ISSUE ARREST WARRANT AGAINST COL KITENGE AND GENERAL MUNDOS
********Stop genocide against Banyamulenge*********
Call for action addressed to:
- Government of Democratic republic of Congo
- International Criminal Court
- African Union
- United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect
- UN security council
- Human right Watch
- Amnesty international
- International community
Last month on 4th November 2019 I sent a *call for action* to UN and international community as well as ICC, asking them to take action and stop the genocide against Banyamulenge community.
However, today the killings are getting worse and worse reason why we continue to ask UN and international community to intervene and protect civilians rather than apologizing when people have already massacred and exterminated like what happened during Rwanda Genocide against Tutsi. DO NOT KEEP QUIET PLEASE.
For those who may not know where the genocide is taking place, Mulenge is located in South
Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. It is located on the highlands overlooking the town of Uvira. The town's name gave rise to the term Banyamulenge, literally "people of Mulenge", a name for the mainly Tutsi Kinyamulenge speakers resident in South Kivu, however not only Banyamulenge live in this territory, there also Babembe, Bafuliro, Banyindu and Bashi communities
Despite the fact tha Banyamulenge community settled in DRC before the colonization four centuries ago, their neighbours (Bafuliro, Babembe and Banyindu) continue to classify them as foreigners. The recent murders that erupted in early 2019 targeting Banyamulenge community, attacked by their neighbours Bafuliro, Babembe and Banyindu supported by Red Tabara a Burundian rebel group had already affected negatively the Banyamulenge community.
Government sources reported 400 people died, 200 villages burned of which 7000 houses estimated to be burned. In fact, the Banyamulenge case is not far from that of Rohingyas recently expelled from Birmania just because of their religion belonging while they have settled in this country for millennium. Currently the FRADC (armed forces of the democratic Republic of Congo) which meant to protect innocent civilian is also being involved in those killing and sadly, neither the
government of Congo nor UN is doing nothing to stop those atrocities.
Moreover, FARDC in Minembwe is financing Mai Mai militia by offering guns and gun bullet to rebels, eyewitness saw FARDC and Col Kitenge(FARDC commander based in Malango) in particular distributing gun and boullet to Mai Mai in Musika, Kivumu, Irumba and Kabingo. Last week Col KITENGE took 400 Banyamulenge cattle and supplied them to Mai Mai; still, Col Kitenge open a gunfire to owners who tried to follow their cattle. The government is aware of that yet Col KITENGE and General Mundos continue kill innocent civilian in presence of UN peacekeeper (MONUSCO) without any action from the government.
Col KITENGE and his armed people are committing following crime against humanity:
1. Murder of civilian Banyamulenge
2. Rape against Banyamulenge women
3. Persecution
4. Ordering the displacement of the civilian population
5. Destroying properties and stealing from civilians Banyamulenge
6. Forcible deportation
Currently unreported sexual violence against Banyamulenge women are being committed by FARDC in Minembwe. On 14th December 2019, five women from Runundu went to look for food in their field, were caught by armed people of Col KITENGE (FARDC), those women were raped in military camp in front of their commander Kitenge, several cases of children and infant are reported to be wounded
by armed military led by Col KITENGE.
Extremist people such as, Member of Parliament Omer BULAKALI MWANAWABENE, Dr.Mulongecha and other many more continue to spread and broadcast hatred/poisonous speech over YouTube channel and WhatsApp audio, nevertheless the government keep quiet and could not condemn those people.
The current extermination of Banyamulenge community is not something that was not planned reasonably falls under the long-term plan of the government of Congo and other extremist Congolese, no wonder why the government is not condemning these murders. According to UN mapping report On 28 April 1995, the transition parliament (HCR-PT) in Kinshasa officially rejected all claims of the Banyamulenge to Zairian citizenship and recommended to the Government that they be repatriated to Rwanda or Burundi, on the same basis as the Hutu refugees and Tutsi immigrants. In the months that followed, the provincial administration seized many Banyamulenge properties.
The Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents1:
- On 9 September, while the people of Uvira mounted a demonstration calling on the Tutsis to
leave Zaire, FAZ members arrested an unknown number of Tutsi/Banyamulenge and looted several buildings, including religious institutions and the offices of local Banyamulenge-led NGOs.
- On 17 September 1996, with the aid of FAZ soldiers, Bembe armed units killed an unknown number of Banyamulenge civilians in the village of Kabela in the Fizi territory. Only the men were killed. Although they were spared, most of the women were raped.
- Some time around 21 September 1996, FAZ soldiers killed at least two Banyamulenge civilians, including the president of Uvira's Banyamulenge community, at the Kamanyola border post, ninety kilometres north of Uvira in the Walungu territory. The victims were part of a group of Banyamulenge awaiting deportation to Rwanda. At the border post, while the group was waiting for papers for its departure into Rwanda, FAZ soldiers killed a minor who had asked them for water. The FAZ then looted their goods. When APR units arrived at the Ruzizi River border crossing, however, the FAZ soldiers fled, The President of the Banyamulenge community was executed soon after at Kamanyola by FAZ soldiers
- Around 23 September, FAZ soldiers killed at least fifteen Banyamulenge/Tutsis at the Kamanyola border post. The victims were accused of being part of an armed Banyamulenge/Tutsi group infiltrating the Zairian territory.
- In September 1996, Bembe armed units killed an unknown number of Banyamulenge at Lubonja village in the Nganja sector of the Fizi territory. The victims were mostly women who had left Nganja for Minembwe. Two pastors were also killed in the same village in similar circumstances
In Fizi territory, faced with the risk of clashes between the FAZ and Banyamulenge/Tutsi armed units in the Highlands of the Mitumba mountains, several hundred Banyamulenge civilians left the village of Bibokoboko and the surrounding area to seek refuge in Baraka and Lueba. By putting themselves under the protection of the FAZ in this way, these civilians hoped not to be confused
1 Report of the Mapping Exercise documenting the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003. UN 2010
with the infiltrated groups. In spite of this, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:
- On 26 September 1996, with the aid of FAZ soldiers, Bembe armed units killed nearly 300
Banyamulenge civilians in the town of Baraka in the Fizi territory. The victims, including women and children, were mostly stabbed to death. Many women, including minors, were gang-raped before they were killed. The killings were carried out in front of the local population, who did not react. The victims came from villages around Bibokoboko in the Highlands. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave at Baraka. In 2005, a high-ranking government official requested that the Mayi-Mayi groups operating in Baraka unearth the victims' remains and dump them in Lake Tanganyika to erase all trace of the massacres.
- On 29 September 1996, with the aid of FAZ soldiers, Bembe armed units killed 152 Banyamulenge civilians, including many women and children, in the village of Lueba, seventy- eight kilometres south of Uvira, in the Fizi territory. Some of the victims were killed by machete blows. Others were burned alive in a house that was set on fire with a grenade. Many women, including minors, were gangraped
- In the night of 29 to 30 September 1996, Bembe armed units killed nearly one hundred Banyamulenge civilians opposite the village of Mboko. The victims were mostly survivors of the Lueba massacre who had been led away by the militiamen to be deported to Rwanda. The women and children of the group reached Rwanda but the men were bound and dumped in Lake Tanganyika. For a short time, the militiamen spared fifteen men, who were detained in a camp at Mboko. However, the militiamen claimed in front of witnesses that the fifteen men would be burned at a later date. The fifteen men have been reported missing ever since.
- On 2 October 1996, local youths and FAZ units killed fifteen Banyamulenge in the village of Sange in the Uvira territory. Most of the victims were living in the Kinanira and Kajembo districts and had found temporary refuge at the home of the chef de cité. The youths and the militiamen came for them at the house of the chef de cité under the pretext of escorting them to Rwanda, but killed them on their way.
- on 8 October the Vice-Governor of South Kivu, Lwabanji Lwasi, gave the Tutsi/Banyamulenge one week to leave the province for good, or they would be considered and treated as infiltrated armed units.
