Democratic Republic of the Congo – Researched and compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on 28 May 2014

Reports on the Hema people in the east of the DR Congo – reports on violence and persecution suffered during early – reports on the Hema-Lendu conflict - whether members of the Hema people (and particularly women) still face persecution and other human rights violations in the DR Congo.

An Institute for War & Peace Reporting article on the situation in the Ituri region of the DRC states:

“As conflict continues throughout much of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in advance of the first elections in 46 years, the Ituri region in the northeast remains this vast country's bloodiest corner. The scale of the inter- ethnic slaughter in the remote, mineral-rich region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has been compared in intensity, if not in scale with that in nearby in 1994. Lendu agriculturalists in Ituri tend to regard themselves as kin to the Rwanda’s , while the cattle-herding Hema identify with the . Just as the Hutus and the Tutsis fell into murderous conflict, so the Lendu and Hema have followed their example.” (Institute for War & Peace Reporting (2 August 2006) Ituri: The Congo's Own Rwanda)

The Introduction to a report published by the Rift Valley Institute states:

“Between 1999 and 2003, at least 55,000 people were killed and more than 500,000 displaced in a conflict that involved local militias and armies from three countries. The violence began with land disputes between Hema landowners and Lendu farmers that spiralled out of control once the Ugandan army got involved. The conflict further escalated when it became part of a regional conflagration involving the Ugandan, Congolese, and Rwandan governments. The UPC did not exist at the start of these hostilities.” (Rift Valley Institute (2013) UPC in Ituri: The External Militarization of Local Politics in North-eastern Congo, p.11)

A Human Rights Watch report, in a section titled “The Hema - Lendu Conflict”, refers to the origin of the conflict as follows:

“This conflict began in June 1999 when a small number of Hema allegedly attempted to bribe local authorities into modifying land ownership registers in their favor in the area of Walendu Pitsu, part of the Djugu district of Ituri. They reportedly used the false papers to evict Lendu inhabitants from the land, or so some local Lendu believed. These Lendu decided to retaliate. In the absence of a strong local authority, the incident quickly turned into a confrontation between the two communities.” (Human Rights Watch (8 July 2003) Covered in Blood: Ethnically Targeted Violence in Northern DRC, p.18)

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In a section titled “Massacres and Other Human Rights Abuses” (paragraph headed “The Attack on ”) this report states:

“The early August violence in Bunia demonstrates three essential aspects of the conflict in Ituri. First, all parties commit abuses. In this case it was more or less simultaneously with both Hema and Lendu armed groups killing civilians of the opposing ethnicity, often in their homes. In other cases the killing has taken place in succession purportedly as retaliation for attacks. Second, the support of external actors is important. In most cases such support remains in the background, but in this case, the aid of the Ugandan army clearly assured the UPC victory. Third, as in all other cases, civilians bore and continue to bear the brunt of the casualties.” (ibid, p.19)

In a section titled “Massacres and Other Abuses by the APC and by Lendu and Ngiti Armed Groups” this report refers to the killing of Hema civilians as follows:

“Lendu and Ngiti combatants massacred civilians of the Hema, Gegere and sometimes the Bira groups in late 2002. Among the cases documented by Human Rights Watch researchers were the slaughter at Komanda in August and early September 2002; at Nyakunde on September 5, 2002; at Nizi on October 11, 2002; and at Blukwa and Logo in October 2002. Often seeing themselves as victims, the Lendu and Ngiti combatants apparently believed their attacks to be justified reprisals against previous instances of Hema violence.” (ibid, p.30)

See also section titled “Lendu and Ngiti Summary Executions Tolerated by RCD-ML Authorities” which states:

“Lendu and Ngiti militia killed individuals of opposing ethnic groups just as they attacked large communities of such people. When RCD-ML authorities were in control of , militia abused and sometimes killed Hema for no reason except their ethnic affiliation. Many Hema feared beatings or worse and left town. One witness related the killing of a newborn boy taken from the maternity ward of the hospital because both his mother and father were Hema. Had his father been of another ethnic group, the baby would not have been killed because ethnic affiliation is passed through the father’s line according to the witness.” (ibid, p.35)

An Amnesty International report, in a section titled “The Hema – Lendu conflict”, states:

“Land disputes between Hema landowners and Lendu smallholders in May and June 1999 sparked an inter-communal conflict that has so far claimed tens of thousands of civilian lives. Political and military leaders in the region have remorselessly stoked the conflict for political, territorial and commercial gain. In the early stages of the fighting, between June 1999 and early 2000, which was centred on Djugu territory, Hema militias, often backed by the UPDF who supplied them with firearms, quickly gained the upper hand. Lendu communities were driven from their traditional areas, particularly along key roads leading to the Ugandan border. As the conflict continued, however, the Lendu have benefited from alliances with other ethnic communities and armed political groups. Both the Hema and Lendu, spurred on by their

