ZAIRE
Transition,
War and Human Rights
Nearly seven years ago, on April 24, 1990, President Mobutu Sese Seko
ostensibly gave in to mounting pro-democracy pressure by announcing the
end of the one party state and the beginning of transition to multiparty
democracy in Zaire. Seven years into the transition, there have been at
least ten different governments but no transition. The president's refusal
to step down or to relinquish control of the governments he appointed and
manipulated have managed to make a mockery of the promised passage to democracy.
The rapid advance of the rebel troops from the east, in turn, threatened
to subordinate political change wholly to the passage of arms.
(A902) 4/97, 63 pp., $7.00/£5.95
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“ATTACKED
BY ALL SIDES”
Civilians
and the War in Eastern Zaire
Nearly 100,000 people, most of them Rwandans once resident in the camps
of eastern Zaire, have fled to a site near Ubundu, where their further
flight is blocked by the Zaire River. Among them are thousands of unarmed
noncombatants as well as soldiers of the former Rwandan army (ex-FAR, Forces
Armées Rwandaises) and militia responsible for the genocide of Tutsi
in Rwanda in 1994. In addition several thousand refugees remain at Amisi
and Shabunda with untold numbers of others scattered in the forest. The
ruthless disregard of the rights of civilians, including the right to life,
by all armed parties in this conflict raises fears that the noncombatants
at Ubundu and elsewhere will once more be attacked, with large-scale loss
of life. Many also risk death by hunger or disease unless they are provided
with prompt humanitarian relief.
(A901) 3/97, 14 pp. $3.00/£1.95
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FORCED TO FLEE
Violence Against
the Tutsis in Zaire
The region of North Kivu in eastern Zaire has been the site of recurrent
interethnic violence since 1992, often carried out with the complicity
of Zairian regional and national leaders and the Zairian security forces.
The explosion of violence in 1993 pitted the mostly Zairian Tutsis and
Hutus against other Zairian ethnic groups in the region, but the situation
was exacerbated by the arrival in Goma of some 720,000 largely Hutu refugees
from Rwanda after the genocide in July 1994. The influx of refugees served
to reignite the ethnic violence and to break down the Hutu-Tutsi alliance,
leading to attacks against the Tutsi population by both sides. The violence
in North Kivu has left hundreds dead, some 250,000 displaced and approximately
16,000 Tutsis forced to flee as refugees to Rwanda. The goal of the attacks
is to drive out rival ethnic groups and to create ethnically pure enclaves.
This report focuses on the violence against Tutsis, which has been particularly
severe since late 1995, and escalated in 1996.
(A802) 7/96, 29 pp. $5.00/£2.95
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Prison Conditions in Zaire
Describing prison conditions under an acute crisis, this report covers
not only decayed facilities, poor sanitation and overcrowding, but also
prisons facing the economic and political disintegration of the state.
Since 1990, a pattern of neglect and corruption has given way to complete
abandonment. Prisons are left to their own devices and prisoners left to
live or die according to whim and chance. In the past year, only the intervention
of humanitarian and religious associations has prevented mass starvation.
Even so, the high rate of death and disease dwarfs any of the other problems
faced by the prison population.
(1207) 12/93, 72 pp., ISBN 1-56432-120-7, $7.00/£5.95
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INCITING HATRED
Violence Against Kasaiens in Shaba
For three years, President Mobutu has blocked a peaceful movement for
democratic change in Zaire, dividing the opposition to his rule. His efforts
are now bearing fruit as ethnic and regional violence emerge in a number
of regions throughout the vast central African country.
(A510) 6/93, 25 pp., $3.00/£1.95
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