Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/pc/text/humanrts/zaire.txt

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TITLE:  ZAIRE HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995

                             ZAIRE


President Mobutu Sese Seko has dominated an authoritarian
governmental system since seizing power in a 1965 military
coup.  Under the pressure of economic crisis and domestic
unrest, Mobutu in 1990 announced a "transition to democracy."
Four years later, it remains far from complete.  A National
Conference (CNS) investigated official wrongdoing, drafted a
new Constitution, and selected Etienne Tshisekedi Wa Mulumba,
Mobutu's most implacable political foe, as Prime Minister.
Denouncing the authority and decisions of the CNS, Mobutu
dismissed Tshisekedi in 1993 and appointed a defector from
Tshisekedi's own Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS)
Party, Faustin Birindwa, as Prime Minister.  Refusing to
recognize Mobutu's authority to remove him, Tshisekedi presided
over a parallel set of governmental institutions until June,
while most of the basic functions of government came to a halt.

In mid-1994 Mobutu's political allies and opposition leaders
finally negotiated an end to the political impasse and
established a transition Parliament (the HCR-PT) which elected
the opposition Union of Independent Democrats's Kengo Wa Dondo
as transition Prime Minister.  Under the agreement, ministerial
positions are divided equally between Mobutu supporters and the
opposition.  The UDPS and some smaller opposition groups
continue to insist on Tshisekedi's legitimacy and refuse to
accept Kengo's election or the portfolios reserved for them.

President Mobutu generally retained control of his carefully
built overlapping security forces, a crucial factor in the
transitional process.  The President's brother-in-law, General
Baramoto Kpama Kpata, heads the Civil Guard, while Mobutu's
ethnic kinsman General Nzimbi Ngbale heads the Special
Presidential Division (DSP).  The regular armed forces, which
include the Gendarmerie, are poorly trained, poorly
disciplined, and not effective as an internal or external
security service.  Moreover, members of the security forces,
unpaid for months on end, frequently prey on civilians.  There
was one instance of large-scale armed forces pillaging, in the
town of Mbanza-Ngungu.  Members of the armed forces have also
been implicated in numerous cases of small-scale armed robbery,
extortion, and pillage.

The economy is based on subsistence agriculture, with little of
the hard currency revenue traditionally generated by the mining
and minerals industry, itself now crippled by deteriorating
infrastructure and lack of new investment.  Diamond exports--
much of them from outside regulated channels--are now the
mainstay of the country's hard currency revenues.  As the
economy contracted, public employees went unpaid for months at
a time, and corruption, blackmail, extortion, and embezzlement
became endemic.  At year's end, the Kengo Government was still
struggling to wrest control of the Central Bank from Mobutu,
and to halt an influx of illegally printed currency that pushed
the annual inflation rate to 7,800 percent.  Zaire has had no
government budget since 1992.

Both the security forces and the military continued to commit
widespread abuses, including extrajudicial killings and
infringement upon individual rights in the continuing
disintegration of state authority.  The security forces
continued to threaten, torture, and illegally detain officials
and others.  Some political demonstrations proceeded
unhindered, but police disrupted others with threats, arrests,
beatings, and detentions.  The present Government jailed and
prosecuted only a few soldiers and no officials for human
rights abuses.  Provincial officials continued to incite ethnic
strife leading to massive displacement and deaths in Shaba,
although on a smaller scale than the unprecedented violence in
1993.  The central Government tolerated it until August, when
the Prime Minister traveled to the area and publicly
reprimanded the Shaba governor.  The military and vigilantes
frequently committed acts of violence, usually with impunity.
Prison conditions, already life-threatening, deteriorated
further, although the Government did release sick prisoners.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1  Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
           Freedom from:

     a.  Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

The undisciplined security forces committed numerous
extrajudicial killings; in some cases these were linked to
personal rivalries.  With only token wages--often none--for
months at a time, many soldiers and gendarmes resorted to
robbery and extortion, sometimes killing their victims or
bystanders.  Human rights observers, the press and eyewitnesses
reported several dozen such fatal altercations, many committed
by uniformed personnel.  It is highly likely that additional
incidents went unreported, especially in Zaire's remote
interior.  In January security forces shot and killed a
Kinshasa currency vendor, and a soldier beat a taxi driver to
death; the soldier was tried and imprisoned.  In October a
military tribunal sentenced a warrant officer and several
enlisted troops to jail for killing a Goma businessman.

