Selected Accounts From Victims And Witness in North Kivu
July 21, 2008
DOCUMENT
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 21 July 2008
Kinyatembe (near Kirumbu), Masisi Territory
Pierre is a 17-year-old youth from Kinyatembe village. When CNDP combatants arrived on June 28, he ran into the hill overlooking the village and saw the CNDP shoot and kill his aunt, her baby she was carrying on her back, and her 14-year-old daughter. "She was running behind the house when the CNDP came," Pierre told Human Rights Watch researchers. "She wasn’t that fast, so they stopped her and killed her and the kids. Another person was chopped to death by machete." After looting and burning 20 houses in Kinyamatembe, the CNDP left and PARECO came back. Many of the villagers fled; those who stayed were too scared to sleep in their village and now spend their nights hiding in the nearby forest.
Kinyatembe (near Kirumbu), Masisi Territory
Pierre is a 17-year-old youth from Kinyatembe village. When CNDP combatants arrived on June 28, he ran into the hill overlooking the village and saw the CNDP shoot and kill his aunt, her baby she was carrying on her back, and her 14-year-old daughter. "She was running behind the house when the CNDP came," Pierre told Human Rights Watch researchers. "She wasn’t that fast, so they stopped her and killed her and the kids. Another person was chopped to death by machete." After looting and burning 20 houses in Kinyamatembe, the CNDP left and PARECO came back. Many of the villagers fled; those who stayed were too scared to sleep in their village and now spend their nights hiding in the nearby forest.
Mashango (near Bukombo), Rutshuru Territory
Claude lives in Mashango, a village in the Bukombo administrative area. In mid-February, PARECO combatants killed six members of the local chief’s family. "They tied them up and took them outside the house," he said. "Then they burned the house and shot and killed each of them. One was shot in the back of the neck, another had her head taken off by a bullet. The 14-year-old boy was shot below the stomach, and the 10-year-old was shot in his legs. The fifth was shot in his side, and the last had one leg cut off by machete before being shot in the other leg." Claude later found their bodies outside the remains of their house.
Bwero (near Kalembe), Masisi Territory
Antoine fled from Bwero after repeated attacks by the FDLR on his village. "In January, the FDLR came to our house and tied up two of my family members," he said. "Then the FDLR shot them and threw their bodies in the latrine. They were targeted because they had been in areas controlled by the CNDP." Antoine was released because he is handicapped. Three others were abducted by the FDLR during the same incident and have not been seen since.
Shoni (near Bukombo), Rutshuru Territory
Elise fled from Shoni to a displacement camp in Nyanzale earlier this year. "My son Pierre was killed in April by the CNDP when he went to the fields to look for food," she recalled. "His friends who were with him saw him being killed, and they ran back and told me. I was already living in a displacement camp and my son used to go regularly to the fields to look for food. Two other people I know were killed by the CNDP when they had gone back to look for food in March. They were beaten to death with a small hammer called an ‘agafuni.’ Their heads had been split open. I saw it myself, and I helped to bury their bodies."
Kitchanga, Masisi Territory
Marceline is displaced in Kitchanga. "We heard there were peace talks in Goma, and we thought that meant the war was over," she said. "But we’re surprised that until today, the war continues and we haven’t seen any difference."
Peace Accord Fails to End Killing of Civilians
July 21, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 21 July 2008
The killing and rape of civilians in the eastern province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues at a horrifying rate despite the signing of a peace accord six months ago, Human Rights Watch said today. The agreement was supposed to stop such attacks.
In a recent 10-day mission to the most affected territories of Masisi and Rutshuru in eastern Congo, Human Rights Watch researchers documented more than 200 killings of civilians and the rape of hundreds of women and girls since January by all armed groups, including Congolese army soldiers.
"Six months after the peace agreement was signed there has been no improvement in the human rights situation and in some areas it has actually deteriorated," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "While the parties to the peace agreement attend talks in Goma, their troops continue to kill, rape, and loot civilians."
