Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 19:10:55 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,038  [2001024]
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U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
for Central and Eastern Africa

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org

IRIN-CEA Update 1,038 for the Great Lakes (Tuesday 24 October)

CONTENTS:

DRC: Rebels say nine civilians killed
DRC: Rights body alleges torture of detainees
DRC: Amnesty appalled by death of prisoner
BURUNDI: Group calls for condemnation of genocide
BURUNDI: Seventh anniversary of Ndadaye murder
RWANDA: Anti-Tutsi hate media compared to Nazi propaganda
RWANDA: Kagame rejects French judge's probe


DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rebels say nine civilians killed=20

The Goma-based Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma)
claimed on Monday that nine civilians had been killed in a weekend air
raid by the DRC government forces and its allies in southeastern Katanga
province. "Our men counted nine dead, all civilians, and more than 10
wounded, some of whom are in a serious condition," AFP quoted RCD
spokesman Kin Kiey Mulumba as saying. He said the forces had bombarded the
Katanga town of Moba and warned that the rebels were considering their
response. He said Kalungu, which is near Moba, was also hit by the
home-made bombs allegedly dropped from several of Kabila's Antonovs. DRC
Communications Minister Dominique Sakombi Inongo, however, dismissed the
rebels' claims as "lies". He said that pro-government forces could not
have attacked Moba as well as three other places which were allegedly
bombed, Pepa, Ankora and Balanga, since these were all in "government
hands".=20

DRC: Rights body alleges torture of detainees

Amnesty International's Central Africa team, on Monday said that four men
currently being held in rebel-controlled eastern DRC have been tortured,
and "there are fears that they will be taken to Rwanda and then
disappear". In a statement, the team said that Karume Chisirika, who is
being held at the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie's (RCD's)
Direction provinciale de securite et de renseignement (DSR), had been
subjected to torture, including beating with "an iron bar". Chisirika had
also endured psychological torture: he was taken to a cemetery at night
and told he would be killed if he did not sign a confession, the team
said.

The second person, Jean-Pierre Busingisi, is being held by the Police
speciale de recherche et de surveillance (PSRS) while the other two, Omer
Kamoso, and Deogratias Mbalabala, are detained at the Sato military camp
in Bukavu, eastern DRC, where they have been "severely ill-treated". RCD
has reportedly threatened to move them to military detention centres in
Rwanda, where "it is likely to be very difficult to trace them".
"Detainees moved to Rwanda in this way have sometimes disappeared," the
team said. The four were arrested in Bukavu on 28 September by RCD-Goma
officials, after accusations that they were involved in a grenade attack
on a Bukavu market place in which up to 10 people were killed on 26
August. The attack was blamed on the Mayi Mayi militia, but the RCD
claimed that the four men helped the suspects prepare it. Some local
sources have alleged that Rwandese soldiers carried out the attack, the
team noted.=20

DRC: Amnesty appalled by death of prisoner

Meanwhile, the London-based Amnesty International organisation said it was
appalled by the death of Kakuni Masudi, who died on 13 October at a
security service detention centre in Lubumbashi in southeastern DRC. The
organisation's Central African team, said in a statement on Monday, that
Masudi died after being tortured for "several days". "Amnesty
International is appalled by the death, and is concerned that other
detainees risk a similar fate, particularly if no action is taken to bring
the torturers to justice," it said. Masudi was arrested on 7 October by
DRC government security service agents from the Agence nationale de
renseignements (ANR).  He was taken to the agency's facility where he was
reportedly "whipped, covered in palm oil and made to sit on a hot brazier,
his feet were crushed by hammer blows". "It seems the torture continued
throughout his detention until he died," it said.=20