However, the Government neither investigated nor punished the
perpetrators in most cases, hindering efforts to determine the
number of killings and the extent of the security forces'
involvement.  In several cases, poorly trained soldiers put
down disturbances using lethal force.

In April elite security forces put down armed mutiny in
Mbanza-Ngungu and reportedly killed suspected looters.  Human
rights monitors reported that a series of confrontations
between security forces and local residents left at least two
civilians, a gendarme, and a soldier dead in Bukavu during
several days of intermittent rioting in January.  The
disturbances began when gendarmes investigating a looting
entered a home and wounded a resident; a crowd of civilians
then beat one of the gendarmes to death.  Over the next several
days, security forces and others looted homes and businesses,
wounded more people, and killed a security guard.  Two days
after the original altercation, a Civil Guard killed a vendor,
and civilian bystanders in turn killed him.  Credible
eyewitnesses have refuted earlier reports that security forces
killed three bystanders in June when authorities arrested
opposition leader Lambert Mende at a rally in Mbuji Mayi.

There were no known cases in which security forces deliberately
targeted political opponents or others for summary execution.
In a killing that may have had political overtones, journalist
Pierre Kabeya of Kin Matin was reportedly abducted, then shot
to death in June.  However, the motives and the perpetrators of
the killing remain unknown.  In a November case that remains
unresolved, journalist Adolphe Kavula of the newspaper Nsemo
was found semiconscious, several days after he disappeared from
his Kinshasa home and died shortly after.  The Kengo Government
investigation found no evidence of foul play, but several human
rights monitors believe security forces abducted, then fatally
wounded Mr. Kavula.

     b.  Disappearance

There were several reports of disappearances; however, given
the administrative breakdown throughout the country, some of
these incidents may be cases of criminal kidnaping rather than
politically motivated disappearances.  Although security forces
frequently hold detainees incommunicado or in secret jails,
they typically do not attempt to conceal the fact of detention
(see Section 1.d.).  There were scattered reports of abductions
in which unidentified assailants detained, threatened, and
sometimes beat journalists or opposition politicians before
releasing them.  In one such abduction, apparently linked to
the Union of Independent Republicans (UFERI) Party's campaign
of ethnic intimidation in Shaba province, assailants believed
to be members of the UFERI Youth Wing (JUFERI) demanded that a
public administrator give up his job in favor of a native of
Shaba.  In most abduction cases, a political motive is not
apparent.

     c.  Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
         Treatment or Punishment

Although the law forbids torture, security forces regularly
ignore this prohibition.  The use of torture is widespread, and
the authorities, including the judiciary, rarely investigate
claims of torture.  Security personnel frequently beat
prisoners in the process of arresting or interrogating them.
There were numerous reports that prisoners, including political
opponents of the Mobutu regime, were struck, burned, or
suspended upside down for long periods of time.

The press and human rights groups reported that undisciplined
and often unpaid security forces routinely resorted to robbery,
carjacking, extortion, and random acts of violence against
ordinary citizens.  Numerous reports from human rights monitors
and the press describe cases in which criminals believed to
belong to the security forces beat, raped, or threatened their
victims before stealing from them.  Top military officials have
informed their troops that they will prosecute such abuses in
military courts; in some cases, they did so.  For example,
officials discharged 30 soldiers, tried them as civilians, and
jailed them for their participation in the looting of
Mbanza-Ngungu in April (see Section 1.a.); military courts
convicted 3 of a 1993 pillage of a private residence in
Kinshasa, and convicted 2 others of the abduction, rape, and
beating of a civilian couple.  Many more such cases, however,
are neither investigated nor punished.  Prime Minister Kengo
failed to implement his promise to disarm all security force
members whose jobs did not require weapons for their current
duties.

