The rebel group which is suspected in the killings of the eight foreign tourists has been active in Southwestern Uganda for more than a year, and according to local news reports has been responsible for numerous attacks on local villagers. Two attacks took place just weeks before the tourist killings. On February 20, 1999, a group of about fifty heavily armed rebels reportedly "hacked to death" five villagers near Kisoro town, about twenty miles away from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. On February 17, 1999, a group described by the media as "Interahamwe militia," estimated at between fifty and one hundred and armed with AK-47 rifles, reportedly attacked the border town of Ishasha, killing two people. Ishasha is only a few miles from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Because of the conflict in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, many ethnic Hutus and others have sought refuge in the Kisoro area. Many of these refugees are women and children and have no involvement with Interahamwe or other armed groups. However, because of the activity of Hutu militias in the area, the Ugandan authorities have shown some hostility towards the Hutu refugees. On January 8, 1999, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned the December 31, 1998, forceful repatriation to the DRC of more than 2,000 mainly Hutu refugees from Kisoro by Ugandan security forces. The Uganda Human Rights Commission, an official government body, is continuing to investigate possible involvement of the Ugandan security forces in the "disappearances" of several Rwandan refugees in Uganda. Human Rights Watch is concerned that the recent events will lead to a further deterioration of the Ugandan government's treatment of legitimate ethnic Hutu refugees, and urges the Ugandan government to uphold its international obligations to refugees and asylum seekers.

INTERAHAMWE

The Ugandan government, as well as the international community and the media, has consistently described the Hutu rebels who carried out the attacks on the tourist as "Interahamwe," the name of the organized Hutu militia which played a central role in organizing and carrying out the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Interahamwe militia, organized by the political party of the former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's political party, were transformed into bands of killers during the genocide. Since the flight of many Interahamwe to eastern Congo following the genocide, Congolese increasingly referred to any ethnic Hutu combatant in Congo as Interahamwe, including Hutu who have lived in Congo for generations.

The statements made by the rebels responsible for the attack clearly establish that they are opposed to the current Rwandan government and its ally, the Ugandan government. It is likely -- though not yet proved -- that some of them are in fact Interahamwe. It is also likely that some of the insurgents are not implicated in the 1994 genocide and have joined the insurgents because they share their opposition to the Rwandan government. It is more accurate therefore to refer to the group as rebels or an insurgent movement than to label them all by the name of a genocidal militia.

Following the defeat of the government and the army (Forces Armees Rwandaises, FAR) responsible for the genocide by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) -- now the major force in the Rwandan government -- many former soldiers and militia fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) where they hid themselves among the hundreds of thousands of refugees who had fled the advance of the RPA. They used violence and intimidation to discourage refugees from returning to Rwanda and to recruit new fighters among them.

Benefiting from the complicity of President Mobutu's government, they rearmed and launched an escalating guerrilla war to destabilize the minority Tutsi government at home. Their presence helped reignite ethnic tensions in eastern Congo, as they assisted local Hutu populations in Masisi and Rutshuru rural districts of North Kivu province to organize into civilian militia groups modeled after the Interahamwe.

Rwanda's government seized on an uprising by ethnic Congolese Tutsis, the Banyamulenge, in late 1996 to disband the refugee border camps and dislodge the ex-FAR and Interahamwe. Troops of the RPA backed a rebel offensive aimed at toppling Mobutu's government. The rebels, known as the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, also received military and diplomatic support from the governments of Uganda, and Angola, among other regional powers. While the fighting forced an estimated 600,000 refugees back into Rwanda, hundreds of thousands of others fled further west into Congo, among them tens of thousands of armed elements. The United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 213,000 refugees remained unaccounted for as of the last quarter of 1997. Human Rights Watch investigations and others have gathered evidence indicating that fleeing refugees were pursued relentlessly, falling victim to human rights abuses committed by all parties to the conflict. The deserting and demoralized soldiers of the former Zairian army (FAZ) looted supplies and raped scores of civilians in their flight, including Congolese as well as refugees, and destroyed schools, churches, and clinics. Likewise, armed elements from the ex-FAR and its militia used force and random killings to prevent other refugees from repatriating to Rwanda and tended to use unarmed refugees as human shields in their flight, leading to many deaths of civilians in cross-fire. The ADFL troops, and their Rwandan RPA backers, in turn, engaged in extensive and systematic massacres of refugees, many of whom were hunted down on the run and at temporary encampments. The killers often forced the local population to clean up massacre sites.

