No End to LRA Killings And Abductions

Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC)

23 May 2011

press release

The rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continues to kill civilians and abduct children in remote regions of central Africa at an alarming rate with no end in sight.

Nearly three years after the LRA began its most current campaign of attacking villages and towns in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR), an immense protection gap remains for hundreds of thousands of civilians who live in LRA-affected areas.

Joseph Kony and other members of the LRA’s senior leadership face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC), yet continue to commit atrocities. LRA forces attack population centers and club civilians to death and abduct children for use in their forces. Since 2008, the LRA has killed over 2,400 civilians, abducted 3,400 others, many of whom are children, and displaced over 400,000 people from their homes. Far too often, national armies and United Nations peacekeepers have left terrified civilians to face the LRA threat on their own. The lack of effective protection has meant that some areas have been attacked repeatedly, such as Doruma town in northern Congo (see below).

Joint military efforts by the Ugandan, Congolese, and Southern Sudanese armed forces, and protection measures by the United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo, MONUSCO, have not stopped LRA attacks on civilians or resulted in the apprehension of the LRA’s senior leaders. Rather than confronting the failures and rethinking current strategies, Congolese and Ugandan government officials have sought to downplay the LRA threat, claiming that the LRA has been defeated. Growing distrust between the two military forces further hampers the development of adequate protection strategies. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, stretched between protection priorities in other parts of the country, has deployed fewer than 5 percent of its peacekeepers to LRA-affected areas. The LRA’s brutal attacks on civilians are likely to continue unless more effective protection measures and greater international efforts to apprehend LRA commanders are urgently developed.

LRA Attacks on Doruma Town, Haut Uele District

Doruma town and its surroundings, tucked away in northern Congo near the border with Southern Sudan and CAR, is one of the areas hardest hit by repeated LRA attacks since 2008. On Christmas Day 2008 and in the days that followed, the LRA carried out a series of brutal attacks, killing over 300 civilians, most of whom had their skulls crushed with blows from heavy wooden clubs. Since then, attacks in the area have continued.

In April, the LRA attacked Doruma five times. The first attack was on April 19 when the LRA killed a 58-year-old man who intervened when the rebels attempted to abduct his children. The next day, the LRA attacked again, looting 20 households and abducting two brothers-ages 14 and 20-from their homes just outside Doruma. A day later, the LRA looted 11 households and abducted three more people, one of whom managed to escape. During each attack, Congolese army soldiers based in Doruma fired at the LRA assailants but did not pursue the attackers or prevent them from returning.

Humanitarian workers and residents told Human Rights Watch that fear of further attacks forced much of the population of Doruma to huddle together for safety in the center of town near the hospital and church. Some of the humanitarian workers based in Doruma were evacuated following the LRA attacks.

On April 23, MONUSCO deployed its Guatemalan Special Forces to Doruma for a six-day operation, known as Easter Shield, to protect the population. According to MONUSCO’s own regulations, the deployment of its special forces should be temporary and not exceed one week. The presence of the UN peacekeepers brought temporary security and permitted people to return to their homes, but the peacekeepers withdrew on April 29. The next day, early in the morning, the LRA returned and attacked again, abducting four people who later managed to escape.

A week later, MONUSCO again deployed its Guatemalan Special Forces to Doruma who remained till May 12. Both temporary MONUSCO deployments brought some calm to Doruma when peacekeepers were present but also caused confusion. Residents and humanitarian workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch believed the peacekeepers had arrived to establish a long-term protection presence in Doruma. They were surprised, frustrated, and angry to discover that the MONUSCO peacekeeping presence was only to last a week. While Human Rights Watch has not received information about further LRA attacks following MONUSCO’s withdrawal on May 12, the need for a sustainable protection solution for the population in Doruma is evident. According to local and other sources, LRA combatants remain in the vicinity of Doruma and the population remains terrified of renewed LRA attacks.

Since the Christmas massacres of 2008 and other attacks in the Doruma area, as well as the continued presence of LRA combatants, Human Rights Watch, Congolese civil society, and humanitarian agencies have consistently urged the UN to set up a peacekeeping presence in Doruma and enhance protection measures for the population. Other than the two one-week deployments, no such measures have occurred. UN officials at first claimed there were logistical problems due to the soft airstrip, its distance from other UN bases, and difficulties accessing Doruma by road-a limitation less valid now that the road from Doruma to Dungu is passable. They also argued that it was not necessary to set up a UN base because the Congolese army was present in Doruma.

The Congolese army had deployed troops to Doruma in early 2009 but most were later redeployed elsewhere. Today, there are an estimated 100 soldiers based in Doruma from the Congolese army’s 913th Battalion. This presence has been inadequate at protecting the population, as evidenced by the series of attacks in April. The Ugandan army had a temporary presence in Doruma in late 2008 and early 2009, but its base was removed a few months later.

UN peacekeepers should coordinate with Congolese and Ugandan officials to urgently devise sustainable and effective protection measures for Doruma and the surrounding area.

LRA Attacks Near Pasi and Zangabai Towns, Bas Uele District

Another area suffering repeated attacks is around the towns of Pasi and Zangabai, in northeastern Bas Uele district, just south of the border with CAR. The neighboring towns are along a route frequently used by the LRA since 2008. During a fact-finding mission to the area in March and April 2011, Human Rights Watch documented 25 previously unreported attacks by the LRA in the area since 2009. During these attacks, the LRA abducted 166 civilians, killed 9 others, and wounded many more. Over 1,000 people fled their homes to seek safety elsewhere.

Traumatized civilians in and around Pasi and Zangabai rely on just 12 Congolese soldiers deployed in the two towns to protect them from the LRA. The soldiers have little ammunition and no means of transportation or communications with their commanders in Doruma, several days away on foot. When the LRA attacks, the soldiers are often forced to flee along with the population.

The residents’ feelings of abandonment were palpable when Human Rights Watch visited these towns in late March. A 45-year-old farmer from Zangabai told Human Rights Watch that his four sons, ages 4 to 18, were abducted by the LRA when the rebels attacked and burned his home in November 2010. A woman who was a captive of the same LRA group later escaped and reported that two of the farmer’s boys had been killed by the LRA in the forest. The visibly traumatized man, his body shaking while he recounted to Human Rights Watch what happened to his sons, pleaded to the international community for assistance:

We have sad hearts knowing that we’ve been forgotten and live here at the mercy of these rebels. We have no medicine, and we can’t go to our farms because of the insecurity. I wish the international community would look at what’s happening and realize that we’re humans too. A 79-year-old man from Longondo was pierced with a bayonet just above his right eye by LRA combatants who had abducted him and 17 others in April 2010. He was released after two days and fled to Zangabai, 20 kilometers east of his home. In January 2011, the LRA attacked Zangabai, killing a 5-year-old boy and abducting a 30-year-old woman. In late February, the elderly man witnessed the abduction of a 27-year-old man who remained missing a month later when a Human Rights Watch researcher visited Zangabai.

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