Rights groups accuse DR Congo militia of rapes, ethnic massacres

Both the M23 and the Wazalendo, a disparate collection of militias loyal to the Congolese government, were responsible for rights abuses including gang rapes and summary (WITHOUT A FAIR AND FREE TRIAL) executions, which could amount to war crimes, a briefing by Amnesty International found.

The M23 has seized swathes of the mineral-rich Congolese east with Rwanda's help, triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis in a region already scarred by more than three decades of conflict.

Both the Congolese government and the M23 agreed in July to a ceasefire, with the aim of cementing a permanent end to the fighting that has forced millions of people from their homes.

But in August, the United Nations accused the M23 of killing more than 319 civilians the previous month in North Kivu province, and charged that Rwandan soldiers were involved in the operations.

HRW on Wednesday said that as part of those assaults, more than 140 civilians were "summarily executed", with the victims "largely ethnic Hutu, in at least 14 villages and small farming communities".

"The mass killings appear to be part of a military campaign against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)," the rights group said.

Though Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military support, it argues it faces an existential threat in the eastern DRC from the presence of the FDLR, an armed group founded by ethnic Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.

Urging action by the UN Security Council, HRW said the executions were "among the worst atrocities by the M23" and raise "grave concerns of ethnic cleansing".

- 'Nowhere safe' for women -

For Amnesty, the "M23 has attempted to root out, dismantle, punish, and eliminate threats against itself and the Tutsi population".

"In the process, it has tortured and abducted scores of men, forcibly disappeared individuals, killed and tortured detainees, and gangraped women," actions which "may amount to war crimes", the rights group's briefing said.

The DRC's forces were not innocent either, it added.

Of 14 survivors of gang rape who came forward to the rights group, eight accused the M23, five accused Wazalendo fighters and one Congolese soldiers, Amnesty said.

The rights group said it had interviewed more than 53 victims and witnesses for the report, and had gathered evidence of five summary executions by the M23 in doing so.

"For the women of eastern DRC, nowhere is safe; they are raped in their homes, in the fields, or camps where they seek shelter. The world must say enough," said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty's regional director.

"These atrocities are intended to punish, intimidate and humiliate civilians," Chagutah added, urging Rwanda and the DRC to bring those responsible to justice.

Chagutah also urged the United States, which helped broker the ceasefire signed in Doha in July, to push the Congolese government to remove fighters and officials linked to human-rights abuses from its ranks.

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