UN Slams Police Repression in the Bas Congo Province
On June 13, shortly after the conclusion of the visit of the French Vice Minister for Human Rights and francophonie, Rama Yade, the United Nations mission in the DRC released a damning report on the bloody police repression in the country's Bas Congo province.
The report documents the political and religious suppression of the "Bundu dia Kongo" (translated from Kikongo to mean the "Kingdom of Congo") on the part of the police in early-March 2008. According to the UN, the Congolese rapid response police unit and the integrated police unit were deployed to the province to counter Bundu dia Kongo's meetings. This came on the back of the movements’ attempts to usurp national control, and takeover certain remote areas of the province by replacing local authorities, policemen, magistrates, and priests with their own people. As history has shown, this process is actually quite a common feature of the Bas Congo region. Occurring roughly every two decades, the people of the Kongo tribe reportedly discover a new prophet who will speak out against authorities. It is little wonder that authorities would be worried about the movement of such a group - during Belgian colonial rule one such 'prophet' - Simon Kimbangu - founded a new church whose members nowadays amount to millions in the DRC.
The current group, Bundu dia Kongo, was founded in the late 1980s by Moanda Nsemi, a physician turned MP. During the events in early-March, UN investigators report that over 100 people were killed at the hands of the police - four times the national authorities' estimate of 27. According to the witnesses, the police systematically destroyed the homes and churches of the members of Bundu dia Kongo, throwing corpses into the Congo river and looting, torturing and executing people without trial. The extent of the death toll has been attributed to the fact that the rebels were armed with only sticks and traditional weapons, against the heavily armed police.
Describing the use of force by the Congolese police as both "illegitimate and disproportional" and denouncing the behaviour of the national authorities as obstructionist, the report (1) also discusses the mass graves that have been localised by the UN investigating team.
Following the report release, Emile Bongeli, the Minister of Information and Government representative, immediately condemned the report and criticised its quality and absence of realism. Furthermore, Bongeli stated that the UN mission should not underestimate the national threat caused by Bundu dia Kongo. He also stated that the matter would be brought to the attention of the UN Secretary General.
While some may see substance in Bongeli's reaction, others have attributed this to the change in personal relationships between Government and UN leadership in the DRC in recent months. The former Resident Representative of the UN in the DRC, Bill Swing, was seen to be lax in his approach towards the Government and President Joseph Kabila. However, sources state that the UN's new top person in the country, Alan Doss, seems less indifferent about human rights issues than his predecessor. As such, it is becoming increasingly important that a fundamental mindset shift be employed.
Leadership in the country can no longer regard the UN peacekeepers in the DRC as an exclusive force aimed at protecting the newly elected government and the Kivus against the Rwandan influence. There needs to be recognition that the UN mission is also supposed to report on the domestic human rights violations as part of its mandate and, according to one UN source, the time of compromise is over. Seen by the international community as an error, this latest act of violence on the part of the police could be as embarrassing for Joseph Kabila as the Beach story is for the President of Congo Brazzaville.
(1) The report is available online at http://www.monuc.org
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| Consultancy Africa Intelligence - Africa Watch Newsletter - July 2008.pdf | 90.77 KB |