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leaders’ incitement to ethnic hatred, have become increasingly extremist in outlook. The violence has been exceptionally brutal, marked by mass killings with ‘armes blanches’ – machetes, axes, spears and bow and arrow – and the wholesale burning of villages and displacement of their populations.” (Amnesty International (20 March 2003) Democratic Republic of Congo: On the precipice: The deepening human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ituri, p.4)

The Summary (paragraph 4) of a UN Security Council report states:

“There have long been tensions and conflict between the Hema and Lendu communities in the district, fuelled by bad governance. The latest conflict – which has provoked so many of the abuses - was sparked off by a particular land dispute in 1998 when some Hema concessionaires took advantage of the weakened State apparatus to illegally enlarge their estates to the detriment of neighbouring mostly Lendu agriculturalists.' The agriculturalists revolted when law enforcement agents came to evict them and in response they tried to destroy the land of the Hema concessionaires. Initially starting to the north of Bunia, this violence gradually extended to the whole of lturi district. Moreover. while spreading through the district, the conflict quickly turned into a confrontation opposing the two communities, the Hema and the Lendu. This conflict would not have reached such a level of violence without the involvement of national Congolese players, as well as of foreign Governments. The Ugandan army, already present in lturi since late 1998, fuelled the conflict by initially supporting some Hema notables and allegedly bombed hundreds of Lendu villages. Some Lendu traditional authorities created self-defence units. Believing that a Hema conspiracy existed against them, the Lendu militias began attacking Hema villages solely on account of their ethnicity.” (UN Security Council (16 July 2004) Special report on the events in Ituri, Jan 2002-Dec 2003 (S/2004/573), pp.4-5)

In a section titled “Background to the conflict” (paragraph 23) this report states:

“Having fled to the bush after the destruction of their villages between 1999 and 2001, the Lendu people of Djugu, and later those of Irumu, chose to take justice into their own hands. Their reprisals resulted in the massacre of thousands of innocent Hema civilians.” (ibid, p.11)

See also section titled “Most serious human rights abuses committed in Ituri district from January 2002 to 31 December 2003” (paragraph 36) which states:

“Lendu combatants engaged in inhumane acts such as mutilation and cannibalism, often under the effect of drugs prepared by their traditional healers. They abducted children and women for forced labour and sexual slavery. According to two eyewitnesses who were released, Lendu combatants told them that they were not killing Hema children but giving drugs to ‘transform them into Lendu’. Hundreds of Hema women were sexually abused and forced into working for the combatants. Many children and women of Hema origin were never released.” (ibid, p.15)

An International Crisis Group report, in a section titled “Transformation of the Conflict – Organised Chaos to Genocide”, states:

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“The first wave of violence started in June 1999, when a Hema businessman with fake deeds attempted to evict Lendu families from land he claimed to have acquired. This sparked six months of continuous violence – a succession of attacks and reprisals, resulting in destruction of villages and manhunts throughout Djugu. A worsening factor was the direct involvement of Ugandan military in the killings. Hema businessmen, fearing Lendu resistance to eviction from land they had grabbed, did the same as they had done under Mobutu: they bought protection from the army and police commanders. A local human rights NGO reported that between June 1999 and January 2000, nineteen attacks were carried out by the Lendu against the Hema, and between June 1999 and April 2000, 26 were carried out by Hema militias against Lendu villages. Of the latter, ten were conducted by joint Hema-UPDF units (Ugandan forces), fourteen by UPDF units alone and only two by Hema militias alone. This first wave of violence led to the death of up to 7,000 civilians and created 150,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).” (International Crisis Group (13 June 2003) Congo Crisis: Military Intervention in Ituri, pp.3-4)

In a section titled “The UPDF Strikes Back, Monuc Lets Down the IPC” this report states:

“On 25 April, after a new delay, Brigadier Kayihura passed the command of Bunia airport over to MONUC. The complete withdrawal of the 7,000 UPDF troops was completed by 6 May. More than 6,000 Hema walked behind the UPDF to the border. From 3 May onwards, Lendu militias spread inside the town, arresting Hemas for questioning and racketeering. By 7 May, the pillage of Hema houses in Bunia town was in full gear. The departure of the Ugandan detachment was followed by a week of assassinations, ethnic cleansing and looting during which MONUC was not even able to protect its own personnel.” (ibid, p.12)