Conditions in most of Zaire's 220 prisons and places of
detention remain life-threatening.  Human rights groups
recorded two deaths from malnutrition in Kinshasa's Makala
central prison in May, and six deaths in the Kananga prison in
May and June.  During the first half of the year, the central
Government all but ceased to provide prisons with operating
funds; consequently, virtually the only food and medical care
was that provided sporadically by relatives and private
charities.  Tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are
rampant.  Inmates in Makala sleep on the floor and have no
access to sanitation, potable water, or adequate health care.
Numerous reports on prisons in the interior suggest these
conditions are both typical and widespread.  Prime Minister
Kengo's Justice Ministry publicly deplored prison conditions
and appealed for international assistance but has made no
concrete improvements.  However, in August Justice Minister
Kamanda released 48 ill and malnourished prisoners.  Abuse of
prisoners is common.  In November, at the end of a fact-finding
tour, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Roberto
Garreton emphasized the problem of prison conditions, noting he
had witnessed evidence of abuse, including torture.

The Zairian Prison Fellowship, religious organizations and the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report that
they have regular access to prisons nationwide.  In some cases,
however, the Government's unpublicized creation of new
unofficial detention sites circumvents their access.  Measures
taken to separate men, women, and juvenile prisoners are often
inadequate.  Authorities have not targeted women for abuse,
although rape sometimes occurs.

     d.  Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

Under Zairian law, serious offenses, punishable by more than
6-months imprisonment, do not require a warrant for the arrest
of a suspect.  Any law enforcement officer having the status of
"judicial police officer" is empowered to authorize arrest.
This status is also vested in senior officers of each of the
security services.  The law provides that detainees be brought
before a magistrate for a hearing within 48 hours of arrest.
If grounds for arrest are presented, the magistrate may order
detention for an initial period of 15 days, followed by
renewable 30-day periods.

In practice, the Government uses arbitrary arrests to
intimidate political opponents.  Political arrests increased
during periods of heightened opposition activism, either in
connection with general strikes, demonstrations, or the
politicized atmosphere surrounding the June 14 election of
Prime Minister Kengo.  Authorities rarely file charges,
obscuring the precise motive for political arrests.  Typically,
police detain such prisoners for several days or weeks, then
grant provisional liberty without arraignment.

Political prisoners and others are often detained
incommunicado, with irregular or no access to legal counsel.
Human rights monitors report cases in which corrupt local
officials use detention as a means of extortion, arresting
people on fabricated charges, only releasing them after a
payment of a "fine."  Human rights monitors estimate that
police detained and questioned a half-dozen people about
opposition-sponsored general strikes.  For example, police
arrested two opposition leaders after general strikes, Pierre
Mankwamya in January and Olenga Nkoy in May.  They detained
both for several weeks, questioned them about the organization
of the strikes, and released them without formal hearings.  In
another case with political overtones, authorities arrested
UDPS leader Leon Kadima Muntutu on July 5, questioned him about
illegal currency exchanges, then released him over 2 months
later without charge.

It is difficult to estimate the number of political detainees
due to detention in clandestine and remote locations and
military facilities.  In mid-August, the Kengo Government
reported that virtually all prisoners were detained "for
cause," and that none was being held for purely political
reasons.

Security forces detained opposition leaders, sometimes very
briefly, in an apparent effort to halt or head off political
demonstrations.  Security forces arrested up to 80 people when
they broke up a January demonstration by the Lumumbist Palu
Party.  They released most detainees within hours, but held
eight Palu leaders for several days.

