Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Congo.htm
|
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Some of these
links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated
or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity
or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** Committee against
Torture examines the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo UN Committee against
Torture, Geneva, 25 April 2019 [accessed 12 May
2019] In the dialogue
that followed, Committee Experts deplored the deteriorating human rights
situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the fact that 63 per
cent of the numerous human rights violations were committed by State agents. The
suppression of and crack down on human rights defenders, journalists, and
political opposition throughout the country was a serious concern, as was the
use of force to repress protests and demonstrations. The national prevention
mechanism had not yet been set up and the 2011 law on the criminalization of
torture had not yet achieved any impact due to its poor dissemination among
key actors concerned, and many magistrates continued to apply the old
legislation which considered torture as an aggravating factor rather than a
standalone crime. The Experts were concerned about the structural and
functional anomalies, and the duplication of power and authority in the
judiciary and multiple authorities which had the power to arrest and bring
people into custody. The lack of
judicial independence, inefficiency, and judicial corruption seemed to be the
order of the day. Arbitrary detention was widespread, and secret detention centres continued to exist in which torture and cruel and
degrading treatment was practiced. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: DRC U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 [accessed 8 July
2021] DISAPPEARANCES There were reports of disappearances attributable to the SSF during the year. Authorities often refused to acknowledge the detention of suspects and sometimes detained suspects in unofficial facilities, including on military bases and in detention facilities operated by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR). The whereabouts of some civil society activists and civilians arrested by the SSF remained unknown for long periods. Despite President Tshisekedi’s promise to grant the United Nations access to all detention facilities, some ANR prisons remained hidden and thus were impossible to access. TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The law
criminalizes torture, but there were credible reports the SSF continued to abuse
and torture civilians, particularly detainees and prisoners. Throughout the
year activists circulated videos of police beating unarmed and nonviolent
protesters. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Physical Conditions:
Central prison facilities were severely overcrowded, with an estimated
occupancy rate of 200 percent of capacity. For example, Makala Central Prison
in Kinshasa, which was constructed in 1958 to house 1,500 prisoners, held as
many as 8,200 inmates simultaneously during the year. In August 2019 the
National Human Rights Council published findings from visits to prisons in
each of the country’s 26 provinces in 2018. The council found that all except
four prisons were grossly overcrowded and most buildings used for detention
were originally built for other purposes. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Prison officials
often held individuals longer than their sentences due to disorganization, inadequate
records, judicial inefficiency, or corruption. Prisoners unable to pay their
fines often remained indefinitely in prison (see section 1.e.). Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/democratic-republic-congo/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 11 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Prison conditions
are life threatening, and long periods of pretrial detention are common.
Security forces have tortured prisoners. Civilian
authorities do not maintain effective control of security forces. The FARDC are
largely undisciplined. There have been reported incidents of soldiers
exchanging intelligence and weapons with armed groups. Soldiers and police
regularly commit serious human rights abuses, including rape and torture. In
February 2017, FARDC soldiers recorded themselves killing civilians in
Central Kasai province. Torture of
Activists Routine in Congo Ida Sawyer, Deputy
Director, Human Rights Watch HRW-Africa www.hrw.org/news/2018/11/09/torture-activists-routine-congo [accessed 11
November 2018] UK Group Documents
Longtime Use of Electric Shock, Rape to Crush Dissent The military,
police, and intelligence services in the Democratic Republic of Congo have routinely
tortured political and rights activists, including by gang rape, choking and
electric shock, according to an exhaustive new report. In the report
released this week, the UK-based Freedom from Torture documents the extensive
use of torture in detention in Congo, based on forensic documentation and
psychological assessments of Congolese asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. DR
Congo 'condones' torture of activists: NGO report Agence France-Presse AFP, Kinshasa, 5 November 2018 www.thesundaily.my/news/2018/11/05/dr-congo-condones-torture-activists-ngo-report www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/africa/2018-11-05-dr-congo-condones-torture-of-activists-ngo-report/ [accessed 6 November
2018] "Torture,
including rape, is endemic in the detention system, irrespective of the
detaining authority or type of detention facility," the 99-page report
stated. "Most of those
who are detained, men and women alike, are raped, on multiple occasions and
by multiple perpetrators. The rapes take place in a context of absolute
impunity." The report is based
on 74 medical and legal files of Congolese nationals over the last five years
who fled to Britain after being allegedly detained and tortured. Sixty-five of the
cases, men and women, said they were sexually tortured, the vast majority
raped at least once, including vaginally, anally and orally. More than half of
those who were raped described episodes of gang rape, the report said,
resulting in profound physical and psychological injury. Beatings, burning
with heated metal or cigarettes, positional torture, sharp force trauma such
as cutting, stabbing or biting, being forced to stare at the Sun, partial
asphyxiation and electric shocks were also among the methods of torture
reported. "Different
branches of state security — police, military and intelligence agencies —
commit torture and other human rights violations from the point of arrest,
and at both official and unofficial detention sites," the report said. Veteran Accuses
Congo Officials of Torture Britain Eakin, Courthouse News Service, Washington, 1 Aug 2016 www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/01/veteran-accuses-congo-officials-of-torture.htm [accessed 2 August
2016] www.courthousenews.com/veteran-accuses-congo-officials-of-torture/ [accessed 30
December 2017] According to the
lawsuit, ANR officers interrogated Lewis for 16 hours daily at the new
location. "Interrogations
were timed to disrupt sleep and cause severe sleep deprivation for Mr.