The ADFL conquered national power by May 1997, and installed its leader, Laurent Kabila, as president. War, however, never subsided in eastern Congo. Despite the ruthless refugee killing campaign, the armed elements among the refugees were by definition the best equipped to survive. They did so as refugees in neighboring countries, particularly in Congo Brazzaville and the Central Africa Republic, or as roaming armed bands operating from hideouts in the forests of eastern Congo. This led to the exacerbation of local ethnic tensions and violence in eastern Congo, as the government troops, and their RPA and Ugandan allies, as well as local Tutsi populations, came under attacks launched by the Rwandan Hutu fighters and local militias resentful of the Rwandan presence and influence in their region.

Full-fledged war returned to the Congo as of early August 1998, less than two years after President Laurent Kabila's ADFL fought to rid the country of the dictatorial and corrupt rule of Mobutu Sese Seko.The Banyamulenge who had spearheaded the ADFL rebellion in 1996 again rose in August, this time against their former ally President Kabila, claiming that he had usurped power and failed to resolve their nationality concerns. Neighboring Rwanda and Uganda intervened on their side, as they did during the first war, exposing a dramatic falling-out between them and President Kabila, whom they helped install in power. The continued violence during 1997 and 1998 in the eastern provinces of north and south Kivu accelerated the slide to war. During the ADFL's rebellion, its allies from the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Army massacred thousands of Hutu refugees, including women and children. Joint military operations by forces from Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda failed to flush out insurgents. The triggering factor in the second war was president Kabila's decision in late July to end his military alliance with Rwanda.

THE CURRENT WAR IN THE CONGO

With the war that broke out in August 1998 in Congo now in its eighth month, the central African region slipped further into the cycle of human rights abuses and impunity. The Congolese government has violated the rights of its citizens through incitement to ethnic hatred, resulting in hundreds of deaths and the interning of Tutsis; through arrest and trial procedures that violate due process; and by suppressing political life through censorship, arbitrary arrests, and bans on the exercise of freedoms of association and assembly. The rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie, RCD), whose forces operate in conjunction with the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries, have committed war crimes by killing civilians in massacres, have caused people to "disappear," and have carried out arbitrary arrests without regard to due process. International inertia in the face of these violations, as in the face of massacres of the 1996-97 war in Congo, encourages political leaders and militia henchmen alike to believe that they can commit abuses without serious consequence.

In late July 1998, Congolese President Laurent Kabila sent home all Rwandan soldiers, thus officially breaking ties with the allies who, together with Ugandan forces, had helped sweep him into power fourteen months before. Rwanda and Uganda responded by invading Congo and joining forces with troops from the Congolese army (Forces Armées Congolaises, FAC) that had mutinied against the government in Goma and Bukavu. The RCD, composed of former Tutsi members of Kabila's government, former Mobutists, a number of intellectuals, and others, soon emerged as the political leadership of this coalition. The conflict in Congo grew during August and September, eventually drawing in other states from the region, including Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Chad on the government side, and with Burundi apparently joining the Rwandans and Ugandans to support the RCD and the FAC defectors. Rwanda and Uganda claimed they had sent forces across the border to protect themselves against various armed groups which had been attacking them from bases in the eastern Congo, operating without hindrance from the Congolese government. Burundi continued to deny its involvement in the conflict despite regular sightings of their troops in South Kivu. The RCD proclaimed its goal to be the ouster of Kabila, while Kabila's backers stated they were protecting a legitimate government from foreign aggression. Outside observers suspected that the prospect of exploiting Congo's vast mineral wealth had attracted many of the warring parties. A number of other militia and rebel groups from the region joined the fray, while alliances between them and the warring parties were often unclear. Human Rights Watch takes no position on the merits of conflicts between states, but examines the conduct of all parties to a conflict, focusing on whether violations of international humanitarian law have been committed.

In their efforts to maintain or to seize power, both sides to the conflict in Congo have failed to protect civilians from abuse and have at times committed gross violations against them. When the Congolese government was attacked in August, some important officials fostered popular hatred and fear of Congolese of Tutsi origin, whom they linked with Rwandans, Burundians, and even Ugandans said to constitute part of a larger Tutsi-Hima cluster of peoples. In calling for so-called "popular self-defense," they encouraged other Congolese to attack Tutsi or those thought to look like Tutsi. As of mid-January, hundreds of Tutsi in detention or interned in government-held territory because of their ethnicity represented vulnerable targets for any future reprisals by government forces or by civilian crowds incited to attack them. The Kabila government chose to intern the Tutsi, claiming this was necessary for their protection, rather than taking more reasonable measures to ensure their safety.

