AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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paratory meeting of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in Benin, as authorized by the
Lusaka Accords (see Section 3). The Government already had expressed its intention
not to participate in the U.N.-sponsored forum, which had been organized by Inter-
Congolese Dialogue facilitator and former Botswana Prime Minister Sir Ketumile
Masire. The Government successfully prevented initial efforts to launch the forum
by preventing civil society and opposition groups from participating and confiscating
all travel documents of intended participants. By year’s end, the Government still
had not returned the travel documents of these individuals.
The Government also prevented the departure of foreign journalists. Airport immigration
officials searched luggage, confiscated notes, and detained the journalists
for questioning (see Section 2.a.).
The Government lifted Kinshasa’s nighttime curfew in December 1999. No new
curfew was imposed during the year.
The significant risk of rape, sometimes perpetrated by uniformed men, restricted
freedom of movement at night for women in many neighborhoods. Groups of citizens
implemented neighborhood watch programs, but women in many parts of Kinshasa
and Lubumbashi did not leave their homes at night due to fear of attack.
Freedom of movement in the rebel-controlled territories was restricted severely
during the year as a result of fighting between the rebels, Rwandan and Ugandan
forces, the Mai Mai, and the Interahamwe. Travel across the war front often was
inconvenient and sometimes impossible.
In the eastern portion of the country, rebel forces prevented travel and harassed
travelers. On February 11, RCD/Goma rebel forces operating in eastern areas of the
country prevented the Archbishop of Bukavu from returning to his diocese (see Section
2.c.). RCD/Goma officials allowed Archbishop Kataliko to return to Bukavu in
September, following visits and direct appeals to the RCD/Goma by high level foreign
government and Catholic Church officials; however, the Archbishop died of a
heart attack less then 3 weeks later while in Rome.
Rebel and Rwandan authorities used threats and intimidation to prevent several
dozen Congolese who had traveled from the occupied territories from returning after
attending the National Consultations. This action resulted in civil society members
from the occupied territories being stranded in Kinshasa for weeks, and sometimes
months, after the National Consultations. On April 22, security forces arrested civil
society activist Bruno Bahati as he returned from the National Consultations, and
reportedly kept him in detention in both Rwanda and the Kivu Provinces until August.
Rwandan authorities freed Bahati following international pressure (see Section
1.d.).
An international human rights NGO estimates that there are approximately 1.5
million IDP’s in the country. Approximately 60,000 persons were displaced during
fighting between Rwandan and Ugandan forces in Kisangani in May and June (see
Section 1.a.). There are many camps for IDP’s, especially in the eastern half of the
country. Persons at these camps were subjected to attacks by government and rebel
groups. For example, in July a group believed to be Interahamwe attacked an IDP
camp in North Kivu Province. Approximately 50 persons were killed, including some
who were burned alive inside their homes (see Section 1.a.). During the night of
July 9 and 10, an unidentified militia attacked an encampment of displaced persons
at Sake, in the Masisi territory of North Kivu Province (see Section 1.a.).
The law includes provisions for the granting of refugee and asylee status in accordance
with the provisions of the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. The Government continued to provide first asylum.
Refugees were accepted into the country from the Republic of the Congo during the
year, and approximately 330,000 refugees from neighboring countries, including
Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Uganda, and Sudan, live in the country.
Unlike in the previous year, there were no known reports of the forced repatriation
of refugees during the year.
According to international human rights NGO’s, approximately 300,000 Congolese
refugees lived in neighboring countries during the year, including approximately
100,000 in the Republic of the Congo and 9,000 in the Central African Republic. In
the last months of the year, thousands of refugees fled to Zambia from the increased
fighting in Katanga Province.
The Government’s cooperation with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) and other international agencies fluctuated wildly. The Government consistently
denied humanitarian access to NGO workers in areas controlled by the
Government (see Section 4). The Minister of Interior personally had to sign travel
authorizations for foreign aid workers, which created delays in travel. The Ministry
of Human Rights and in particular Human Rights Minister She Okitundu played
an active role in organizing the protection and voluntary departure of Tutsis who
were not incarcerated before their departure from the country. Since the start of the
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