DR Congo’s M23 forcibly deporting civilians: rights group

KINSHASA: The M23 armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forcibly deported hundreds of people since taking over large swathes of the country’s east, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, calling it a war crime.

The global rights group said the M23 had forcibly rounded up more than 1,500 people and sent them to neighbouring Rwanda, which according to UN experts backs the anti-government armed group.

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The deportations, which targeted Congolese nationals and Rwandan refugees, violated the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which ban forcible transfers of people in conflict zones, said Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“The Rwandan government and the M23 are committing war crimes by forcibly transferring and deporting people within occupied territory and to Rwanda,” HRW senior researcher Clementine de Montjoye said in a statement.

“Concerted international pressure is needed on Rwanda to immediately end the deportations, ensure the security of everyone in occupied areas, and hold those responsible for abuses to account.”

HRW said the deportations appeared to target suspected members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), formed by former Hutu leaders linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

It said the M23 had rounded up as many as 2,000 people from the eastern town of Sake on May 12 and forcibly transferred them to Goma, the capital of Nord Kivu province, around 25 kilometres (15 miles) away.

Many were then deported to Rwanda, it said.

The M23 has said those deported are Rwandan refugees who were held hostage by the FDLR, a claim the Congolese government rejects.

Responding to AFP, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe dismissed the HRW report as a “parody of human rights”.