The report documenting the most serious human rights violations committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 1993 and 2003 will be made public on 1 October, the United Nations announced today.
The so-called mapping exercise and its resulting report are "unprecedented in scope," the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated in a news release, noting that it covers 10 years and the entire territory of the DRC, not just the war-torn east.
Its overarching objective is to help the people of the region in establishing transitional judicial systems and assist in the fight against impunity.
The report, a draft of which was recently leaked and published in the French newspaper Le Monde, describes a total of more than 600 incidents in the DRC during the 10-year period in which tens of thousands of people were killed, and reportedly implicates a number of groups in the atrocities.
"Following requests, we have decided to give concerned States a further month to comment on the draft," said High Commissioner Navi Pillay.
Relevant Links
"I have offered to publish any such comments alongside the report itself on 1 October, if they so wish," she added.
More than 1,280 witnesses were interviewed to corroborate or invalidate alleged violations, including previously undocumented incidents, and at least 1,500 documents were collected and analysed during the two years that it took to research and write the report.
Comments 1 to 2 of 2 Post a comment
I know what has happened in 1994 in Rwanda (I have spoken with survivors), and I also know that the genocide ideology has been alive at least since 1959. My wife's parents have been killed in such an incident in 1973. I also think the downing of the president's plane was not the trigger tot the killings, just a pretext. But I also learned from different sources a general picture of what happened in eastern Congo in the years after 1994. Their is no excuse for chasing and killing people just because they happen to belong tot the other side! Rwanda has the right to join its remarks to its defense to the UN report, but has not right to alter it or boil it down to some "self-defense" story. In every war, their are, have been and will be war crimes. That's inevitable. Once someone's mind is full of violence, there are no limits anymore. Now I believe that, after what happened in Rwanda in 1994, killing someone just because he/she happened to be hutu seemed to be justified in the eyes of the (mostly tutsi) soldiers that invaded Congo, backing Kabila sr. But it was wrong in the eyes of the law and the rules of war. The UN report must be published (with remarks of the warring parties) and perpetrators of violent acts have tot be brought to justice, along with their commanders.
What is wrong in the eyes of the law? Chasing down murderers who killed innocent Tutsis with machetes? How can you speak about justice and defend these monsters who committed such atrocities. What should of Kagame do...let these criminals run away after killing over 1million innocent people? It's very sad when you people forget what you've done. Did you not murder innocent Tutsis and moderate Hutus with brains who did not want to participate in your animal like behaviour? You brainless people killed people youve been living with for years you killed your neighbours who helped raise your kids. How can you expect not to be punished? I know you really have no brain when you kill someone run away and complain that youre being chased down? Why dont you stupid Interahamwe/FDLR members put down your weapons and pay for your sins? If not continue to hide in the Congo and wait for your fait, but please stop complaining that your being hunted like the stupid animals you are. This idiot jozef.weyn1 thinks these people are being killed simply because they are Hutu, but does not think about the Hutus living in Rwanda side by side with Tutsi in peace. These animals hiding in the mountains are doing so because they are guilty and cannot put down their weapon confess to there crimes, so they must be hunted down. If Kagame was killing these people because they were Hutus then why wouldnt he kill the ones in Rwanda? Or the one who have escaped the Interahamwe/FDLR? Why must you be so stupid? Do you think Kagame thinks like you stupid Interahamwe/FDLR he does not kill for nothing, only when it is deserved like the animals who committed slaughter in Rwanda.