Lewis," the complaint alleges. His captors slowly
starved him with small, infrequent meals and denied him basic hygiene
necessities, and threatened him with indefinite imprisonment should they
extract a confession from him, Lewis claims. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] DRC ABUSES BY SECURITY
FORCES
- In the capital, Kinshasa, the Congolese police launched “Operation Likofi” in November 2013 to remove gang members known as
“kuluna” from the streets. During the operation,
the police extrajudicially executed at least 51
young men and boys and forcibly disappeared 33 others. Police dragged some of
victims out of their houses at night and shot them dead before taking their
bodies away. In October and
November 2013, as the army moved into territories previously controlled by
the M23 in eastern Congo, soldiers raped at least 41 women and girls.
Soldiers and intelligence officers in Rutshuru
arbitrarily arrested several people, accused them of supporting the M23, and
forced them to pay money for their release. Rape as torture in
the DRC: Sexual violence beyond the conflict zone Medical Foundation
for the Care of Victims of Torture, Freedom from Torture -- 2014 Report www.freedomfromtorture.org/feature/drc_report/7878 [accessed 13 June
2014] EVIDENCE OF TORTURE - The torture
documented in the 34 medico-legal reports included rape, in all but one case,
and a range of other forms of sexual violence; beatings and assaults in all
cases; burning in half of the cases and cutting, stabbing and forced or
stress positioning in many more. In the case of one
woman, a Freedom from Torture doctor documented 68 scars attributable to
torture. Fifty-six of these scars were attributable to a specific instance of
gang-rape. The women reported genito-urinary symptoms and chronic pain – back and joint
pain and persistent migraines – attributable to their experience of detention
and torture. Two women were diagnosed HIV positive and another two women
disclosed pregnancies that were the result of rape. One of our clinicians reported her client
"...was gang-raped more than once. They raped her vaginally, anally and
orally, forcing her to open her mouth and to swallow the semen." Democratic Republic
of Congo: Rape, gang rape and multiple rape rampant in prisons and detention centres Freedom from
Torture, London, 3 June 2014 www.freedomfromtorture.org/news-blogs/7916 [accessed 3 June
2014] Rape as Torture in the DRC: Sexual Violence Beyond the
Conflict Zone [REPORT] analyses evidence from 34 forensic medical
reports written by specially trained doctors at Freedom from Torture and
clearly indicates that rape is being used as torture by state security forces
in prisons across the country to stop women speaking out about politics,
human rights and, in some cases, rape itself. Women of all ages from 18 to 62 are
affected and the group includes traders, graduates and professionals. Almost
all of the women were arrested because they were involved in political or
human rights campaigning or because a family member or relative of theirs was
politically active. All but one of the
women were raped on multiple occasions during their
detention. All were subjected to other forms of sexual abuse such as being
burned on their genitals and breasts with cigarettes or cut with knives. In more than half of the cases examined by
Freedom from Torture in the report, the women were gang raped, with some
instances involving up to ten rapists. In one case alone, a doctor documented
68 scars attributable to torture, 56 of which were attributable to one
particular incidence of gang rape. In international
law rape committed by state officials can amount to torture, but in DRC rape
as an act of torture goes mostly unacknowledged and unpunished. Weaknesses in
the justice system, lack of resources, corruption and the impunity with which
members of the security services can commit human rights violations mean that
there is little hope of survivors of rape obtaining justice, even where the
rape amounts to torture, or of preventing such crimes in the future. The United Nations
welcome that Criminalization of torture in the DRC is moving forward Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights OHCHR, Kinshasa/Geneva, 9 July 2013 www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13517&LangID=E [accessed 11 July
2013] newsarchive.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13517&LangID=E [accessed 21 July
2017] Two years after the
enactment of the law criminalizing torture, the United Nations Joint Human
Rights Office (UNJHRO) welcomes progress in the fight against this scourge
and the first convictions of state agents who have practiced or encouraged
the use of torture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since the enactment
of the law on the criminalization of torture on 9 July 2011, a law which legally
defines and criminalizes this crime for the first time in the history of the
country, at least five soldiers of the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), five
agents of the Congolese National Police, one agent of the national
intelligence service and one administrative official have been convicted for
practicing and/or encouraging the use of torture. Sentences which ranged from
six months to life imprisonment were imposed by courts in Equateur, Bas
Congo, Kasai Occidental, Katanga, Maniema and Orientale provinces. Since 2012, the
Minister of Justice and Human Rights has engaged in a series of activities
across the country to sensitize defense and security forces, judicial
authorities and civil society actors on the content of the law and to ensure
its effective implementation. Congo prisoners
dying from hunger, torture Reuters, KINSHASA,
13 March 2013 uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/13/uk-congo-democratic-prisons-idUKBRE92C0W520130313 [accessed 15
Aug 2013] More than 100
prisoners in Democratic Republic of Congo died in jail last year, some from
torture, the United Nations said on Wednesday, calling on the government to
halt the abuse. Poor healthcare,
malnutrition and overcrowding accounted for most of the deaths, but more than
10 percent died after torture or mistreatment by prison guards or security
forces, the report said. “Someone deprived
of their liberty should never be allowed to die of hunger or ill-treatment.