- On 10 October 1996, members of the FAZ killed several hundred Banyamulenge, including women and children, in the town of Bukavu. Most of the killings took place in the Panzi district and at the Zairian railway company (SNCZ) site, currently operating as a port zone. On this occasion, a number of family members of Tutsi soldiers serving in the FAZ and accused of betrayal were executed. The victims were shot or killed with machete blows
- On 21 October 1996, local people killed a Banyamulenge/Tutsi civilian near the Kabindula district in the town of Uvira. The victim was decapitated and his head paraded on a stick around the town. The perpetrators then hung the victim's testicles on a necklace.172
- In October or November 1996, Burundian Hutu armed units from the FDD (Forces de défense de la démocratie) publicly executed between 12 and 20 Banyamulenge/Tutsis in the village of Kamituga in the Mwenga territory. Most of the victims were from the villages of Lugushwa (Shabunda territory), Kitamba, Mero and Luliba (villages around Kamituga in the Mwenga territory), where they worked for the mining firms Société minière et industrielle du Kivu (SOMINKI) and Compagnie minière des Grands Lacs (MGL). They had recently left their villages to find refuge in Kamituga. The FDD accused them of collaborating with AFDL/APR
soldiers who were advancing towards the village. The local people and the Red Cross buried
the victims' bodies in a mass grave located behind the parish.
- Over the course of November 1996, FDD and FAZ units killed around fifty Tutsi civilians by
the Zalya River, a few kilometres from Kamituga-Centre, in the Mwenga territory. The killings most often took place at night. The bodies of the victims were then dumped in the Zalya River.
- On 15 August 1998, in Vyura, members of the FAC arrested over 2,000 Tutsis and killed an unknown number of them. On 16 August, soldiers killed around ten influential members of the local Tutsi community. The men were held at the Kansalale camp, in a church and in the house of Chief Kabugora. Women and children were held in a church and in the primary school in Kasanga. The arrests were accompanied by pillaging of Tutsi property. On 18 August 1998, a group of around 300 Tutsis, who had managed to escape and arm themselves with spears and knives, launched a counter-attack on the FAC. During the fighting, the FAC killed around 60 Tutsis, including Chief Kabugora, set fire to every house they passed pillaged property and stole Tutsi cattle. The total number of killings is difficult to establish. Several sources indicate that over 100 Tutsis died in Vyura during August 1998. On 15 September, ANC and APR troops took control of Vyura and helped the 8,000 to 10,000 Tutsi survivors to leave for Kalemie. Some settled in South Kivu, whilst others sought refugee status in neighbouring countries.
- In Moba, in August 1998, FAC troops, aided by residents, shot and killed around 40 members of the Tutsi community, mainly shopkeepers and students.
- On 5 August 1998, the security forces that had remained loyal to the Government in Kinshasa allegedly killed an unknown number of young Banyamulenge recruits at the military base in Kamina. The victims were not armed. They were reported shot dead in large hangars close to the rails, near the base's arms store. The bodies of the victims were buried in the surrounding forest or burnt. The total number of victims remains unclear but more than 100 Banyamulenge were killed.
Furthermore, during this period, mention was made of a number of massacres of Banyamulenge in Minembwe, in the Highlands of the Fizi territory. The Mapping Team was not, however, able to document these cases and that is where most serious killings took place.
Our request:
- The government of Congo in general and President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo in specifically: to protect the Banyamulenge community and to immediately arrest Col Kitenge and his armed people
The UN and MONUSCO in particular: to protect civilian Banyamulenge
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- ICC to conduct investigation and to issue arrest warrant for perpetrators such as Mai Mai leaders self-declared General Amuli Yakutumba, General Mundos, Col Kitenge, Col Katembo and Member of Parliament Bulakali as well as Red Tabara leader.
- United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect: to recognise genocide against the Banyamulenge and give justice to victims
- International community: to assist thousand displaced Banyamulenge people in Minembwe through UN Agencies and other international organizations
Done at Minembwe 15th December 2019 Innocent Mumararungu
Human right activist
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