MAPPING REPORT

REPORT OF THE MAPPING EXERCISE DOCUMENTING THE MOST SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO BETWEEN 1993 AND 2003

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Attacks against hutu refugees in the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps (North Kivu)

Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER II. First Congo War > B. Attacks against Hutu refugees > 2. North Kivu > Mugunga and Lac Vert camps

After the fall of the FAZ military camp in Rumangabo on 29 October, AFDL/APR soldiers launched an attack on Goma and took control of the town on 1 November 1996. For several days, the ex-FAR/Interahamwe from the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps and Mayi-Mayi armed groups from Sake blockaded the AFDL/APR soldiers seven kilometres from the Mugunga camp. Some of the refugees took advantage of this situation to leave the camps and move towards the town of Sake. On 12 November, however, after entering into an alliance with the local Mayi-Mayi, the AFDL/APR soldiers took control of the hills around Sake and surrounded the refugees who were gathered between the Mugunga camp and the town.

·          On 14 November 1996, AFDL/APR soldiers fired indiscriminately with heavy weapons at the Mugunga camp and the surrounding area for six hours, allegedly killing an unknown number of refugees.²³⁷

In the afternoon of 14 November, after violent clashes with the Mayi-Mayi at Sake, the ex-FAR/Interahamwe in the Mugunga camp broke through the cordon and fled in the direction of Masisi, taking many refugees with them.

·          Around 14 November to 15 November 1996, the AFDL/APR soldiers positioned in the hills around Sake allegedly killed a large number of refugees who were attempting to flee in the direction of Masisi, firing at them indiscriminately with heavy weapons and machine guns. Hundreds of bodies of refugees were buried in a mass grave on the Madimba coffee plantation near Sake.²³⁸

On 15 November 1996, while the Security Council was giving the green light to the deployment of a multinational force in eastern Zaire, AFDL/APR soldiers entered the Mugunga camp and ordered the refugees still present in the camp to return to Rwanda.²³⁹ Between 15 November and 19 November 1996, several hundred thousand refugees left the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps and returned to Rwanda.²⁴⁰

·          On 15 November 1996, AFDL/APR units allegedly killed refugees in and around the Mugunga camp. A journalist who entered the camp on 16 November counted 40 victims who were shot dead or killed with cold weapons, including women, children and two babies.²⁴¹ An unknown number of refugees were reportedly killed between Mugunga and the town of Sake. On 19 November, volunteers from the Zairian Red Cross in Goma collected and buried 166 bodies found along the road between the town of Sake and the perimeter of the Mugunga camp.²⁴²

Many witnesses reported the existence of a checkpoint between the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps where the AFDL/APR units would sort refugees according to their age and sex. Generally speaking, the soldiers allowed women, children and the elderly to pass through. Men, on the other hand, were very often arrested and executed. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

·          Between 15 November and 16 November 1996, AFDL/APR units arrested an unknown number of Rwandan Hutu men from the Lac Vert camp and Mugunga and executed them. Some were bound and then thrown alive into Lac Vert, where they drowned. Others were shot in the head and their bodies dumped in the lake.²⁴³

·          The killings around Mugunga and Lac Vert continued for several weeks. Some survivors have recounted how they were attacked by AFDL/APR soldiers in late November 1996 when they were seeking repatriation to Rwanda. Some of the refugees were rounded up when they came out of the Park and then executed. One source reported the existence of several mass graves inside the park, five kilometres from the Mugunga camp.²⁴⁴

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