Kabila continued to proclaim his commitment to democratization, including to hold elections in April 1999, but in the meantime his government proclaimed a state of emergency ("Etat de siège", state of siege) throughout most of the country which placed sweeping powers over justice and the civilian administration in the hands of the military. A military court, which superseded civilian courts, conducted trials without due process guarantees and imposed death sentences on political suspects and criminals, some of whom were executed immediately, without the possibility of appeal. Despite a January 29 decree law that called for a return to multi-party politics, excessive registration requirements for political parties effectively excluded many of them from participation in the political process. Arrests of civilians and leading politicians increased in early in 1999.

As the conflict continued, the situation in eastern Congo became particularly explosive. Forces backing the RCD committed numerous killings of civilians from almost all different ethnic groups in the east, creating a resentment of the RCD, its military backers, and ethnic Tutsi in general. Killings of villagers were often in retaliation for their supposed support of local militia known as "Mai-Mai," or former Rwandan soldiers or militia, known as "Interahamwe." Soldiers acting for the RCD movement arbitrarily detained many of its supposed opponents, often holding them in irregular facilities to which their families and humanitarian agencies had no access. Once arrested, some individuals were not seen again.

The term "Mai-Mai" has been used to describe indigenous militia involved in a number of uprisings in the Great Lakes Region since the colonial era. Mai-Mai fighters often undergo traditional initiation rites which are intended to make them invulnerable to bullets and other weapons of their enemies. Today, the term "Mai-Mai" is used to refer to many of the groups of indigenous militia of different ethnic origins in eastern Congo opposed to the RCD and its allies. It appears that these groups are not well organized and economic hardship may have encouraged many young men to join. Some of the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) in the east who did not join RCD forces and former members of the Zairian Armed Forces (ex-FAZ) also reportedly joined forces with groups of Mai-Mai. Many residents of eastern Congo claimed that the Interahamwe had formed an alliance with the Mai-Mai in their fight against the RCD, Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian militaries, confounding the exact identification of militia.

Both sides to the conflict have made statements pledging to guarantee human rights in territory under their control while carrying out limited measures to protect some populations. In addition to public declarations regarding their adherence to the human rights standards established by the major international treaties, the RCD established a human rights branch within its Department of Justice and Human Rights. While the department carried out a number of investigations of human rights violations allegedly committed by Kabila's forces -- and televised ceremonies related to them -- their pledges to investigate abuses committed by their own troops, such as in the Kasika area of South Kivu, did not materialize. In early January 1999, the Congolese government, after blocking a United Nations investigation throughout much of 1997 and 1998, invited the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Congo to investigate massacres of Hutu refugees, allegedly carried out by Rwandan forces, and other human rights violations. It remained to be seen, however, if these declarations by both sides would translate into serious investigations and prosecutions of their own agents who were responsible for abuses.

The international community, led by the O.A.U. and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), organized a series of efforts to negotiate a solution to the conflict, thus far without success. Discussions of human rights issues or calls for accountability for those responsible for abuses committed during the conflict were notably missing from the negotiations. While precise and vigorous public calls from donor states and others to respect human rights during the conflict had given at least limited results, such as an apparent end to large-scale killings of Tutsis in August, the international community largely confined its intervention to assessment missions, quiet diplomacy, and vague condemnations of abuses on all sides without stressing the need to hold perpetrators accountable for abuses. The Congolese government reportedly participated in the recruitment of combatants from refugee camps in neighboring countries, including some that provided refuge to members of the former army of Rwanda (ex-FAR) and the Interahamwe militia which fled into exile after perpetrating the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Some of those recruited from these camps, reportedly sent to the front lines in Congo, may have participated in the genocide.

With the disintegration of the rule of law in Congo and elsewhere in the region, Congo has become the battle ground for the interests of its neighbors and a Congolese political and military elite -- all at the expense of Congolese civilians. In this context, neither the Congolese government and its allies, the RCD and its backers, nor the myriad of militia and rebel groups in Congo have made respect for human rights a priority. Without firm action from international players in the region and elsewhere, the results for the Congolese are likely to be more abuses and a further degradation of the situation.