On January 23, 2008, after weeks of talks, the Congolese government signed a peace agreement in Goma, North Kivu, with 22 armed groups committing all parties to an immediate ceasefire, disengagement of forces from frontline positions, and to abide by international human rights law. Following the signing, the Congolese government set up a peace program, called the Amani Program, to coordinate peace efforts in eastern Congo. Yet the government and international donors have provided limited funds to carry out that work.
The agreement failed to halt the fighting. United Nations officials have documented some 200 ceasefire violations since January 23, the majority between the forces of renegade general Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and a loose coalition of combatants from the Mai Mai Mongol, the Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO), and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan armed group whose leaders participated in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The FDLR was not a party to the Goma agreement.
Human Rights Watch also found credible evidence that soldiers from the Congolese national army were supporting the PARECO, Mai Mai Mongol, and FDLR coalition, questioning the government’s commitment to the peace process.
Many of the worst human rights abuses were committed in and around the Bukombo administrative area in western Rutshuru, where some 150 civilians were killed between February and May 2008. PARECO and Mai Mai Mongol combatants, many of whom are untrained and poorly equipped, held the area from December to March, supported by FDLR combatants. According to dozens of people interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the fighters repeatedly raided villages for cattle, goats and other goods, raping women and girls, and killing civilians who opposed their activities or whom they accused of being collaborators of their enemies.
For example, on February 9, PARECO combatants raped Marie, a 24-year-old woman from Bukombo who was four months pregnant. "They told me that if I didn’t allow them to rape me, they would kill me," she told Human Rights Watch. "They grabbed my legs and cut my lower right leg with a machete to show me they weren’t joking." The rape was so violent that she miscarried her child. The attackers then killed Marie’s brother, cutting him up with machetes behind the house. After the attackers killed at least two others in the village and raped four more women, they fled to a nearby Congolese army position.
In March and April, CNDP combatants launched a military offensive to dislodge PARECO and Mai Mai Mongol fighters from the Bukombo area killing some 100 civilians as they indiscriminately fired on more than a dozen villages. According to information gathered by Human Rights Watch, many of the dead were the elderly or very young who were unable to flee in advance of the attacks.
CNDP combatants also summarily executed civilians whom they accused of being PARECO combatants. In Gashavu village on April 20, CNDP combatants arrested and tied up four men and a 12-year-old boy and then beat them to death with large sticks. Six other civilians were abducted, including a woman and a 15-year-old girl. Some were later released.
These clashes and more recent ones in Kirumbu, Busoro and Busiye in Masisi territory, where CNDP are fighting PARECO and FDLR combatants, are responsible for the massive displacement of civilians since January and the worsening humanitarian situation. Nearly 100,000 people have been forced to flee in North Kivu since the peace agreement was signed, adding to the 750,000 displaced from the previous fighting.
Despite the ongoing clashes, some combatants have responded to the call to lay down their weapons. In May, hundreds of Mai Mai Mongol combatants surrendered, including 334 in the town of Bambu, and requested to be integrated into the Congolese army. But Congolese government authorities failed to respond promptly to their requests and by July 10 at least 94 of the combatants had left, and some were reported to have gone back to fighting.
As part of the ongoing hostilities, armed groups have continued to actively recruit combatants, some of whom have been forced to enter armed service.
UN peacekeeping troops - more than 5,000 are deployed in North Kivu - have attempted to move into the buffer zones between the fighting factions but they have been thinly spread and have been fired upon. On April 23, during the CNDP attacks in the Bukombo area, a UN peacekeeper was injured, resulting in their withdrawal from the area. On June 11, with little warning, UN peacekeepers pulled out of Misinga, a crucial buffer zone between CNDP and PARECO combatants, leaving hundreds of civilians unprotected who had sought safety around the UN base. Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that FDLR and PARECO combatants attacked soon after the United Nations’ departure, killing at least one civilian and causing further displacement of the population.
Jean told Human Rights Watch that in April he fled from his village of Machumbi, in Masisi Territory, after PARECO combatants killed his wife in front of him. "They tied us up and demanded all of our money and our pigs." Jean recalled. "My wife refused to show them where she had hidden the pigs and they hit her with a large stick and stomped on her until she died." Jean, whose father was killed by the FDLR in January, managed to flee with his five children to Misinga camp, near a UN peacekeeping base where he thought he would be safe. In June the UN left the area, forcing him to flee again.
