BRUSSELS — Democratic Republic of Congo authorities must punish senior army officers responsible for "widespread and systematic" sexual violence by the military, a leading rights watchdog said Thursday.
But a spokesman for the DR Congo army, the FARDC, denied the report as "baseless" and cited instances where soldiers have been brought to trial for sexual crimes.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch urged Kinshasa to insist on a policy of "zero tolerance" for such crimes, 7,703 cases of which were committed by the army, rebels and others in eastern Congo last year, according to UN figures.
"Senior army officers continue to be untouched. Their crimes and their command responsibility for the crimes of their soldiers must be investigated and held to account," HRW Africa researcher Juliane Kippenberg said.
The group said the highest-ranked officer convicted over sexual crimes had been a captain, and that no officers had been prosecuted for condoning crimes committed under their command.
The 62-page report outlined the case of one colonel who had been arrested over the rape of four girls in Nord-Kivu province but who escaped because of lax jail procedures.
It urged the government to create a vetting mechanism for abusive officers, establish a strict chain of command, strengthen military justice and improve army pay and conditions so fewer crimes are committed.
"This report is baseless," FARDC Colonel Leon-Richard Kasongo told AFP on Thursday, adding that military authorities had not remained "dumb" and were practising "zero tolerance for such reprehensible acts."
"Some commands have already deferred soldiers before the courts," Kasongo said. "There are currently two trials, at Kavumu (in Sud-Kivu province) and at Walikale (in Nord-Kivu), where soldiers suspected of rape and of torture are on trial."
"If these soldiers are in court, it's because they've been transferred there by their commanders. So how are these commanders turning a blind eye in these cases?" Kasongo added.
When asked by AFP about the report, Defence Minister Charles Moanda Nsimba said that such accusations were just an opportunity for Human Rights Watch to "promote themselves."
HRW also called for a "mixed chamber" of local and international justice officials to help overcome weaknesses in the system when it came to tackling war crimes and crimes against humanity, including sexual crimes.
"President Joseph Kabila, in a meeting with Human Rights Watch on July 2, proposed the idea of a mixed court with a similar mandate" to cover crimes against humanity, the report said.
On July 7, the FARDC warned its servicemen to respect the law or be punished for acts including rape, torture and looting.
It listed "rapes, forcing civilians to carry out forced labour, theft, extortion, torture, looting, malicious destruction of fields or livestock murders, or any other reprehensible act."
The army also said that commanders who did not ensure civilians and their belongings were protected from the troops would be held responsible.
However Kippenberg said: "Zero tolerance for rape is a noble aim, but it's meaningless if the government doesn't prosecute commanders most responsible for rape."
About 140,000-strong, the FARDC is often accused of attacking civilians, particularly in conflict zones where they are pursuing rebels from the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved
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