AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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The State continued to be highly centralized in many ways. The central government
executive, in Kinshasa, generally appointed governors, but once in the provinces
they had considerable autonomy, due in part to poor communications and
transportation infrastructure. Territorial administrators also were appointed from
Kinshasa. Provincial government resources, both financial and logistical, have come
almost exclusively from Kinshasa since Kabila took control of the Government.
A disproportionate number of officials in Kabila’s Government were from the
President’s home province of Katanga and from his Muluba tribe (see Section 5).
There are no official restrictions on the participation of women or minorities in
politics; however, in practice women and minorities are underrepresented in government
and politics, and there are few women or Muslims in senior positions in the
Government or in political parties. There were six female ministers and vice ministers
in the Cabinet at year’s end. There were no known Muslim ministers in the
Cabinet.
The rebel movements established civil administrations in the areas controlled by
antigovernment forces, including appointment of provincial governors and issuance
of visas for foreigners to travel into their areas. Rebel authorities reportedly began
training police forces but appointed local officials rather than holding local elections.
Section 4. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation
of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
The Government showed increased hostility to effective human rights organizations,
both domestic or international, operating in the country. Local human rights
NGO’s continued to investigate and publish their findings on human rights cases,
but these activities took place in the context of significant government harassment.
Such harassment led to a decrease in reporting of human rights violations. There
reportedly were several attacks against local and international human rights NGO’s
during the year.
The main domestic human rights organizations operating in the country include
Comite Droits de l’Homme Maintenant, a national network of human rights organizations;
VSV, an active Kinshasabased organization; Groupe Jeremie and Groupe
Amos, two Christianinspired groups that focus on human rights and democracy
problems; Comites des Observateurs des Droits de l’Homme, a human rights monitoring
group; Toges Noires, an international association of lawyers and judges involved
with human rights; and Associations de Defense des Droits de l’Homme. In
addition numerous groups are active that are involved with development and with
specific problems such as voter education and women’s rights.
Local human rights activists were subjected to frequent harassment, arrest, and
detention by security forces (see Sections 1.c., 1.d., and 1.f.). The legality of such arrests
often was unclear, as was the authority of the security forces members who
affected the arrests and detentions. Security agents and police arrested, and on
some occasions, beat or tortured, a number of persons for being members of human
rights NGO’s or for possessing literature distributed by human rights NGO’s, including
Kayembe Kasuku, a member of Lawyer’s Without Borders; Time Missine;
Betshi Pitcal; Zuzi Phukuta Dieudonne, a reporter for the newspaper Palme d’Or
and president of Justice Sans Frontiere; and Reverend Placide Tshisumpa
Tshiakatumba, president of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) (see
Section 1.d.). Unlike in the previous year, VSV staff was not subjected to government
harassment.
The Government often obstructed the travel of MONUC personnel throughout the
country. The Government consistently denied humanitarian access to NGO workers
in areas controlled by the Government (see Section 2.d.).
U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Roberto Garreton, visited the country in August. After reviewing the prevailing
human rights situation, the U.N. Rapporteur called for the release of political
prisoners and the end of capital punishment in the country. He expressed concern
at the abuses of and absence of due process in government military tribunals,
as well as at a wide variety of serious abuses in both government-controlled and
RCD-controlled territory.
Human rights groups and members of political, religious, and other nongovernmental
organizations in the parts of the country held by antigovernment forces frequently
were harassed and detained on suspicion of helping the Government (see
Sections 1.c. and 1.d.).
On March 6, RCD/Goma security agents raided the offices of a women’s group,
Reseau des Femmes Pour La Defense de Droits et de la Paix (see Section 2.b.). Security
agents claimed that the women were plotting genocide and threatened to shoot
them. Several women lost their jobs after the incident as RCD/Goma authorities coerced
employers to dismiss them.
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