Congolese police deployed in Kinshasa.AFP PHOTO / Gwenn DUBORTHOMIEU
A report by Human Rights Watch accused the Congolese police of killing 51 young men summarily and have removed 33 others during a punch against crime operation conducted in Kinshasa November 2013 February 2014. The publication of a highly critical report of the UN on the same Likofi operation, there appeared a month earned the representative of the United Nations Office for Human Rights in the DRC, Scott Campbell, d being deported.
In this well documented report " Operation Likofi: Murders and disappearances at the hands of the police in Kinshasa , "the advocacy organization Human Rights HRW accuses the Congolese police of killing 51 young men summarily and for making it disappear 33 others. It calls for the suspension of the commander of the operation, pending an investigation.
The report has a deja vu: as the UN there a month ago , HRW described the intervention of night police officers in uniform, often hooded, and without a warrant. Police suspected bandits that challenge - in fact unarmed youth that they are out of their homes before executing them in front of their houses, in markets where they sleep, or in isolated wastelands.
Climate of anxiety
51 people were killed in this way, according to the organization for the protection of human rights, and 33 are still missing. A criminal procedure that should be punished, says HRW, which called for the commander of the operation Likofi ("punch" in Lingala), General Celestine Kanyama, be suspended pending the opening of a investigation.
" To fight against crime by committing crimes does not strengthen the rule of law, but only exacerbates a climate of fear , "said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, adding: " Congolese authorities should investigate the murders, beginning with the role of the commander in charge of the operation, and bring those responsible to justice. "
Street children
More seriously, after interviewing 107 people (witnesses, families of victims and police officers who participated in the punch operation), HRW has established that many of those killed had nothing to do with offenders sought. It was more of street children and youth falsely accused by their neighbors.
Finally, the organization condemns threats against families who wanted to know what had happened to their relatives or to Congolese journalists who conducted the investigation into the police operation. The report also cites the example of a military judge wishing to open a criminal investigation into a police colonel who allegedly shot and killed an alleged offender, and received oral instructions from a government official asking him not to proceed with the case.
High-ranking officers
" The evidence gathered involve Congolese officers of high rank in the killings and disappearances, as well as cover-ups that followed , "said Daniel Bekele. According to HRW, no police officer has been arrested or convicted to date for murder or kidnapping. Only cases of extortion and other minor offenses were punished.
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