ituri: “covered in blood” - Human Rights Watch

On December 9, 2002 I was talking with my family in Aru when UPC soldiers entered the compound.
[Commanders ]. . . ordered the soldiers to shoot anyone who tried to flee. They forced us to strip, tied us
up, and made us lie face down. Then they hit us with large sticks all over our legs, buttocks, and backs.
One of the commanders accused us of communicating with Kinshasa, Beni, the Lendu and Aru to bring
the war to Bunia, but I was just a student. He said they were trying to find fuel to burn me. I prayed and
they laughed at me saying God couldn’t save me. I was then taken to the house of one of the
commanders and put into a large hole in the ground. They beat us till we cried. There were other
prisoners in the hole who were in a terrible state. We were 20 in total. There were two Lendu men who
looked as if they had been really badly beaten: Ngdjole and Lobo, who had a broken arm, and a Nande
man called Kasiko. The night of December 12 the soldiers came with guns and called these three men.
All day long they had been taunting them, asking them how they wanted to die. We shouted at them
saying what they were doing was illegal. But they took the men anyway. We heard them cry and ten
minutes later the soldiers came back. I was told the three men had been killed. It wasn’t a normal place;
it was a place of execution. 139
In this case and those detailed below, witnesses identified their torturers by name to Human Rights Watch
researchers.
On November 11, 2002, UPC authorities arrested the most senior judge in Ituri, Jacques Kabasele, accusing him
of having contacts with their enemies. The judge related:
I was at home when two people from the DGM [Department of Internal Security] together with a soldier
told me that I had been summoned by their boss. They handed me a “bulletin des services” which said
that I was required for an investigation. They arrested me and took me to one of the prison cells at the
DGM. For two days I waited. There was no formal charge placed against me nor was I allowed access to
a lawyer. On November 13 at 7:00 p.m. a team came to interrogate me including officials from the DGM.
They asked me many questions about whether I had been in contact with Beni, Kinshasa, or the outside
world. They accused me of being in contact with Kabila, Mbusa Nyamwisi, and former Governor
Molondo but I had not. They told me the order for my arrest had come from President Lubanga and then
they left. I was not physically threatened and I believe they were more careful than usual as they were
aware of my knowledge of the law.
They kept me in prison for eighteen days and then released me. No formal charge was laid against me. I
requested an official document to explain my absence from work and also I wanted my record cleared but
I received no document. The UPC President Lubanga refused to meet with me.
I cannot move around freely and I often do not sleep in my own house. People here are afraid. The UPC
does whatever they like and have no respect for the law. 140
Not only senior officials but also ordinary workers were accused of betraying the UPC. Bicycle carriers, known
locally as Kumba Kumba 141 , were suspected of carrying messages from Beni or Mongbwalu to Bunia. On August
23, 2002, UPC authorities went to a warehouse where the bicycle carriers usually picked up their goods. They
arrested eleven men including Mahamba Kisala, Tavugha Nzuva, Kalandero Kambale and Sivyalo Ndungo. A
witness said:
The UPC asked the carriers for their ID cards. Most of them have two ID cards in order to facilitate their
work – one where they are from and one to where they are going. This is quite common. But the UPC
139 Human Rights Watch interview, Arua, February 2003.
140 Human Rights Watch interview, Bunia, February 2003.
141 Lingala word meaning people of the bikes.
Human Rights Watch
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July 2003, Vol. 15,No. 11 (A)