"No autopsy is known to have been ordered and Amnesty International has
not yet seen an official death certificate giving the cause of death," it
added.  "However, it appears almost certain that Kikuni Masudi died as a
direct result of the torture he suffered," it said. The team said that the
sole reason for Masudi's arrest was that the ANR thought he belonged to
the Tutsi ethnic group, "though he did not". It noted that Tutsi are
frequently subjected to harassment and other human rights violations by
the DRC authorities because they are believed to support the rebellion,
seen as Tutsi-dominated. Masudi was a former member of the Groupe speciale
de securite presidentielle (GSSP), a security service which reports
directly to DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila.=20

BURUNDI: Group calls for condemnation of genocide

The president of the Burundi anti-genocide association, Action against
Genocide (AC-Genocide), Venant Bamboneyeho, last week called on the
anti-genocide forces in Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC to form a coalition by
"denouncing genocidal groups and supporting the work of justice". The
Rwanda News Agency (RNA) quoted Bamboneyeho as saying that as far his
group was concerned, "the struggle must strictly remain in the framework
of non-profit making associations which strictly exclude any form of
violence such as the formation of militia groups". He was speaking on the
eve of the launch of a week-long seminar to "reflect on genocide and
gather information about it"  which began on Saturday and will run until
27 October in Bujumbura. He said that the issue of genocide must be
clearly presented and must avoid any ambiguity, as is the case in Burundi,
"where some circles spread the idea of a double genocide". He stressed
that genocide in the Great Lakes region "targets" the Tutsi as had
happened in Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC.

BURUNDI: Seventh anniversary of Ndadaye murder

The opposition FRODEBU party celebrated the seventh anniversary of the
murder of the country's first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, on 22
October. The assassination sparked a fury of killings in the country,
igniting the ongoing civil war. The party, now split into the internal and
external factions, celebrated the event separately. The private NetPress
news agency quoted that the secretary general of the external wing,
Domitien Ndayizeye, as saying the advent of democracy in Burundi would
"shield it from the coups of the past".=20

RWANDA: Anti-Tutsi hate media compared to Nazi propaganda

In his introductory remarks at the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, deputy prosecutor Bernard Muna compared
the work of "hate media" journalists and genocide suspects Jean-Bosco
Barayagwiza, Hassan Ngeze, and Ferdinand Nahimana - currently on trial -
to that of Heinrich Himmler, the head of Special Services in Nazi Germany.
The independent news agency Hirondelle reported that Bernard Muna declared
they had "acted in concert", and were to be considered as "Hutu
extremists". The fact that they had not actually bloodied their hands was
of seen to be of no importance to the prosecution.=20

John Floyd, Hassan Ngeze's lawyer, advocated "freedom of the press" in
defence of his client. Bernard Muna had previously indicated to the three
presiding judges that their decisions would frame the limitations of
freedom of expression. Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, former politician and
founder member of the extremist Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines
(RTLM), and Hassan Ngeze, a former editor of the extremist newspaper
'Kangura' continue to boycott the trial. The defence said that
Barayagwiza's decision not to attend the trial was "permanent and
irrevocable", Hirondelle reported.  However the trial will go on. Kingsley
Moghalu, spokesman for the ICTR, told IRIN that "the court will not be
held hostage to any interests, including accused persons."=20

RWANDA: Kagame rejects French judge's probe

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has told a French judge investigating the
1994 plane crash which killed the-then president Juvenal Habyarimana and
his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira to "look in France" for those
responsible. In an interview with AFP, Kagame rejected allegations that he
was behind the crash. The judge, Jean-Louis Brugui=E8re, has called for an
international arrest warrant for Kagame, saying he has information
regarding the president's alleged involvement. "If he has some
information, it would be useful if he passed it to the International
Tribunal," Kagame said. "These individuals sitting in their armchairs
saying they are going to arrest such and such a person should begin with
their own country. He added that it was "impossible" for him to be
charged. "But if they do it, we shall fight," he warned. A Swiss
periodical 'Dimanche.ch' said Bruguiere had been granted the right to
investigate the case in Switzerland.

Nairobi, 24 October 2000, 18:50 gmt

[ENDS]

[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon=
=2Eorg ]


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