UN human rights officials have documented many of the abuses, but have neither published the information nor made it available to international facilitators from the United States, the European Union, and the African Union who are responsible for facilitating the peace process. Diplomats and Congolese government officials in June agreed to appoint a special advisor on human rights for eastern Congo but the post has yet to be filled.
"The peace process is meaningless if it fails to protect civilians from the worst abuses," said Van Woudenberg. "The parties to the peace agreement should abide by their commitments to protect civilians, and diplomats should urgently appoint a special advisor on human rights to ensure the commitments become a reality."
Kasaï Oriental - Deaths in Mbuji Mayi Central Prison Remain Alarming
July 19, 2008
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Nina Yacoubian
Deaths continue to be recorded in Mbuji Mayi central prison, in Kasaï Oriental province. At least 26 prisoners died from severe and acute malnutrition in the prison since February 2008. Despite this, there are no specific measures being taken to ensure good conditions of detention in the prisons of Kasaï Oriental.
The prison, which houses 425 prisoners in a prison originally designed for 200, had a new series of deaths on the night of 13/14 July 2008. On that night, four prisoners died of hunger, increasing the number of deaths to 10 people in one month.
Informed about the new deaths, MONUC Mbuji Mayi Human Rights section visited the prison to investigate.
"MONUC expressed deep dissatisfaction to the provincial authorities on the living conditions of the prisoners," said MONUC Mbuji Mayi Human Rights Officer Assiongbon Tettekpoe.
"Our concern is even greater as we noted that among these deaths, many of them are defendants, who are therefore presumed innocent because they have not been judged due to the slowness of the legal process," he added.
These four prisoners who died were on a list of 30 prisoners whose health condition was considered alarming, and who required urgent medical care.
According to MONUC’s Human Rights section in Mbuji Mayi, there are more than twenty prisoners on the verge of death.
But what can be done to prevent the worst, when it is almost impossible for these malnourished and sick prisoners to be accepted into the public hospitals because they don’t have the means to pay for their medical care?
MONUC has urged the local authorities to warn certain public doctors who refuse to accept the prisoners into their care, as the doctors believe they are not "creditworthy."
For a definitive solution to the malnutrition problem, MONUC recommended the implementation of a specific food and healthcare budget for the prisoners.
Until a durable solution is taken by the central and local authorities to improve the situation, MONUC is providing water to the prison on a weekly basis. MONUC also distributed corn on a twice weekly basis for the prisoners between January and May 2008.
At its weekly press conference of 16 July 2008, MONUC recalled that its primarily the responsibility of the Congolese authorities to ensure reasonable detention conditions for prisoners of Mbuji Mayi’s central prison, as well as other prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tackling Child Trafficking
July 16, 2008
16 July 2008
Posted to the web 16 July 2008
Pointe-Noire
Sixteen-year-old Mayi doesn’t remember exactly when she was taken from the Togolese capital Lome to Congo’s second city Pointe-Noire by her "guardian".
When not selling food on the streets, she says she "sweeps the house, washes clothes or the dishes and takes care of the children".
Lucie, also 16 and from Benin, spends her days selling goods along the aisles of the market in Poto-Poto, a district of the capital, Brazzaville, where many West Africans live.
"My parents handed me over to an aunt a year ago. During the day I am here in the marketplace. In the evenings I sell cake on the main road," she told IRIN. "If I complain about being tired or having a headache, I am accused of being lazy or stupid. Sometimes they hit me. I’ve realised I am not like the other children in the house. I am a slave."
Many children are brought to Congo at a young age: nine or 10 years old, sometimes even younger. Some are illiterate; few have finished primary school. They end up as domestic workers or prostitutes. Physical and psychological abuse is common.
While the sensitivity of the issue makes it hard to gauge the extent of child trafficking in Congo, a report prepared by UNICEF and the Congolese government in 2007 (volume one and volume two both in French) estimated that 200,000 children in west and central Africa are affected by trafficking every year.
Some 90 percent of Beninese families in Congo - which number around 2,000 - have a child working for them, while the cities most affected by child labour are Pointe Noire and Brazzaville, according to the report.