Police detained Lambert Mende, a spokesman for the opposition
Holy Union, for several hours when he tried to address a rally
in Mbuji Mayi in June; on August 16, police detained three
opposition labor leaders, Enos Bavela, Benjamin Mukulungu, and
Kibaswa Kwabene, for most of the day when they attempted to
organize a demonstration in Kinshasa.

In an incident that still remains unexplained, police detained
former Prime Minister and chief of the radical opposition
Etienne Tshisekedi on June 12 when he went on or near a
military base.  They released Tshisekedi himself hours later
without charge but kept three bodyguards and a driver who were
arrested with him in custody for 2 months without charge.

Seventy percent of the inmates of Makala prison were officially
awaiting trial.  Human rights and religious organizations
suggest the problem is at least this severe elsewhere, with as
many as 80 percent of inmates awaiting trial in some prisons in
the interior.

The Transition Act of 1994 specifically forbids exile, and
there were no known cases.

     e.  Denial of Fair Public Trial

Despite constitutional provisions, the judiciary is not
independent of the executive branch, and the executive branch
often manipulates it.  Zaire's civil and criminal codes are
based on Belgian and customary law.  The legal system includes
lower courts, appellate courts, the Supreme Court, and the
Court of State Security.  Adherence to acceptable legal
procedures varies considerably.  Charges of misconduct against
senior government officials must be filed directly with the
Supreme Court.  Corruption is pervasive, particularly among
magistrates who are poorly paid and poorly trained.  The
judicial system is further hobbled by shortages of personnel,
essential supplies, and intimidation of justices.  There is a
system of separate military tribunals with an appeals structure
that parallels that of civilian courts.  Decisions from the
military tribunals may be appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Transition Act provides for the right to a speedy public
trial, the presumption of innocence, and legal counsel at all
stages of proceedings.  Defendants have the right to appeal in
all cases except those involving national security, armed
robbery, and smuggling, which are adjudicated by the Court of
State Security.  The law provides for court-appointed counsel
at state expense in capital cases, in all proceedings before
the Supreme Court, and in other cases when requested by a
court.  In practice, the authorities frequently ignore these
protections.  Many defendants never meet their counsel or do so
only after months of detention and interrogation.  The
judiciary ceased to function for several months when judicial
workers struck to protest the nonpayment of public employees.
Most cases are heard only when defendant and plaintiff pay all
court costs, including salaries, a situation which encourages
corruption.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
         Correspondence

Security forces routinely ignore the Constitution's provision
for the inviolability of the home and of private
correspondence.  They ignore the requirement for a search
warrant, entering and searching homes at will.  Under the
pretext of searching for arms, troops entered and looted the
home of a leader of the radical opposition in Kinshasa; troops
also looted the home of an urban commissar in Kolwezi.  Human
rights monitors and the press report numerous other instances
in which gangs believed to be security forces entered and
looted private homes, sometimes abusing or threatening the
residents.  In many of these cases, simple robbery, rather than
political intimidation, appeared to be the motive.  Citizens
widely assume that the Government monitors mail and telephone
communications.

     g.  Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian
         Law in Internal Conflicts

Regional government officials continued to provoke ethnic
clashes in Shaba province and to expel inhabitants originally
from the neighboring provinces of Eastern and Western Kasai,
many of whom have lived in Shaba for several generations.
Throughout most of the year, provincial Governor Gabriel Kyungu
Wa Kumwanza continued to publicly blame Shaba's economic
problems on the Kasaians.  On several occasions, militant
members of Kyungu's UFERI party blocked entry to Kasaian Lubas
at their places of employment, blocked Kasaian farmers from
working in their fields, and in general impeded passage of
non-Shabans.  These attacks began to decline in mid-1994,
especially after Prime Minister Kengo's August visit to Shaba,
when he publicly reprimanded Kyungu for persecuting the
Kasaians.  As a result of intimidation and the violent clashes
of previous years, Kasaians continued to leave Shaba province.
Most of them are thought to have returned to impoverished
farming communities in Eastern Kasai, although many remain
crowded into certain towns in northern Shaba, where they depend
on international assistance for survival.

