Calls for international sanctions against senior rebel and Rwandan military officials who support the group
June 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has linked this Wednesday the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group with a massacre of civilians in the city of Kishishe, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has called for efforts to preserve the evidence of what could amount to war crimes in the context of the conflict in the African country.
The NGO has indicated that the bodies found in mass graves in the area belong to villagers and militiamen captured by the M23 and executed between November 2022 and April 2023, when the rebel group withdrew definitively from the town, located in the province of North Kivu.
Thus, he has stated that the Congolese government should request help from the United Nations, the African Union (AU) and other partner countries to carry out adequate exhumations, return the mortal remains to the families of the victims and hold those responsible to account. , which should be accompanied by the inclusion of leaders of the rebel group and Rwandan military who support the M23 in the UN Security Council sanctions list.
“DRC, the UN and the AU have to address the growing evidence that the M23 committed numerous murders in the town of Kishishe,” said Clementine de Montjoye, Africa researcher for HRW. “There is an urgent need for proper evidence collection, impartial investigations and informing families of the whereabouts of their loved ones,” she argued.
The organization has outlined that its documentation work on these atrocities in Kishishe derives from the statements of witnesses, satellite images, photographs and videos, before adding that the rebels would have also set fire to a house with bodies, used three sequels as bases and denied students access to education.
HRW already reported in February that members of the M23 had summarily executed at least 22 civilians in the town after fighting with various militias and rebel groups, including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel armed group. founded and staffed primarily by Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
In this sense, he has stated that between April and May, after the withdrawal of the M23 from the area, he interviewed 21 people by telephone, including some who claim to have witnessed the executions or who were forced to participate in the burial work of the bodies in various mass graves.
These witnesses gave information about the location of fourteen mass graves in the area, although HRW has pointed out that this figure could be only a fraction of the total. Likewise, these people have stressed that the M23 was behind the execution of the vast majority of the civilians murdered in that period.
“I saw four bodies of neighbors near my house,” recounted a man captured by the M23. “A little further away, they killed a member of the shi tribe and covered his body with a sheet to hide it. Nearby, when we reached the market, I saw a neighbor, his wife and his son. They killed the two men and left women,” he said.
“They continued and found a house with three men hiding inside. They killed them with their hoes. Later we arrived at the (Adventist) church, where they made everyone leave and executed them. There were around 20 murdered,” he detailed.
EXECUTIONS AND EXCAVATION OF GRAVES
Along these lines, other residents and witnesses have indicated that there is a mass grave near the church that would contain between 15 and 20 bodies, while satellite images taken in December show points of disturbed ground in this area. The relative of one of the victims has pointed out that members of the rebel group went to her home and went to her uncle: “He was shot dead and they threw his body into a ravine. We buried him.”
Another resident who was too sick to flee has pointed out that several rebels came to his house to demand that he participate in the digging of graves. “They told me there were dead to bury. Together with nine other men, we dug a grave in which we buried 15 people. The next day, we dug other graves and buried another 17. They told us that they died in combat, but it is not true They all died shot, three had shots in the mouth, others in the chest and some had broken knees,” he detailed.
Likewise, a 22-year-old man who was forcibly recruited by the M23 after the seizure of Kishishe has indicated that the group told him that they were going to fight against the FDLR. “We did not find anyone from the FDLR, but rather farmers working in their fields. They killed everyone they met on their way, claiming they were from the FDLR,” he denounced.
Upon his return to the city, he found the bodies of his father and one of his brothers. “They said: ‘Look at the ‘mai mai’ that we have killed. I had to pretend I didn’t know them so they wouldn’t accuse me of being the son of a ‘mai mai’ and kill me,” he said.
For this reason, De Montjoye has stressed that “the Congolese authorities must allow an independent investigation with the participation of the UN into the occupation of Kishishe by the M23 and make the conclusions public.” “International sanctions must be quickly imposed on those involved in the abuses, including Rwandan commanders who support the M23,” she concluded.
HRW’s accusations are added to those made by Amnesty International and the UN, which in December indicated that a “preliminary investigation” had confirmed that “the M23 rebels killed at least 131 civilians — 102 men, 17 women and twelve children–in acts of reprisals against the civilian population between November 29 and 30 in Kishishe and Bambo”.
In response, M23 denied the accusations and was “stunned” to “find out that an organization of the caliber of the UN Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) can do such a botched job.” Thus, he denounced the “genocide” in areas under government control and the beheading of several people at the hands of the Army and groups that Kinshasa allegedly supports, including the FDLR.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite the Congolese authorities and the M23 signing a peace agreement in December 2013 after fighting since 2012 with the Army, with the support of United Nations troops.
The situation has sparked a rise in tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, which accuses Kinshasa of backing the FDLR and allowing them to attack Congolese Tutsis. United Nations experts affirmed in a recent report that the Rwandan authorities maintain a “direct intervention” in the African country through their support for the group and pointed to “collusion” between the Army, the FLDR and the Mai-Mai militias.