The report listed the countries of origin of the children in Pointe Noire, in order of importance, as Benin, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Togo and Cameroon. In Brazzaville, most came from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which lies just over the Congo river.
The report noted that Congolese children were also affected, especially those orphaned or left unaccompanied as a result of the country’s civil wars. Some of these children were handed over by their parents, most notably in Pool, one of the regions most affected by conflict, to a city-dwelling relative.
"Whether victims of transnational or internal trafficking, the exploited children, who live in particularly difficult conditions, are for the most part only compensated by a salary that is meagre given the long hours and hardship of their labour," the report said, noting that the working day for such children typically begins at 4am.
As well as highlighting the importance of reducing national and regional poverty levels, the report made several recommendations for reducing child trafficking, including strengthening the legislative framework and increasing judicial penalties for traffickers.
"Mobilising civil society will also play a preventive role… The combination of these factors is essential to achieving the primary objective of all stakeholders: reintegrating children while keep their interests a priority," it said.
The Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission had already shed some light on the problem in 2004, when it published a report entitled Child Slaves, Child Workers, which noted the absence of legal measures specifically designed to protect children from such abuse.
"After this report we made a plea to the Pointe Noire authorities. This led to the creation of a body to monitor vulnerable children, although this is not yet operational," Serge Moutou of the Justice and Peace Commission told IRIN.
"In the meantime, we are trying, with UNICEF’s help, to further raise awareness among the target community, which are the Togolese and Beninese," he added.
"We welcome the fact that these communities, especially the imams and other officials from Koranic schools, have now engaged themselves following a workshop on the issue held on 25 June. They promised to quickly organise community meetings, focus groups and family visits as to sensitise members of the community," said Moutou.
Action Against the Trafficking of West African Children (ALTO), an NGO based in Pointe Noire with an office in the capital, is going even further.
"We go to Pointe Noire airport and intercept children coming from Benin. We also want to get our Brazzaville branch to be more active," said ALTO’s chairman, Vincent Pareiso.
In the capital, there are two main entry points: Maya-Maya international airport and Brazzaville Beach, where boats from DRC arrive. Border police at the beach estimate that 80 children cross the river every day.
Since 2006, ALTO has dealt with almost 100 cases and helped repatriate around 50 children, with the help of UNICEF, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Benin’s consulate.
Food Supplies Stretched in the East - UN
July 16, 2008
16 July 2008
Posted to the web 16 July 2008
Violence and intimidation in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has forced at least 100,000 people to flee their homes in recent months, raising the number of displaced to more than half a million, and leaving the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) struggling to meet their needs.
WFP has already cut rations in half to some displaced people, particularly those camped close to the provincial capital Goma, in an effort to reach those in most desperate need at the heart of the current conflict zone in the mountainous hinterland.
"Thousands more people have run for their lives in recent months and are now in urgent need of help," said WFP Country Director Charles Vincent. "There are enormous and growing needs across North Kivu in particular, and we urge the international community to step forward and help us get a very difficult job done."
In July last year, WFP planned to distribute 800 tons of food per month, but the new displacements have forced the agency to scale up its planned deliveries to 10,000 tons per month.
Despite a peace agreement signed in January this year, WFP says that North Kivu province remains "a tinderbox of intimidation and violence." New camps for displaced people have sprung up almost overnight, many of them lacking the most basic facilities, including clean water and proper shelter.
Malnutrition is now running at alarming levels, threatening the lives of thousands of young children, according to the UN agency. Across Masisi and Rutshuru, surveys indicate rates for acute malnutrition of over 17 per cent - above the rate considered to constitute an emergency. WFP says it is working with specialised non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to establish a large number of new feeding centres in an effort to stem the rising tide of malnutrition.
Aggravating the situation is the fact that many families have now been displaced several times as they continue to suffer violence and harassment. WFP staff who have visited the worst affected areas in the Birambizo area of Rutshuru have heard terrifying testimony from people who have fled attacks and looting by armed groups.
In many cases, household food supplies have been looted and farming equipment destroyed or stolen. Women in particular face the constant threat of violence when they try to cultivate their fields. Many of the displaced have now missed three successive planting seasons, reinforcing their reliance on outside assistance.