Other political rivalries touched off sporadic incidents of
violence.  In July a group of UDPS supporters, who are
frequently found in the street in front of opposition leader
Tshisekedi's residence, seized three uniformed soldiers and
beat them severely.  Subsequently, a larger group of soldiers
arrived and beat several UDPS supporters and bystanders in
retaliation.  During the ensuing melee, shots were fired,
several people were hurt, Tshisekedi's home was damaged and
some of his possessions looted.

Section 2  Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

     a.  Freedom of Speech and Press

The Constitution and the Transition Act provide for the right
to express opinion, but the Government restricts this right.
In practice, the press and public discussion are freer than
before President Mobutu ended the one-party state.  During the
latter half of the year, for example, opposition leaders have
significantly increased their presence on the airwaves.
Nonetheless, sporadic local attempts at control and
intimidation frequently occur.  Newspaper publishers are
required to deposit copies of each issue with the Ministry of
Information prior to publication.  An ambiguous ordinance on
"press freedom" which fails to define "freedom of the press"
also serves to promote self-censorship and intimidate
journalists, as does outright intimidation and violence.  For
example, security forces abducted, threatened, beat, and
detained journalists before releasing them (see Section 2.b.).

Human rights monitors reported cases of outright intimidation.
Security forces searched and ransacked the Kinshasa offices of
L'Analyst, forcing employees to vacate the premises.  They also
jailed a journalist for Le Point du Zaire for denouncing the
embezzlement of humanitarian assistance by President Mobutu's
Popular Movement for the Revolution (MPR) Party chairman.
Several other journalists and editors in the print media
claimed security forces threatened them, subjected them to
obvious surveillance, or summoned them for interrogation.  The
editor of L'Essor Africain went into hiding when he received
such a summons.  The editor of La Reference Plus obeyed his
summons; security forces subsequently questioned him for
several hours.

In May a court sentenced a printer to 4 months' imprisonment
for distribution of leaflets calling for a general strike.

In January Shaba provincial governor Kyungu suspended the
Lubumbashi newspaper Mukuba for an article deemed "seditious,"
and he also suspended Taifa editor Crispin Luamba for "being a
nonnative."  One month later, the Government fined Le Soft for
its article on the Information Minister's embezzlement of
funds.  In an ongoing case, the Government ordered Solidarite
to divulge its sources for an article threatening the pillage
of local churches.

On occasion, the Government or security forces interfered with
the distribution of newspapers.  In April elements of the
Military Action and Research Service seized and burned
newspapers sold by small vendors in Kinshasa.  The governor of
Maniema ordered a man arrested and detained for a month for
bringing "opposition" newspapers from Kinshasa into the
province.

The Kengo Government allowed many foreign journalists to report
throughout the year.  However, in March the Birindwa government
investigated and expelled a Belgian documentary cinema producer.

Although numerous newspapers are published in Kinshasa, their
impact largely remains confined to the capital and a few major
cities.  Only the government-controlled radio and, to a much
lesser extent, television, reach mass audiences.  The Zairian
Radio and Television Office fired 9 of the 12 reporters in the
broadcast media whom it had suspended the previous year,
apparently for excessive independence in reporting.

The Government generally respects discussion within the
university community but restricts the right to publish.

     b.  Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

The right of the people to assemble peacefully has never been
firmly established.  The Government requires all organizers of
public meetings to apply for a permit.  In February the
governor of Kinshasa issued an additional decree arbitrarily
forbidding all political demonstrations while the Parliament is
in session; the decree still stands.

Security forces repressed several political demonstrations,
some of them violently.  In January they broke up a
demonstration by the Lumumbist party Palu, beating the
participants and arresting several dozen persons.  They
released many of the participants within hours but detained
eight for several days.  They also disrupted two other Palu
demonstrations, in January and in May, in similar fashion.