This section also states:

“During that dreadful week, individuals were killed or kidnapped beside the UN compound. MONUC was asked on several occasions to escort or protect Hema individuals out of dangerous locations to more secure areas, and it either failed to do so, or intervened too late. On 10 May, MONUC was informed of the likely assassination of Nyakasanza’s parish priest and other Hema clerics. It refused to intervene or even accompany the vicar-general to the parish after the massacre. On 11 May, a man was kidnapped from the MONUC compound. Uruguayans officers were informed but refused to intervene. The person was then executed less than 100 metres away. On 11 May MONUC refused to escort to its compound nineteen Catholic seminarians who were under death threat and in hiding.” (ibid, p.12)

A Human Rights Watch report on the killing of civilians in the town of Nyakunde in 2002 states:

“The events of Nyakunde were horrific even by the standards of the Congolese war. The killing spree began on 5 September 2002. From the hills above the town, militias descended on Nyakunde. The attack lasted for 10 days, including a door-to-door operation which the militias called Operation Polio - mass murder as social vaccination. The hospital was a particular

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target for looting, burning and slaughter. A woman described watching her eight-month-old daughter killed in front of her. A group of 14 hid in the ceiling of the operating room for several days without food or water, until the militias discovered them and dragged them out. Some were taken to a nearby house which served as a makeshift prison for those who were of the wrong ethnic identity or who opposed the killings. One woman later remembered: ‘In the room where we were, a two-week-old baby died. His body was thrown into the latrine.’ Another survivor, who helped to bury hundreds of bodies, described: ‘We broke the latrines to put them in there, as there was no time to dig proper graves.’ At least 1,200 people were murdered during those days. Most in Nyakunde believe the numbers of dead to be closer to 3,000; two ethnic groups, the Hema and the Bira, were especially targeted. Rape was widespread - one survivor remembers how she and two other women were repeatedly raped for an hour and a half. ‘There were about nine fighters. Four of them had guns, others had machetes, spears and axes. They made us strip and then they raped us.’ With insane courage, somebody in the hospital sent an e-mail, even as the killings were still under way. The e-mail was headed ‘Nyakunde - on fire and in blood’. Church groups forwarded the message to the United Nations mission in Congo. The UN did not respond.” (Human Rights Watch (6 February 2006) Congo: Bringing Justice to the Heart of Darkness)

An Agence France Presse report states:

“A team of United Nations experts was due Wednesday to begin investigations into a massacre in Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Ituri region, where hundreds of civilians were slaughtered two weeks ago. Last week the United Nations mission in DRC reported that a massacre had taken place in the northeastern Ituri region on April 3, when between 150 and 300 ethnic Hemas in 15 villages were killed in a three-hour spree of bloodletting allegedly by their arch-rivals, the Lendu.” (Agence France Presse (16 April 2003) UN experts to investigate massacre in DRCongo)

An Associated Press report states:

“Tribal fighters killed at least 200 people and abducted scores more over the last month in a series of attacks that destroyed a town controlled by a rival tribe in volatile northeastern Congo, an official from a tribal militia said Sunday. Repeated attacks by fighters from the Lendu tribe on Fataki, a town 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Bunia that was controlled by the rival Hema tribe, forced thousands of residents to flee, said Saba Rafiki, security chief for the Union of Congolese Patriots, a militia from the Hema tribe. During the attacks, the Lendu abducted at least 137 Hema residents to use as laborers and concubines, Rafiki said.” (Associated Press (31 August 2003) Tribal fighters kill at least 200 people and abduct scores more in a series of attacks on a single town)

A Voice of America News report states:

“The massacre took place some 60 km northeast of the town of Bunia, in northeastern early Monday morning. Initially, 23 people in the predominantly ethnic Hema town of Katchelli were confirmed killed by attackers brandishing guns and machetes. By early Tuesday the figure had more than doubled. The victims were mostly women, children and elderly

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people. A reconnaissance mission has already been dispatched to hunt the killers down, and the death count is expected to increase.” (Voice of America News (7 October 2003) 65 Killed in Congo Massacre)

A report to the UN General Assembly, in a section titled “The Ituri region” (paragraph 29) states:

“In 2003, Ituri was the scene of extremely deadly clashes between the Lendu and the Hema and their allies. During the period from January to March 2003, several massacres followed by the destruction of property were perpetrated by the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) in Lendu, Lipri, Zumbe, Bambu and Kobu. More than 300 persons were killed; many people disappeared and a considerable amount of property was looted.” (UN General Assembly (24 October 2003) Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, pp.8-9)