Much of the displacement has taken place in the heart of the region’s breadbasket, causing food prices to spike sharply in urban areas such as Goma that rely on the hinterland for much of their supply.
WFP says it requires $142 million to cover its operations in eastern DRC over the next 12 months.
Children ‘Languishing in Ituri Prisons’
July 16, 2008
14 July 2008
Posted to the web 14 July 2008
Bunia
Dozens of children are languishing in adult prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeastern Ituri district, despite a legal prohibition, according to a UN official.
"In Ituri, there are over 70 children in conflict with the law - 57 are in prison in Bunia, alongside three babies who are accompanying their mothers," Nandy Estelle Ouattara, the officer in charge of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) child protection section in Bunia, said. "There are 11 children in Mahagi - with their own compound in the prison - and there are three in Aru, who are held alongside the adults - no separation."
In the central prison in Bunia, the men stay separately while the women and children stay together, a children’s advocate, who asked not to be identified said.
The advocate said it was discovered that some women had slept with children when one of the female inmates was found to be pregnant.
"The problem is more administrative than judicial," Jean Marie Mulumba, a children’s judge, said, "We apply the law. For example, such and such a child is considered dangerous and should be held by the state until the age of 21. But in the absence of appropriate facilities, the secure place for this child is a prison."
Mulumba says cases involving children are often postponed when they are due in court and no one turns up during the hearing.
Dieudonne Rwabona, the district commissioner in charge of finance, said Ituri does not have the funds to build a correctional facility just for children.
Some parents hide in fear of extortion of even fear of arrest should they step forward, so, as the children are abandoned, there is no one to lodge an appeal on their behalf after the sentence has been passed
According to one UN official, there are no NGOs in Ituri working with detained minors. "This had led to abuses of such children. We have had instances of rape of minors in prison."
"As it is, the main problem for the children in prison is lack of food," the official said. "In Mahagi, for example, Caritas [a Catholic aid agency] used to feed the child prisoners twice a week - on Tuesday and Friday. However, Caritas stopped this feeding programme in November [2007] and since then the children in detention have had to rely on their families to bring them food. However, this is not easy as some of the children have been abandoned by the families."
The official said: "A few weeks ago, I was in Mahagi at the prison and I heard a child crying loudly and incessantly, when I inquired why the child was crying, I learnt that it was a 10-year-old boy who last ate on Friday, yet our visit was on a Monday. I immediately went to the Nepalese UN soldiers and got some food for the whole group of children in the prison.
"This is an example of a short-term measure; there are no long term measures to address the plight of children in conflict with the law."
The UN official said the problems are exacerbated by the failure of parents to appear in court when their children are arraigned.
"Some parents hide in fear of extortion of even fear of arrest should they step forward, so, as the children are abandoned, there is no one to lodge an appeal on their behalf after the sentence has been passed," the official said.
Js-rp/bn/am/sr
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Visits Kuimba District
July 15, 2008
15 July 2008
Posted to the web 15 July 2008
Mbanza Kongo
The deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Filomena Delgado, over the weekend visited the district of Kuimba, northern Zaire province.
In the region, the deputy minister informed the local population about Government programmes designed to boost the region’s rural development.
Filomena Delgado, who is also the coordinator of the central Government programme of combat of poverty in the rural area, drove afterwards to the locality of Luva, some 30 kilometres to the east of Kuimba.
The deputy minister explained that Angolan Government is designing projects to relaunch agriculture in the rural areas, through the use of modern technical equipment that will soon be alloted to local farmers.
She said as well the Government will continue to work to improve the rural folks living, providing them with drinking water, education, medical assistance and rehabilitated roads. In Kuimba the Government official visited several social undertakings.
Carter Center Expresses New Concerns In Response to Announced Renegotiations
July 15, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
14 July 2008
Posted to the web 14 July 2008
The Carter Center is deeply concerned by the recent announcement that the Democratic Republic of Congo will begin renegotiating critical mining contracts in mid-July[i] without policy or procedures to guide this process or indication of whether requisite expertise will be secured.
"We support the need for renegotiations wholeheartedly," said John Stremlau, vice president for peace programs at The Carter Center. "But not without publicly disclosed measures to ensure the integrity of the process."