THE ALLIED DEMOCRATIC FORCES REBEL MOVEMENT

The Ugandan government is not only faced with armed opposition from Hutu insurgents. It is also fighting at least four Ugandan rebel groups, some of which conduct their operations from rear-bases in Sudan and the DRC. These rebel groups include the Lord's Resistance Army, West Nile Bank Front and Uganda National Rescue Front II in the North, and the Allied Democratic Forces in SouthWestern Uganda, close to where the killing of the foreign tourists took place.

Since November 1996, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have been engaged in a guerrilla war against the Ugandan government in the Rwenzori mountains in Western Uganda, an area about 150 miles North of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The ADF is an alliance of at least three rebel groups, including the remnants of the secessionist Rwenzururu movement, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda, and extremist elements from the Tabliq Muslim community. The activities of the ADF have become increasingly focused on civilians, who have faced the brunt of their violent abuses. It appears that the ADF is aiming to sow terror among the civilian population through attacks on civilians which often result in massacres. As one civilian victim of an ADF attack recounted to Human Rights Watch, "they just came to cut and kill." On occasion, the ADF has mutilated its victims, sometimes cutting off the ears of civilians or decapitating persons and, in at least one reported case, placing the head on a stake along a footpath. Several victims told Human Rights Watch that the ADF is brutalizing civilians because they are resentful at the lack of civilian support for their campaign against the Museveni government.

Like the LRA, the ADF has abducted a large number of children and adults for the purpose of forced recruitment into their rebel movement. The abductees are taken to remote training camps in the Rwenzori mountains or in the Democratic Republic of Congo where they receive rudimentary military training. Civilians are abducted from both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Adults are also abducted, sometimes for the purpose of carrying looted goods back to the ADF camps. On several occasions, the ADF has abducted children en masse from schools. On August 16, 1997, the ADF attacked the St. John's Catholic Seminary in Kasese district, abducting nineteen seminarians and two workers. One worker was killed soon after the abduction by cutting his throat, and the abducted children were told that a similar fate awaited them if they attempted to escape. On February 19, 1998, the ADF abducted thirty girls and three boys from Mitandi Secondary School outside Fort Portal.

On June 9, 1998, the ADF attempted a similar mass abduction of students from the Kichwamba Technical School in Kasese district. When the students heard the rebels coming, they attempted to resist being abducted by locking themselves in their dormitories. The ADF rebels doused three of the dormitories with gasoline and torched them, killing an estimated fifty to eighty students trapped inside the dormitories. The bodies were burned beyond recognition, making identification and an accurate death toll difficult. The rebels then retreated into the Rwenzori mountains with an estimated one hundred abductees, including students and civilians. An additional ten bodies were found in the region over the next days, including several civilians and a student, as well as two Ugandan army soldiers who were reportedly beheaded.

The Ugandan army has responded to the ADF guerrilla campaign by arresting many civilians, mostly Muslims, on suspicion of collaborating with the rebels. Treason suspects interviewed by Human Rights Watch gave consistent testimony of torture by Ugandan army soldiers, and some showed researchers their injuries, which were consistent with their testimonies. The torture described included putting sticks between the fingers, tying the hands together and then beating down on the hands with stones; brutal and extensive beatings with heavy canes; and in one case burning a jerry can and dripping the burning plastic on the exposed skin of the suspect. Torture was used to extract confessions which then formed the basis for their incarceration for up to one year. Interviews with police officials suggested that little active investigation was taking place. In the words of one police official: "You can get arrested for nothing and there is nothing you can do about it. We feel sorry for them, but it is like catching a stray bullet in a war zone."

RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH PUBLICATIONS:

1999 WORLD REPORT CHAPTERS ON UGANDA, RWANDA, AND THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

UGANDA: THE SCARS OF DEATH: CHILDREN ABDUCTED BY THE LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY IN UGANDA (SEPTEMBER 1997)

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: CASUALTIES OF WAR: CIVILIANS, RULE OF LAW, AND DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS (FEBRUARY 1999)

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: UNCERTAIN COURSE: TRANSITION AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CONGO (DECEMBER 1997)

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: WHAT KABILA IS HIDING: CIVILIAN KILLINGS AND IMPUNITY IN CONGO (OCTOBER 1997)

CLINTON ADMINISTRATION POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA (MARCH 1998)