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United Nations

UN Report Accuses Congo and Rwanda of Massacring Hutu Refugees

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

A United Nations report released yesterday reveals that forces of the Congo leader Laurent Kabila deliberately killed Rwandan Hutu refugees in the campaign that brought him to power as president a year ago. The report, which extensively documents the massacres in former Zaire, calls for an international tribunal to investigate the killings and determine the extent of the involvement of Rwandan and other outside troops. The UN team faced frequent blocks by the Congo authorities in its efforts to investigate the atrocities, but was able to gather enough evidence to implicate the Rwandan military and the Alliance for Democratic Force for the Liberation of the Congo (AFDL) in the killings.

Key Takeaways:

  • The UN report accuses Congo leader Laurent Kabila of ordering the massacre of Rwandan Hutu refugees in 1996-97, with the support of the Tutsi-dominated government of Rwanda.
  • The report implicates both Kabila and Rwanda's vice-president, Paul Kagame, in the orders to kill Hutu civilians.
  • The AFDL forces, with Rwandan army command, carried out massacres of unarmed Hutu civilians, with hundreds killed in the Mbandaka massacre in May 1997.
  • The Congo and Rwandan governments have denied systematic atrocities, with Congo filing a 32-page rebuttal to the 52-page UN report.
  • The UN report calls for an international tribunal to investigate the killings, but such an inquiry is doubtful due to the existence of a previous tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
  • The report supports the findings of human rights groups, which have documented the large-scale massacre of Hutu refugees, many of whom were not armed Hutu extremists.

Statistics:

  • Up to a million Tutsis died in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
  • The UN report estimates that hundreds of unarmed Rwandan Hutus were massacred by AFDL forces in the Mbandaka massacre in May 1997.
  • The report implicates the Rwandan military and the AFDL forces in the killings, with both Kabila and Kagame suspected of issuing the orders to kill.
  • 52 pages of the UN report detail the massacres and call for an international tribunal to investigate.
  • 32 pages of the Congo government's rebuttal to the UN report deny systematic atrocities.

Sources:

  • Reuters.

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