Freedom in the World 2001 - Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa)

2001 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.5
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 7

Overview

Little real progress has been made on the ground in implementing the Lusaka peace agreement that was signed in August 1999 to end the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. President Laurent Kabila in August closed the Kinshasa office of former Botswanan President Ketumile Masire, the chief peace negotiator, and said he wanted the whole Lusaka agreement renegotiated. Kabila appeared no more flexible in negotiating peace towards the end of the year despite a number of military setbacks. The United Nations has authorized the deployment of 5,000 peacekeepers in addition to the 500 UN civilian and military personnel who remain on standby. The Lusaka accord provides for a UN-monitored ceasefire, which both sides have violated, and a dialogue that would bring together community and national leaders to decide the country's future. Kabila installed a new parliament in August, calling it a true representation of the people, but it is no more representative than any of the other assemblies before it.

As the Belgian Congo, the vast area of central Africa that is today the Democratic Republic of Congo, was exploited with a brutality that was notable even by colonial standards. The country was a center for cold war rivalries from Belgium's withdrawal in 1960 until well after Colonel Joseph Désiré Mobutu came to power with Central Intelligence Agency backing in 1964. The pro-Western Mobutu was forgiven for severe repression and financial excesses that made him one of the world's richest men and his countrymen among the world's poorest people. Domestic agitation for democratization forced Mobutu to open up the political process in 1990. In 1992, his Popular Revolutionary Movement, the sole legal party after 1965, and the Sacred Union of the Radical Opposition and Allied Civil Society, a coalition of 200 groups, joined scores of others in a national conference to establish a High Council of the Republic to oversee a democratic transition. Mobutu manipulated and delayed the transition, but civil society grew stronger and the press became freer. Kabila has begun to reverse these advances.

A longtime guerrilla fighter, Kabila came to power in May 1997 after a seven-month advance backed by Rwanda and Uganda across the country, which was then known as Zaire. He easily tapped into popular hatred for Mobutu, who fled to Morocco and died of cancer shortly after Kabila's takeover. Many of Mobutu's former supporters are now allied with the rebels. The new war erupted in late 1998 after Kabila fell out with the Rwandan and Zairian Tutsi who helped him to seize power. Kabila now mainly relies on a narrow base of backers who share his Katangan ethnicity.

Serious human rights abuses against civilians continue to be perpetrated by both government and rebel forces. Opposition supporters, journalists, and human rights workers are routinely arrested and harassed, and public demonstrations are forbidden. Arbitrary detentions, unfair trials by a military court, rapes, and extrajudicial executions are also reported.

The war has drawn forces from at least eight countries into the fighting, including Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad, and Sudan on the side of Kabila, and Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi on the part of the rebels. (Neither Sudan nor Burundi has admitted its involvement.) Former Rwandan militia, former Rwandan armed forces members, and Mai-Mai guerrillas have also joined in repelling the rebel attack.

There are three main rebel groups seeking to oust Kabila: the Movement for the Liberation of Congo and two factions of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). Splits in the rebel ranks and disagreements between their backers, Uganda and Rwanda, have hindered both peace efforts and their military endeavor. Fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan forces in the northern city of Kisangani in June claimed the lives of more than 700 civilians.

Bartering and the black market have largely replaced the formal economy. Most of the country's approximately 48 million people live marginal lives as subsistence farmers despite vast resources of timber, diamonds, copper, and other minerals. A UN-appointed panel is investigating illegal extraction of the country's resources. Kabila has lost some of his access to diamonds because rebels control much of the country's eastern resource-rich areas.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo have never been permitted to choose or change their government through democratic and peaceful means. President Kabila rules by decree. There are no elected representatives in the entire country, despite Kabila's promise to hold polls by April 1999. He replaced his own Alliance of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo with Libyan-inspired Popular People's Committees. In theory, they are supposed to be elected by local residents and exercise local government powers throughout the country, but in practice they monitor the activities of the Congolese. Mobutu's successive unopposed presidential victories and legislative polls were little more than political theater. Infrastructure and institutions to support a free and fair election are almost entirely absent.