At times, the Government tried to prevent demonstrations by
denying permission or arresting the groups' leaders.  The
Government denied permission to the pro-Tshisekedi UDPS to
demonstrate in February and in May.  A human rights monitor
reported that security forces arrested a UDPS supporter when he
tried to organize a demonstration.  In August security forces
arrested three leaders of the UDPS-oriented CDT Union
Confederation who were attempting to lead a small demonstration
of public functionaries.  The security forces detained the
union leaders for several hours, until the Justice Ministry
ordered their release.  The UDPS did, however, hold a major
rally in June without incident, in sharp contrast to a rally
that the Government violently repressed in 1993.

     c.  Freedom of Religion

There is no legally favored church or religion, but the
Transition Act and the Constitution previously in effect limit
religious freedom by authorizing the Government to regulate
religious sects.

The 1971 law regulating religious organizations grants civil
servants the power to establish or dissolve religious groups.
This law restricted the process for official recognition;
however, officially recognized religions are free to establish
places of worship and to train clergy.  Most recognized
churches have external ties, and foreign nationals are allowed
to proselytize.  The Government generally does not interfere
with foreign missionaries.

There has been no further known persecution of the Jehovah's
Witnesses.  However, the Supreme Court in 1993 ordered the
Kengo Government to pay damages to the church because the
Mobutu government had banned it in 1986 as a danger to the
national interest.  The Government has reportedly not yet paid
these damages.

     d.  Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
         Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation

The Government restricts freedom of movement.  All citizens,
refugees and permanent residents must carry identity cards.
Police and soldiers erect checkpoints on major roads to inspect
papers.  Security forces frequently use such inspections to
extort money from travelers at airports, ferry ports and
roadblocks.  In July a decree by Prime Minister Kengo banned
such roadblocks.  Subsequent reporting indicates that, while
there have been sporadic improvements in some areas, many
roadblocks remain, particularly in remote areas of the interior.

Passports and exit permits are available, in principle, to all
citizens, often at exorbitant cost from corrupt officials.
There continue to be sporadic cases in which security forces
harass human rights monitors and opposition politicians who
attempt to leave the country.  In some of these cases security
forces confiscated travel documents or other papers, forcing
people to delay their travel.

Zaire was the destination of one of the largest refugee
movements in history, when over 1 million Rwandans poured into
the eastern border towns of Goma and Bukavu in a 5-day period.
The influx quickly overwhelmed the Government's material and
administrative resources and created security concerns of
alarming proportions.  Undisciplined Zairian security forces
robbed and extorted goods from refugees and relief agencies.
Further complicating the security situation, the ranks of the
refugees included an estimated 33,000 retreating Rwandan troops
and an unknown number of militiamen.  While the armed forces
confiscated many weapons at the border crossing, weapons were
smuggled through checkpoints and across remote border areas,
contributing to insecurity in the camps.  At year's end, former
Rwandan military and government officials still controlled most
of the refugee camps.  They intimidated both the refugees who
wished to return home and relief workers.  Citing concerns for
their security and that of the refugees, numerous relief
organizations threatened to halt operations in the camps,
unless an international security force was established there.
By year's end, at least one, Medecins Sans Frontieres/France,
had shut down operations in the camps for security reasons.
The Zairian Government has sought assistance from the
international community in providing security for the camps.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
estimates that 1.1 million Rwandan refugees remain in Zaire.

Early in 1994, only 40,000 Burundian refugees remained of some
90,000 who had fled 1993 fighting, but continued instability in
Burundi caused additional Burundians to enter, increasing the
Burundian population to 125,000.  Many of the newly arrived
Burundian refugees live in camps, and virtually all depend on
assistance from international agencies and nongovernmental
organizations (NGO's).  Zaire also hosts stable refugee
populations of Angolans, Sudanese, Ugandans, and others.  In
November, in an action protested by the UNHCR, Zaire forcibly
repatriated 37 Rwandan refugees who were accused of committing
crimes in Zaire.