In paragraph 31 this report states:

“The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights/MONUC multidisciplinary special investigation team, which visited the site on 5 April 2003 and the special investigation team, accompanied by forensic experts, sent to Drodro and the surrounding area on 18 April and 5 May 2003, confirmed that there had been massacres of both Lendu and Hema in Ituri. Grave human rights violations had been committed against the civilian population, particularly women, children and the elderly. Large-scale massacres had been perpetrated. Some victims had been executed, others burned alive in their huts or their houses. Women had been abducted, raped, then killed. Whole villages had been destroyed and set fire to. Property had been looted.” (ibid, p.9)

A 2005 Reuters AlertNet report, in a paragraph headed “Kidnappings”, states:

“An upsurge in fighting in Ituri since December has damaged efforts by the former Belgian colony to recover from a wider 1998-2003 war that at one point sucked in six countries. Warlords are still in charge in this region rich in gold, diamonds and timber. Their militia run extortion rackets and as well as attacking civilians. Gunmen last month shot dead nine Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers near Kakwa village. Peacekeepers say there have been frequent mass kidnappings of Hema by Lendu gunmen during the fighting.” (Reuters AlertNet (6 March 2005) Eastern Congo's refugees face sickness and fear)

An Institute for War & Peace Reporting article on charges brought against alleged war criminals states:

“Katanga and Ngudjolo are charged with multiple counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, as well as using child soldiers, sexual enslavement, pillaging and inhumane treatment. The case against Katanga and Ngudjolo concerns an attack the court claims he ordered against the village on February 24, 2003. Katanga allegedly told his largely ethnic Lendu fighters to ‘wipe out Bogoro’, which had been held by Hema militia leader Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga faces other ICC charges. Although the alleged massacre at Bogoro took place five years ago, the memories are still fresh. ‘They came in the day,’ said Bogoro village chief Samuel Bahemuka Mugeni. ‘They didn’t

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want to loot, only to kill. Those who were lucky escaped and went to Kisenyi (a village on Lake Edward about 20 km away)’. The alleged attack came despite the presence of the Ugandan army nearby, said Mugeni, which had occupied the area since 1998. Mugeni told IWPR that the reported killings were in retaliation for earlier attacks on Lendu villages in the area by Hema militias and villagers. ’It was a matter of revenge,’ he said. ‘They knew [Bogoro] was a Hema village’. Villagers are said to have fled in panic, some heading for the bush while others took refuge in the brick school at Bogoro. Although the Ugandan army returned fire, some villagers were believed to have been trapped in the school and killed.” (Institute for War & Peace Reporting (24 June 2008) Ituri Case Revives Village Horrors)

A 2012 IRIN News report states:

“According to a 27 July memo by a coalition of civil society organizations, the decomposed bodies of five members of the Hema community were found in Kapuru, a settlement on the shore of Lake Albert in an area under the control of the Front de la resistance patriotique en Ituri (FRPI) armed group, about 100km south of Bunia, Ituri’s main city. ‘The rebels captured six of them as they were heading to to visit a sick relative, demanding money,’ recounted the brother of one of the victims. ‘The rebels said, "You have refused to join our group, we’re going to kill you,” and they opened fire. One of them escaped after the rebels cut off his hand with a machete,’ he added. The spokesperson for the Hema-sud community, Aliegera Kwonke, said, ‘We in the Hema community feel targeted. The FRPI don’t allow us to go about our business, our roads are blocked, our crops looted. Our people are massacred under the noses of the army. We don’t feel safe.’” (IRIN News (21 August 2012) DRC: Violence hampers aid work in Ituri)

Information specifically referring to the current situation for members of the Hema ethnic group was not found among sources available to the Research and Information Unit.

Regarding the current situation for the population in general in the eastern DRC a report published by the Enough Project, in a section titled “Sexual and gender-based violence in Congo”, states:

“More recent reports reveal that rebels and the Congolese army, Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo, or FARDC, continue to use sexual violence as a weapon of war in Congo. The 2013 U.N. Group of Experts on the DRC, appointed by the U.N. Security Council to document abuses, recently reported rapes committed in 2013 by numerous armed groups, including the Front for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri, or FRPI, Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, or FDLR, and M23. The Group of Experts found that 15 women were raped during attacks on Walikale and Masisi communities in September and October of 2013 by Nduma Defence of Congo, or NDC, leader Sheka Ntabo Ntaberi, who is sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council. The Group has also documented crimes committed by Mai Mai Morgan, including rape and sexual enslavement. It recently found that during five days in November 2012, Morgan forces raped over 150 women in a gold mining area south of Mambasa. The Congolese army is also implicated in SGBV. The U.N. Group of Experts asserts, ‘FARDC soldiers raped dozens of women and girls during the course of their operations in 2013 against [the]

