Demonstrators at an opposition rally in Kinshasa on September 19, 2016
demand that President Joseph Kabila step down. PHOTO | AFP
Former militants were recruited by the Democratic Republic of
Congo government for a bloody crackdown on protests against the
president that left dozens of people dead last year, a rights group
alleged Monday.
Human Rights Watch said President
Joseph Kabila's regime had drafted in fighters previously active in the
M23 rebel group from Uganda and Rwanda to suppress the December 2016
demonstrations, which erupted when he refused to step down at the end of
his term in power.
The right group's allegations came
as the country faces a new flare-up of violence after Kabila pushed back
a much-delayed new vote until December 2018, with the opposition
demanding that the veteran leader resign sooner.
M23 rebel fighters
"Senior
security force officers in the Democratic Republic of Congo mobilized
over 200 former M23 rebel fighters from neighbouring countries to quash
protests against President Joseph Kabila in December 2016," HRW said in a
report.
It said Congolese security forces acting with
M23 fighters killed at least 62 people and arrested hundreds more as the
protests swept through the vast African country between 19 and 22
December 2016.
M23, a mostly ethnic Tutsi rebel group,
was defeated in November 2013 at the hands of Congolese and UN forces.
Hundreds of fighters fled the country but officials and residents in the
eastern region of Kivu have said they had seen militants return.
Brutal conflict
Congo's
resource-rich eastern provinces have suffered years of brutal conflict,
with neighbouring states backing rebel groups in a civil war against
Kinshasa's authority, and roaming armed militia triggering the mass
flight of terrorised civilians.
HRW said its research
was based on more than 120 interviews and that during the protests, "M23
fighters patrolled the streets of Congo's main cities, firing on or
arresting protesters or anyone else deemed to be a threat to the
president".
"Covert operations to recruit fighters from
an abusive armed group to suppress any resistance show how far
President Kabila and his coterie are willing to go to stay in power,"
said Ida Sawyer, the organisation's Central Africa director.
"Congolese
officials should end all unlawful use of force against protesters and
allow peaceful political activities by activists and the political
opposition."
Opposition forces are demanding Kabila —
who took office after his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001 — step
down on December 31, but authorities made several arrests ahead of an
opposition march earlier this month.
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