DR CONGO: Protect Children From Rape and Recruitment

[NEW YORK, 16 December 2008] – The UN Security Council should respond to escalating violations against children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, including the recruitment of child soldiers and sexual violence, said Human Rights Watch in a letter sent on 10 December 2008, to Security Council members. The Security Council’s working group on children and armed conflict is expected to meet this week to consider action on this issue.

At least 175 children have been forcibly recruited into armed service since heavy fighting resumed in August between the Congolese army (FARDC) and the rebel group led by Laurent Nkunda, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP). There are reports that the number may be much higher. Scores of girls have been raped by parties to the conflict. Human Rights Watch observed some of these abuses in a visit last week.

“We wish Security Council members could have been with our researchers,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocate at Human Rights Watch. “The sight of drugged children carrying AK-47s might convince them that they should take stronger action to end the recruitment and rape of children and hold the guilty parties accountable.”

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Nyamilima and Ishasha in North Kivu province, where they saw at least 30 children guarding barricades and patrolling the streets with weapons they could barely carry. Some were as young as 12, and four were girls. They were operating in areas now controlled by Mai Mai militias and the Rwandan armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

In some areas of Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu, Nkunda’s rebels and other armed groups have gone door-to-door to force young boys and adults, some as young as 14, into their service. In other areas the group has recruited boys as young as 12 near displaced persons’ camps. Some have been sent into combat without military training.

Pro-government Mai Mai groups recruited dozens of children for military service in late October, and the Congolese army has also recruited children to transport and distribute weapons.

Worldwide, 14 parties to armed conflict have been identified since 2002 by the UN secretary-general for consistent and repeated violations of international laws that prohibit the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Four of these “persistent violators” are currently recruiting children in the DRC – the Congolese army (FARDC), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), pro-government Mai Mai groups, and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

“Tragically, many of the children recently taken are ‘re-recruits,’ who have already gone through demobilisation programs,” said Becker. “These programs are too brief, and the children urgently need more support and protection from being recruited again once they return to their families.”

Human Rights Watch has also documented rapes of girls and women by Congolese army soldiers and by combatants of the CNDP, FDLR and Mai Mai militias. Dozens of women and girls from Nyamilima and Ishasha have been raped in recent weeks by Mai Mai combatants, including girls as young as 9 years old, attacked while working in the fields or sleeping in their houses at night. Some witnesses credit FDLR combatants with trying to restrain Mai Mai abuses, but in many areas both groups have collaborated in attacks.

Nkunda’s soldiers raped at least 16 women and girls in late October and November following their takeover of Rutshuru and Kiwanja. Congolese army soldiers fleeing an advance by the group raped more than a dozen women and girls as they fled Goma on October 29.

Tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped since the war began in 1998, and a recent report from the secretary-general found that between June 2007 and June 2008, the UN recorded 5,517 cases of sexual violence against children in Ituri and North and South Kivu – 31 per cent of all sexual violence victims.

Human Rights Watch called on the European Union to urgently send a “bridging” force to eastern Congo to help UN peacekeepers stop further attacks on civilians, including children. Human Rights Watch wrote to EU heads of state on December 9, asking them to deploy such a force quickly in eastern Congo following an earlier request from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the EU.

Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council to:
· Take measures, including additional sanctions, against parties responsible for the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and rape and sexual violence;
· Urge members of the Security Council and governments in the region to apprehend individuals wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), including the CNDP chief of staff, Bosco Ntaganda, who is accused by the ICC of crimes relating to child soldiers in Ituri in 2002 and 2003; and
· Ensure that UNICEF, the UN peacekeeping mission MONUC, and other relevant UN agencies receive adequate resources and personnel to promote the demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers, including girls associated with armed groups.

Further information

• DRC: Sexual abuse of minors doubles in Kasai Occidental town (9 December 2008)
• Council Gives Weak Response to Civilian Protection in DRC (5 December 2008)
• CRIN information page on child rights and the Security Council
• More on the DRC