It is the responsibility of the state to keep prisoners alive and in good
health,” Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner
for human rights, said. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/DRC/CO/1
(2006) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/congo2006.html [accessed 25
February 2013] D. Subjects of
concern and recommendations 5. The Committee
notes with concern that the State party has neither incorporated the
Convention in its domestic legislation nor adopted legal provisions to ensure
its implementation, and notes in particular: (a) That there is as
yet no definition of torture in domestic law that strictly corresponds to the
definition contained in article 1 of the Convention; (b) That the law of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not confer universal jurisdiction
for acts of torture; (c) That there are
no provisions giving effect to other articles of the Convention, particularly
articles 6 to 9. The Committee
recommends to the State party that it take all necessary legislative,
administrative and judicial measures to prevent acts of torture and
ill-treatment in its territory, and in particular that it: (a) Adopt a
definition of torture encompassing all the constituent elements contained in
article 1 of the Convention and amend its domestic criminal legislation
accordingly; (b) Ensure that acts
of torture constitute offences over which it has jurisdiction, in accordance
with article 5 of the Convention; (c) Provide for
implementation of the Convention, especially its articles 6 to 9. 6. The Committee is
also concerned about repeated allegations of widespread torture and
ill-treatment by the State party’s security forces and services and about the
impunity allegedly enjoyed by the perpetrators of such acts. (a) The State party
should take effective measures to prevent any acts of torture or ill-treatment
from occurring in any part of the territory under its jurisdiction; (b) The State party
should take vigorous steps to eliminate impunity for alleged perpetrators of
acts of torture and ill-treatment, carry out prompt, impartial and exhaustive
investigations, try the perpetrators of such acts and, where they are
convicted, impose appropriate sentences, and properly compensate the victims. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER
ILL-TREATMENT Torture and other
ill-treatment were committed by armed groups and government security forces,
including the FARDC, the national police, the National Intelligence Agency
and the Republican Guard. Security forces often committed torture and other
ill-treatment in detention facilities following arbitrary arrests. NGOs and
UN officials continued to be denied access to many facilities, and secret and
unofficial holding cells were still in use. In July, the DRC
promulgated a law criminalizing torture. Implementing this legislation
remained a key challenge as security services continued to commit torture and
other ill-treatment, including in illegal detention facilities. Between 27 July and
1 August, during a military operation in Rutshuru
territory, North Kivu, FARDC soldiers reportedly arbitrarily arrested 27
people as a reprisal for alleged FDLR collaboration. At least eight of them
were allegedly subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment, and forced labour. On 13 April, in Vusamba, Lubero territory,
North Kivu, a PNC detainee was whipped 40 times before being freed because he
could not pay the US$40 requested for his release. HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERS Government security
forces and armed groups continued to attack and intimidate human rights
defenders, including through death threats and arrests. On 23 June, the
Kinshasa/Gombe military court sentenced five
policemen to death in relation to the abduction and assassination of
prominent human rights defender Floribert Chebeya and the disappearance of his driver, Fidèle Bazana, in June 2010.
Other key individuals allegedly involved were not investigated. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=congo+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 25 December
2018] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61563.htm [accessed 22 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61563.htm [accessed 3 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law does not
criminalize torture; although there was a draft bill before parliament that
would criminalize torture, it had not been adopted by year's end. Security
forces and prison officials often beat and tortured detainees and prisoners.
There were also unconfirmed reports that members of the security services
tortured or abused civilians to settle personal disputes for themselves or
other government officials. Members of the
security services employed cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. On November 27 in Kambabma-Kaboneke, for example a FARDC officer reportedly
arrested, beat, and whipped a woman after she refused to let him take shelter
in her house during a rainstorm. There was no additional information at
year's end. There was no known
action taken against members of the security forces responsible for torture
or abuse in 2004 or 2003. Armed groups
operating outside government control in four eastern provinces kidnapped,
tortured, raped, and otherwise physically abused numerous persons during the
year (see section 1.g.). No known action was
taken against those members of the former RCD-G militia or any other armed
group previously accused of torture, beatings, or cruel, inhumane, or
degrading treatment or punishment in 2004 or 2003. All material
used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for
noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, " Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- Democratic
Republic of the Congo ", http://gvnet.com/torture/Congo.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