The announcement of renegotiations follows four months of official silence on the contract review process. In March, the government published the report of the inter-ministerial "Revisitation" Commission established to review upwards of 60 mining contracts, along with letters addressed to companies on the basis of the report. It also announced a ministerial-level Task Force that would provide overall guidance to the next phase of the contract review process.[ii]
The Carter Center welcomed these steps as a good faith demonstration of the government’s commitment to uphold international standards as it pursues the next phase of the process, which includes renegotiating and terminating contracts. Unfortunately, the Task Force has not met the goal of providing direction for the next phase.
The Carter Center’s concerns include:
? The apparent lack recognition of the urgency of the matter by the Task Force, which has held only one or two substantive meetings since its announcement four months ago.
? Lack of indication from the Task Force or any agency of government of how renegotiations will be conducted, whether the necessary expertise has been retained, and whether funds have been secured for this purpose.
? Lack of public statements by the Task Force as to which contracts will be renegotiated and in what order of priority, and what terms will be renegotiated, or whether contracts will be terminated, and on what grounds.
? The lack of transparency in new deals announced with the Chinese government and with individual companies whose contracts are under review, which erodes public confidence in the contract review process.
"In the absence of publicly announced measures to address these problems and to ensure the integrity of the process, renegotiation is unlikely to result in any improvement, which would be a tragedy for the Congolese people who have so much at stake," said Stremlau.
The Vice Minister of Mines has informed The Carter Center that the government of the DRC is aware of the problems caused by the delays and shares many of the Center’s concerns. According to the Vice Minister, the government is seeking to address a number of these problems. In this light, The Carter Center urges the government to:
· Take immediate steps to reform the operation of the Task Force to ensure that it can provide effective political direction for the next phase,
· Determine and publish the criteria that will guide the next phase of the contract review,
· Publish the procedures that will be followed in the next phase,
· Identify the team that will have operational responsibility for the renegotiation and termination of contracts, and establish clear rules for the division of responsibility between this team and the political authorities that will guide the process,
· Retain the expertise requisite to the next phase of the process, including professionals with demonstrated expertise in relation to mining economics, and international and DRC law,
· Meaningfully involve civil society at all stages of the process, and
· Publish all agreements relating to the grant of concessions to China as compensation for loans.
Successful completion of the mining review depends on the support of all parties, including mining companies, multilateral organizations and foreign governments (see past recommendations made to all parties by The Carter Center).[iii] The Carter Center urges all parties to make a sustained and good faith effort to achieve a fair and sustainable result as expeditiously as possible.
Background
Billions of dollars’ worth of mining investment contracts were concluded by the DRC during its years of conflict, before an elected government was in place to lend them legitimacy. Investigations and analyses by, among others, a Congolese parliamentary commission, law firm Duncan & Allen, and accounting firm Ernst & Young have detailed significant irregularities in the award of the contracts, shortcomings in the contracts themselves, and material default in performance. As The Carter Center confirmed in its own review, many of the contracts lack basic provisions to ensure that mining companies fulfill their limited obligations, including provisions protecting against pricing practices that would allow mining companies to reduce amounts paid to the government. They also lack provisions to ensure that windfall profits, earned by companies due to current elevated resource prices, are shared equitably.
Threat to Great Apes Highlighted At Virunga Meeting
July 15, 2008
11 July 2008
Posted to the web 14 July 2008
Lea Terhune
Mountain gorilla Safari holds her infant months before being killed in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The unique biodiversity of the Virunga region is of global importance, and it deserves full conservation support to assure its continued existence," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Claudia McMurray told America.gov prior to leaving for the July 14-15 meeting.
"The forests of Central Africa play a central role not only in the livelihoods of millions of people, but also in stabilizing regional and global climate patterns," she said. She praised the courage of park rangers who risk their lives to protect wildlife and the rainforest habitat. More than 120 rangers have been killed on the job in the past 10 years.
Wildlife, habitat and rangers in Virunga National Park in the DRC are under siege. A war between rebel militias and the Congolese army often prevents rangers’ access to the park. Charcoal traffickers are another peril. Charcoal is the chief local cooking fuel and old-growth hardwood forests are illegally felled and turned into charcoal for this lucrative trade.
