REPORT OF THE
MAPPING EXERCISE DOCUMENTING THE MOST SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND
INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO BETWEEN
1993 AND 2003
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Attacks
against hutu refugees in the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps (North Kivu)
Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER II. First Congo War > B. Attacks against Hutu refugees > 2. North Kivu > Mugunga and Lac
Vert camps
After the fall of the FAZ military
camp in Rumangabo on 29 October, AFDL/APR soldiers launched an attack on Goma
and took control of the town on 1 November 1996. For several days, the
ex-FAR/Interahamwe from the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps and Mayi-Mayi armed
groups from Sake blockaded the AFDL/APR soldiers seven kilometres from the
Mugunga camp. Some of the refugees took advantage of this situation to leave
the camps and move towards the town of Sake. On 12 November, however, after
entering into an alliance with the local Mayi-Mayi, the AFDL/APR soldiers took
control of the hills around Sake and surrounded the refugees who were gathered
between the Mugunga camp and the town.
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On 14 November
1996, AFDL/APR soldiers fired indiscriminately with heavy weapons at the
Mugunga camp and the surrounding area for six hours, allegedly killing an
unknown number of refugees.237
In the afternoon of 14 November,
after violent clashes with the Mayi-Mayi at Sake, the ex-FAR/Interahamwe in the
Mugunga camp broke through the cordon and fled in the direction of Masisi,
taking many refugees with them.
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Around 14 November
to 15 November 1996, the AFDL/APR soldiers positioned in the hills around Sake
allegedly killed a large number of refugees who were attempting to flee in the
direction of Masisi, firing at them indiscriminately with heavy weapons and
machine guns. Hundreds of bodies of refugees were buried in a mass grave on the
Madimba coffee plantation near Sake.238
On 15 November 1996, while the
Security Council was giving the green light to the deployment of a
multinational force in eastern Zaire, AFDL/APR soldiers entered the Mugunga camp
and ordered the refugees still present in the camp to return to Rwanda.239 Between
15 November and 19 November 1996, several hundred thousand refugees left the
Mugunga and Lac Vert camps and returned to Rwanda.240
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On 15 November
1996, AFDL/APR units allegedly killed refugees in and around the Mugunga camp.
A journalist who entered the camp on 16 November counted 40 victims who were
shot dead or killed with cold weapons, including women, children and two
babies.241 An unknown number of refugees were reportedly killed
between Mugunga and the town of Sake. On 19 November, volunteers from the
Zairian Red Cross in Goma collected and buried 166 bodies found along the road
between the town of Sake and the perimeter of the Mugunga camp.242
Many witnesses reported the existence
of a checkpoint between the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps where the AFDL/APR units
would sort refugees according to their age and sex. Generally speaking, the
soldiers allowed women, children and the elderly to pass through. Men, on the
other hand, were very often arrested and executed. In this context, the Mapping
Team documented the following alleged incidents:
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Between 15 November
and 16 November 1996, AFDL/APR units arrested an unknown number of Rwandan Hutu
men from the Lac Vert camp and Mugunga and executed them. Some were bound and
then thrown alive into Lac Vert, where they drowned. Others were shot in the
head and their bodies dumped in the lake.243
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The killings around
Mugunga and Lac Vert continued for several weeks. Some survivors have recounted
how they were attacked by AFDL/APR soldiers in late November 1996 when they
were seeking repatriation to Rwanda. Some of the refugees were rounded up when
they came out of the Park and then executed. One source reported the existence
of several mass graves inside the park, five kilometres from the Mugunga camp.244
