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[ Country-by-Country Reports ] DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (TIER 2 Watch LIst) [Extracted from U.S.
State Dept TIP Report, June 2009] The
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a source and destination country
for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and
sexual exploitation. Much of this trafficking occurs within the
country’s unstable eastern provinces and is perpetrated by armed groups
outside government control. Indigenous and foreign armed militia groups,
notably, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the
National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), various local militia
(Mai-Mai), and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), continued to abduct
and forcibly recruit Congolese men, women, and children to serve as laborers,
porters, domestics, combatants, and in sexual servitude. CNDP recruiters,
fraudulently promising high-paying employment, enlisted Congolese men and
boys from Rwanda-based refugee camps, as well as Rwandan adults and children
from towns in western Rwanda, for forced labor and forced soldiering in the
DRC. An
unspecified number of children remain with the 81st and 85th
non-integrated Congolese national army (FARDC) brigades under the control of
Colonel Philemon Yav and Colonel Samy Matumo, respectively. FARDC elements
frequently force men in North Kivu province to carry looted goods or to
participate in the construction of military facilities; those who resist are
sometimes killed. During the past year, a number of children in Ituri were
forced to abandon their studies to work for the army. A number of policemen
in eastern DRC reportedly arrested people arbitrarily in order to extort
money from them; those who could not pay were forced to work until they had
“earned” their freedom. During
the year, the Ugandan terrorist rebel organization, Lord’s Resistance
Army (LRA), intensified its operations in areas in and near the DRC’s
Orientale Province, abducting at least 750 people, mostly children, between
September 2008 and January 2009 in the DRC, Central African Republic, and
southern Sudan to serve as domestics, porters, soldiers, and in sexual
servitude. An estimated 300 women and children remain captive with the LRA in
DRC’s Garamba National Park; some Congolese captives were taken into
southern Sudan. A
significant number of unlicensed Congolese artisanal miners – men and
boys – are exploited in situations of debt bondage by businessmen and
supply dealers from whom they acquire cash advances, tools, food, and other
provisions at inflated prices, and to whom they must sell the mined minerals
at prices below the market value. The miners are forced to continue to work
to repay constantly accumulating debts that are virtually impossible to
repay. In North and South Kivu Provinces, armed groups and FARDC troops
reportedly use threats and coercion to force men and children to mine for
minerals. Congolese girls are forcibly prostituted in brothels or informal
camps -- including in markets and mining areas -- by loosely organized
networks, gangs, and madams. Congolese women and children are trafficked
internally for domestic servitude and, in smaller numbers, to South Africa,
Republic of the Congo, and European nations, such as Norway, for sexual
exploitation. Some members of Batwa, or pygmy groups, are subjected to
conditions of involuntary servitude in agriculture, mining, and domestic work
in eastern DRC. The
Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not fully comply with
the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is
making significant efforts to do so. Some advances were noted during the
reporting period, particularly the enactment of the Child Protection Code,
the conviction of an army major -- among others -- for illegally recruiting
children, and the launch of a public awareness campaign against the illegal
recruitment of child soldiers. Despite these significant efforts, the
government did not show evidence of progress in prosecuting and punishing sex
trafficking and labor trafficking offenders, demobilizing conscripted child
soldiers from its army, or providing protective services for the vast
majority of trafficking victims; therefore, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. The government continued to lack
sufficient financial, technical, and human resources to effectively address
trafficking crimes and provide basic levels of security and social services
in most parts of the country. The military lacked the capacity to demobilize
armed groups or adequately prevent the trafficking violations committed by
members of its own forces. The country’s criminal and military justice
systems, including the police, courts, and prisons, were practically
nonexistent after years of war; there were few functioning courts or secure
prisons in the country. Recommendations for the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Increase efforts to prosecute and
punish trafficking offenders, particularly those who conscript child
soldiers, utilize forced labor, or control children in prostitution; punish
military and other law enforcement personnel found unlawfully using local
populations to perform forced labor or mine for minerals; in partnership with
NGOs or religious entities, ensure the provision of short-term protective
services to children who are trafficking victims; and work with concession
holders to educate mine operators and workers about the illegality of
utilizing forced labor. Prosecution In
March 2009, Bukavu police arrested a nightclub owner for allegedly
prostituting 10 girls and seven boys in his facility; he was remanded to
prison to await formal charges. In April 2008, the Bukavu Military Court
sentenced FARDC Major Bwasolo Misaba to five years in prison for conscripting
children between the ages of 10 to 14 and illegally using them in military
ranks. This is DRC’s second conviction of a national army officer for
illegally recruiting children to be in the armed forces. In March 2009, the
Kipushi Military Tribunal sentenced Kynugu Mutanga (a.k.a. Gédéon)
to death for crimes against humanity, including illegal child conscription.
Seven of his co-defendants received sentences ranging from seven to 10
years’ imprisonment for their complicity in these crimes, 11 received
lesser sentences, and five were acquitted. In July 2008, Congolese military
magistrates and MONUC staff traveled to Orientale Province on a third joint
investigative mission to record testimonies of atrocities committed by local
Mai-Mai militias; substantial evidence of forced labor of local populations
was collected. Kisangani military authorities apprehended five Mai-Mai
members for their alleged involvement, but have not set a trial date. Bedi Mubuli
Engangela (a.k.a. Colonel 106), a former Mai-Mai commander suspected
of insurrection and war crimes, including the illegal conscription of
children, remains in detention at Malaka Prison in Kinshasa; a trial date for
commencement of his prosecution has not been set. These notable efforts
notwithstanding, the government’s capacity to apprehend, convict, or
imprison traffickers remained weak. Commander Jean-Pierre Biyoyo, formerly of
the Mudundu-40 armed group and the first person convicted by Congolese courts
of conscripting children, has not been re-apprehended since his escape from
prison in June 2006. “Captain Gaston,” an armed group commander
allegedly responsible for the mid-2006 murder of an NGO child protection
advocate, remained at large during the reporting period; his January 2007
arrest warrant has not been executed. Corrupt officials siphoned meager
financial resources available to government agencies responsible for
combating human trafficking, further disabling the government from pursuing
training, capacity building, or victim assistance. Protection In
December 2008, the Governments of the DRC, Uganda, and Southern Sudan
launched a joint military operation against the LRA in the DRC’s
territory. The operation is ongoing, but as of this Report’s writing,
it had rescued 346 people, including 127 Congolese, Ugandan, and Sudanese
children. Although
the national government did not address forced labor in the mining sector,
provincial Ministry of Education offices in Mbuji Mayi, Bunia, and Lubumbashi
coordinated with NGOs to reintegrate children working in mines into the
formal education system. In April 2008, Katanga’s provincial Ministries
of Interior and Labor opened the Kasapa residential “welcome
center” in Lubumbashi to provide street children, including trafficking
victims, with protective services and educational programming; the center is
fully funded by the provincial government. Although the Ministry of Labor is
responsible for investigating forced child labor and it employs 10 inspectors
in Katanga’s mining region, the ministry did not conduct any forced
child labor investigations in 2008. Government officials recognize the
growing problem of child prostitution in the DRC, though authorities have yet
to take concrete action against it. In September 2008, Bukavu child
protection police trained 12 brothel and nightclub owners regarding the
prohibition against utilizing minors to perform sexual services. The
government did not employ procedures for proactively identifying victims of
trafficking among vulnerable groups, and it lacked formal procedures for
referring victims to protective services. The government is not known to
encourage victims to assist in investigations against their traffickers. It
offered no legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries
in which they may face hardship or retribution. Prevention |