The UN Human Rights Council will decide on Friday whether to launch an international investigation into alleged violations and abuses committed as deadly clashes have gripped eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The DRC requested the urgent meeting of the UN’s top rights body to discuss the escalating fighting by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group in North and South Kivu provinces, and has proposed a draft resolution to set up the probe.
"It will be an occasion for us to present to the world what is going on — and to ask the world to act, to stop what is happening in the DRC," Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told reporters in Geneva.
Last week, M23 fighters and Rwandan troops seized Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu — a mineral-rich region in eastern DRC that has been ravaged by war for over three decades.
The DRC's Foreign Trade Minister, Julien Paluku, stressed the urgency of international action, blaming Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the serious violations being committed.
"Today, the international community regrets not having intervened in 1994 to stop the (Rwandan) genocide," he told reporters in Geneva. "The DRC is saying to the international community: be careful, President Kagame, whose people were the victims of that genocide, is in the process of doing the same thing."
M23’s lightning offensive against Goma marked a major escalation after more than three years of fighting.
The battle for Goma killed at least 2,900 people, the UN said Wednesday, as the fighters launched a new offensive in South Kivu.
Muyaya, the DRC's communications minister, described the situation as "catastrophic" and urged countries to impose tougher sanctions on Rwanda and suspend economic cooperation.
'Indescribable' violations
The support of more than a third of the Human Rights Council's 47 member states is required to convene a special session. Twenty-nine countries backed the DRC's call, along with 22 observer states.
At an organizational meeting in the chamber on Thursday, Paul Empole Efambe, the DRC's ambassador in Geneva, said the council should consider the "alarming" and "indescribable human rights violations following the aggression by Rwanda."
He cited "abductions, massacres, and summary executions of civilians."
"Staying silent or indifferent would be a dereliction of duty," he said.
Rwandan ambassador James Ngango responded: "Rwanda has always said that it will defend its security by all available means."
But Paluku told journalists, "For us, the motive for war is economic."
Eastern DRC is home to deposits of coltan, a metallic ore essential in the production of phones and laptops, as well as gold and other minerals.
'International crimes'
The draft resolution to be discussed on Friday condemns rights violations in Kivu, the "unlawful exploitation of natural resources," and calls for strict measures to stop the plundering.
It "strongly condemns the military and logistical support provided by the Rwanda Defence Force" to M23 and demands that they "immediately halt their human rights violations."
The resolution demands that the fighters "immediately cease all hostile actions in and withdraw from the occupied areas" and urges them to ensure unhindered humanitarian access to those in need.
The draft resolution calls for "an independent fact-finding mission on the serious human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law" in Kivu.
The mission would collect evidence of abuses for use in future court cases and attempt to identify those responsible, the draft text states.
Human Rights Watch and more than 70 other rights organizations have called on the council to establish the investigation.
By Robin MILLARD, AFP
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