In July 2007 the well-known Rugendo family of gorillas was killed in Virunga National Park, a month after a female gorilla was found shot in the back of the head in the same area. A total of seven gorillas died. Rangers and conservationists working to save the rainforest saw the deaths as a message from charcoal traffickers to discourage interference.
A former park director accused of masterminding the gorilla killings, Honore Mashagiro, was arrested in March. Mark Jenkins’ July National Geographic cover story "Who Murdered the Virunga Gorillas?" describes how Mashagiro persecuted Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) warden Paulin Ngobobo, driving him underground.
A WildlifeDirect field officer told Jenkins, "When rangers on patrol could not arrest people directly involved in the charcoal trade, it was because Mashagiro himself was protecting them." Kenya-based WildlifeDirect, headed by noted anthropologist Richard Leakey, actively protects the gorillas.
BALANCING CONSERVATION WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Wars, poaching and habitat encroachment threaten the unique biodiversity of Congo’s Virunga National Park.
The conference of regional ministers that will be convened by the Central Albertine Rift Transboundary Core Secretariat and Assistant Secretary McMurray will examine causes of the gorilla killings along with economic and conservation challenges, focusing on how to protect its precious resources.
The DRC, Rwanda and Uganda have signed the "Tripartite Declaration on Transboundary Natural Resource Management of the Transfrontier Protected Area Network of the Central Albertine Rift," which lays out a 10-year strategic conservation plan for the area.
The United States supports economic development and conservation efforts in Central Africa through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Central African Regional Program for the Environment and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.
NASA satellite imagery has helped scientists monitor clearing of Virunga forests by farmers and charcoal traffickers. (See "NASA Satellite Imagery Helps Protect African Mountain Gorillas.")
The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society works closely with the ICCN to build park management expertise and provide equipment to rangers.
Mountain gorillas are just one of the great ape species endangered by war, poachers and habitat loss. Bonobos and chimpanzees are also in decline. (See "Virginians Join International Effort to Preserve Bonobo Habitat.")
Often the apes are killed to supply "bushmeat," an African delicacy, but great apes also can fall victim to Ebola and common human respiratory viruses - of particular concern because tourism provides jobs and is important for economic development.
A growing human population competes for local resources and encroaches on habitat, compounding the problem. Charcoal trafficking relies on demand from the hundreds of thousands of people in the region. Each family uses an estimated 68 kilograms of charcoal per month.
Tackling these complex issues is a daunting prospect for government agencies and conservationists, and for park rangers, who are poorly funded and ill-equipped.
Virunga National Park, in the DNC but bordering on Uganda and Rwanda, was established in 1925. It was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 for its singular diversity of wildlife and habitats, which range from swampy lowlands, forests and savannahs to steep volcanic mountains.
"The remarkable dedication of our conservation partners in Virunga, despite many dangers, deserves wide recognition. We believe that conservation can play an integral role in establishing stability and supporting economic development in the region," McMurray said.
Documentary Filmmaker, His Assistant Summoned And Interrogated By National Security Agents
July 10, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
10 July 2008
Posted to the web 10 July 2008
On 7 July 2008, Danish documentary film producer and director Franck Polsein Piesecki and his Congolese assistant Sekombi Katontolo were summoned and held in Goma for 5 hours by agents of the National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements, ANR). Piesecki was working on a documentary called "Blood Mobile" about the country’s mining industry.
According to information received by JED, ANR agents came to the filmmaker’s hotel and searched his room before taking him and his assistant to the provincial ANR office. Once there, they both had to make a statement. The intelligence agents interrogated the filmmaker, in a threatening manner about every person he had filmed, then they viewed his recorded tapes. Piesecki’s cellular phone was also scrutinised in order to verify all emitted and received communications.
JED inquired about the motives for the interrogation and brief detention of the two men, noting that they had an accreditation letter from the Communications and Media Ministry that grants them the authorisation to shoot throughout the DR Congo. The ANR provincial director stated that there was a misunderstanding and that he had been alerted to the presence of "suspicious tourists" in the hotel.