The protest came two days after a regional summit failed to break an impasse on forming a unity government. 

The police used batons and teargas to break up the protestors and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a pro-democracy pressure group, said its leader, Lovemore Madhuku, had been arrested before the protest.  According to AFP, police chased the protestors through the streets, beating passersby along the way. 

“The NCA emphatically condemns this unjustified obstruction of the organization's peaceful protest actions,” the group said in a statement. 

Despite the protests, President Mugabe appeared to press forward with forming the unity government, saying one could be formed as soon as next week, despite objections from Tsvangirai over cabinet positions. 

“We will try to institute the decisions reached by the summit as quickly as possible. Maybe this week, maybe next week, but as soon as possible,” Mugabe said in the state-run Herald newspaper.

The crackdown on protestors is part of an increase in state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe, said Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.  The group said that pro-democracy groups have recorded more than 1300 incidents of political violence in September, up 39 percent from the previous month.

The political turmoil in Zimbabwe coincides with an overwhelming economic crisis.  Zimbabwe’s inflation rate is the highest in the world and hospitals and schools have closed because they have no money to pay doctors and teachers. 

The UN World and Food Program said November 11 that without extra donations, it will fun out of food in January.  The UN predicted that approximately five million Zimbabweans will be needing food aid by January, about half the population. 

For more information, please see:

AFP – Zimbabwe Police Beat Protesters Calling for New Govt – 11 November 2008

Associated Press – Lawyers Condemn Rising State Violence in Zimbabwe – 11 November 2008

Reuters – Zimbabwe Police Crack Down on Protesters – 11 November 2008

Impunity Watch - Human Rights Watch Urges SADC to Discuss Zimbabwe Ruling Party’s Abuses – 8 November 2008

UN Condemns DRC Killings of Civilians as War Crimes

By Dahee Nam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KIWANJA, DR Congo - The United Nations (UN) has warned yesterday that the recent killings of civilians by Tutsi rebels and Congolese militias in the eastern town of Kiwanja of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are war crimes. 

After last week’s violent clashes in Kiwanja against pro-government militia Mai Mai, renegade-general Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebels ordered the town to be emptied.  The rebel forces killed those who remained, accusing them of being enemy forces.  The victims include women, the elderly, and the sick.  In many cases they were killed in front of their family members according to the theTelegraph UK. 

Human Rights Watch reported at least 50 were killed in the town while the Congolese Red Cross estimates almost 200 people were killed.

"There have been so many burials in this town because of the murders carried out by the CNDP," the Telegraph UK quotes a witness Maombi Kambala as stating. "Only from my close neighbors, we have seen four people killed in one house. There are many, many more in the rest of the town."

Alan Doss, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in DRC and the head of the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC), condemned the “targeted killings of civilians” both by rebel forces and by pro-government militia as “serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”  "We condemn them, we deplore them, and we remind the different groups involved that international law is very clear on this - these are war crimes that we cannot tolerate," he added.
A summit of regional leaders held in Nairobi on Friday urges an immediate ceasefire and establishment of a corridor for humanitarian assistance through the frontline to support the hundreds of thousands of refugees in need. 

While Nkunda has reiterated his plan to overthrow the government unless it holds talks, Congolese President Joseph Kabila has refused any direct talks with Nkunda, saying they are unconstitutional according to BBC reports.

For more information, please see:

BBC - Talk or go, DR Congo Rebel Warns - November 10, 2008

Guardian - Killing of Civilians in Congolese Town Is War Crime, Warns UN - November 10, 2008

Telegraph UK - Rebel Executions of Congo Civilians Are 'War Crimes', UN says - November 10, 2008

UN News Center - DR Congo Killings 'Constitute War Crimes', Says UN official - November 10, 2008

Impunity Watch - On Eve of Summit Rebels Take Town, Force Congolese Out - November 6, 2008