The 57-page report, `Covered in Blood': Ethnically Targeted Violence in
Northern DR Congo, provides evidence that combatants in the Ituri region of
northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have slaughtered some five
thousand civilians in the last year because of their ethnic affiliation. But
the combatants are armed and often directed by the governments of the DRC,
Rwanda and Uganda.

A number of treaties and ceasefires, the most recent signed in Burundi on
June 19, have supposedly ended the conflict between the governments of
Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC, as well as Congolese rebel movements set to
share power with the Kinshasa government. But the minor players-often the
proxies for the principals-continue the war.

"Agreements between governments don't do much good when the government armies
are just passing their guns on to local militias," said Alison Des Forges,
Senior Adviser to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. "The crisis in
Congo won't be resolved without addressing all levels of this conflict."

The majority of the population in Ituri are neither Hema nor Lendu, the
ethnic groups whose militias are responsible for much of the current
violence. But all inhabitants of Ituri have been forced to choose sides, and
are subject to attack because they are thought to be associated with either
Hema or Lendu groups.

In recent months, human rights workers have not had access to rural Ituri or
been able to provide information about specific massacres of civilians. But
the Human Rights Watch report covering events in the past 12 months presents
evidence of, among others, a civilian massacre at Nyakunde in early September
2002, where Lendu combatants slaughtered some 1,200 people of the Hema and
related groups. Over a 10-day period, the killers dragged victims from their
homes and murdered patients found in beds at a missionary hospital. According
to Human Rights Watch research, the Nyakunde massacre claimed significantly
more victims than has previously been known.

Uganda occupied Ituri, an area rich in mineral resources and potentially a
major source of oil, from 1998 to May 2003, when it withdrew its troops under
heavy international pressure. During its occupation, Ugandan soldiers
provided arms and military training to different ethnic groups, fostering the
spread of an initially limited dispute between Hema and Lendu over land..

The DRC government supports and arms the Congolese Rally for
Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML) which often joins in combat with
militia of the Lendu and related Ngiti groups. Rwanda backs the RCD-Goma, a
movement split from the RCD-ML, that provides aid to the Union of Patriotic
Congolese (UPC), a Hema militia group that has recently controlled the Ituri
town of Bunia.

The Human Rights Watch report details how combatants tortured and summarily
executed political opponents and raped women of rival ethnic groups. They
also engaged in such inhumane acts as the mutilitation of bodies and
cannibalism.

"Violent death is now an everyday occurrence in Ituri," said Des Forges.
"Killers have resorted to cannibalism to terrorize people they want to
control."

The Human Rights Watch report charges that all groups recruited children,
some as young as seven years old, for military service. Local observers
describe the fighting forces as "armies of children."

Militia have driven some half a million people from their homes, and looted
and burned the dwellings. To weaken their enemies, various militia have
impeded deliveries of food or other forms of humanitarian aid to displaced
people and others in need, increasing immeasurably the number of civilians
dead because of the war. In some thirty cases in recent months they have
threatened, beaten, and expelled humanitarian workers.

A United Nations Observer Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo
(MONUC), present primarily to monitor ceasefire arrangements, had neither the
mandate nor the numbers and equipment needed to protect civilians.

After UPC Hema militia slaughtered hundreds of civilians in Bunia in early
May, the U.N. Security Council authorized an Interim Emergency Multinational
Force to restore order inside the town. The Multinational Force, consisting
mostly of French troops, was the first mission ever deployed by the European
Union. It has managed to stop killing inside Bunia, but will end its mission
in September.

In September, the U.N. force, strengthened by several thousand more soldiers,
will be the only international force present in DRC. The Security Council
will soon consider the size and mandate for the force.

"The Security Council must ensure that civilians in Bunia and elsewhere will
be protected after the interim force leaves," said Des Forges. "They must
provide the peacekeepers and the mandate necessary to prevent further ethnic
killing."

The report is available at:
 http://hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/