At least 400 political parties registered after their 1990 legalization, but they were later banned under Kabila when he took power. Although he eased restrictions with a new law in January 1999, political activity remains harshly suppressed and opposition members are routinely harassed and detained. The 1999 law gives broad powers to the ministry of the interior to suspend or disband parties "in the event of violation of the law and emergency or the risk of serious public disorder." Rebel groups in the east tolerated no level of nonviolent political opposition, using intimidation, detention, and travel restrictions.

A decree provides for independence of the judiciary, but in practice it is subject to corruption and manipulation. The president may dismiss magistrates at will. Courts are grossly ineffective in protecting constitutional rights, and security forces and government officials generally act with impunity. The civil judiciary is largely dysfunctional. A Court of Military Order, which was initially created in 1997 to restore military discipline, increasingly delivers harsh sentences to civilians on questionable security and political convictions. Kabila appoints the country's judges. Defendants have no automatic right of appeal to a higher court, and many lack counsel. The military court ordered the execution of 250 people in the first two years of its existence. Human Rights Watch in February accused Congo of violating its promise to the UN not to carry out the death penalty on convicted criminals. Long periods of pretrial detention are common in prisons in which poor diet and medical care can be life-threatening.

Serious human rights abuses by Kabila's armed forces and rebel soldiers continue unabated. Violations include extrajudicial executions, torture, rapes, beatings, and arbitrary detention. Ethnic killings by both government and rebel forces have been reported. Numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including human rights groups, operate despite intimidation and arrest. At least 13 representatives of NGOs were detained in South Kivu in October. Almost all of them were tortured before they were released the same day.

The government uses the war as a pretext for repression. Amnesty International in May said both sides in the conflict had unlawfully killed thousands of unarmed civilians and subjected many others to torture, rape, and other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. It also said many people have "disappeared." Several hundred thousand civilians have fled to neighboring countries or have become internally displaced. Amnesty also said in December that 50 suspected political opponents of the Kabila government were being held incommunicado in government-controlled areas of the country. The rights group said the detainees, most of whom were from the Kivu regions, would likely face the death penalty.

Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are sharply limited by decree. Statutes provide for freedom of the press, but the government continued to sharply restrict the work of journalists. Church radio networks are growing, but the state-controlled broadcasting network reaches the largest numbers of citizens.

A number of independent newspapers are published in Kinshasa, but they are not widely circulated beyond the city. Independent journalists are frequently threatened, arrested, or attacked, which prompts self-censorship. Common accusations include "relaying intelligence to the enemy," "discouraging the population of soldiers," and "divulging state secrets or defense secrets." When a targeted journalist cannot be found, editors, other journalists, visitors to the newspaper offices, or family members can be taken hostage.

Human Rights Watch in September called on the government to immediately release five jailed journalists and to reverse a ban on ten private and church-owned radio and television stations imposed earlier in the month. The Court of Military Order found four of the journalists guilty of "high treason" and "publication of articles hostile to the government." Another journalist, Freddy Loseke Lisumbu la Yayenga, editor of La Libre Afrique, is reportedly to be seriously ill and requires immediate medical attention. He was sentenced in May 2000 to three years' imprisonment. The communications ministry in October replaced the management of four of the ten banned private radio and television stations with former associates of the communications minister and broadcasts resumed.

Human Rights Watch also called on the rebel RCD in the east to release a freelance photographer, who was detained in August, and reopen a radio station, Radio Mandaeleo, owned and operated by civil society organizations. The Kinshasa-based Journalists in Danger said in October that more than 100 journalists had been detained for long periods since Kabila came to power in 1997. It said "the press has practically ceased to exist" in rebel-held areas of the country.

Freedom of religion is respected in practice, although religious groups must register with the government to be recognized. Despite constitutional protections, women face de facto discrimination, especially in rural areas. They also enjoy fewer employment and educational opportunities and often do not receive equal pay for equal work. Violence against women has soared since the onset of armed conflict in 1996.

More than 100 new independent unions registered after the end of one-party rule in 1990. Previously, all unions had to affiliate themselves with a confederation that was part of the ruling party. There is little union activity, owing to the breakdown of the country's formal economy. Civil servants who work in public institutions that have largely ceased to function are often owed months of salary arrears.