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Kata Katanga [rebels] in Mitwaba territory.’” (Enough Project (20 March 2014) Interrupting the Silence, p.4)

See also recent IRIN News report which comments on the situation in the Ituri district as follows:

“The near absence of any effective policing in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) district of Ituri, Orientale Province, is fuelling mob violence which has seen about 100 people killed and 1,500 houses torched in the past year, according to local civil society groups. People are killed in Ituri after petty disputes or on mere suspicion of practising sorcery, Samuel Jakwong'a, a spokesperson of civil society groups in Mahagi Territory, told IRIN. Revenge attacks are also common, leading to a vicious circle of violence where innocent victims, especially women and children, are affected, according to local human rights NGO LIPADHO. ‘When we find a corpse close to a village, there will be revenge [attacks] from the dead person’s family. This brings about a cycle of violence with houses being burnt down in the suspect’s village,’ explained Jakwong'a. Personal disagreements in Mahagi easily degenerate into inter-communal clashes, said Joachim Unegi, a human rights activist.” (IRIN News (17 April 2014) Mob violence rife in DRC’s Ituri District)

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research and Information Unit within time constraints. This response is not and does not purport to be conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please read in full all documents referred to.

References:

Agence France Presse (16 April 2003) UN experts to investigate massacre in DRCongo http://www.lexisnexis.com (Accessed 27 May 2014) This is a subscription database

Amnesty International (20 March 2003) Democratic Republic of Congo: On the precipice: The deepening human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ituri http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR62/006/2003/en/66d41fed-d731- 11dd-b0cc-1f0860013475/afr620062003en.pdf (Accessed 27 May 2014)

Associated Press 31 August 2003) Tribal fighters kill at least 200 people and abduct scores more in a series of attacks on a single town http://www.lexisnexis.com (Accessed 27 May 2014) This is a subscription database

Human Rights Watch (6 February 2006) Congo: Bringing Justice to the Heart of Darkness http://www.hrw.org/print/news/2006/02/06/congo-bringing-justice-heart- darkness

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(Accessed 27 May 2014)

Human Rights Watch (8 July 2003) Covered in Blood: Ethnically Targeted Violence in Northern DRC http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/DRC0703.pdf (Accessed 27 May 2014)

Institute for War & Peace Reporting (24 June 2008) Ituri Case Revives Village Horrors http://iwpr.net/print/report-news/ituri-case-revives-village-horrors (Accessed 27 May 2014)

Institute for War & Peace Reporting (2 August 2006) Ituri: The Congo's Own Rwanda http://iwpr.net/print/report-news/ituri-congos-own-rwanda (Accessed 27 May 2014)

International Crisis Group (13 June 2003) Congo Crisis: Military Intervention in Ituri http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/africa/central-africa/dr- congo/Congo%20Crisis%20Military%20Intervention%20in%20Ituri.pdf (Accessed 27 May 2014)

IRIN News (17 April 2014) Mob violence rife in DRC’s Ituri District http://www.irinnews.org/printreport.aspx?reportid=99958 (Accessed 28 May 2014)

IRIN News (21 August 2012) DRC: Violence hampers aid work in Ituri http://www.irinnews.org/printreport.aspx?reportid=96144 (Accessed 27 May 2014)

Reuters AlertNet (6 March 2005) Eastern Congo's refugees face sickness and fear http://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/eastern-congos-refugees- face-sickness-and-fear (Accessed 27 May 2014)

Rift Valley Institute (2013) UPC in Ituri: The External Militarization of Local Politics in North-eastern Congo http://riftvalley.net/download/file/fid/1508 (Accessed 27 May 2014)

UN General Assembly (24 October 2003) Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo http://www.refworld.org/docid/46caab0ad.html (Accessed 27 May 2014)

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UN Security Council (16 July 2004) Special report on the events in Ituri, Jan 2002-Dec 2003 (S/2004/573) http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/93F81A37C5B409E78525 6EEC00679CE1-unsc-drc-16jul.pdf (Accessed 27 May 2014)

Voice of America News (7 October 2003) 65 Killed in Congo Massacre http://www.lexisnexis.com (Accessed 27 May 2014) This is a subscription database

Sources Consulted:

Amnesty International European Country of Origin Information Network Google Human Rights Watch Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Institute for War & Peace Reporting International Crisis Group IRIN News Lexis Nexis UK Home Office Refugee Documentation Centre Query Database UNHCR Refworld

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