(New York, May 24, 2001) Negotiations for release of the hostages broke down when the Mai-Mai,
a militia opposed to foreign
occupation of the DRC, insisted on the
pullback of soldiers from the occupying Ugandan army and from
the local Ugandan ally, the Front for the Liberation of Congo (FLC).
Both these armies have
reportedly sent reinforcements to the area, apparently to ready an
attack to try to free the hostages. When Mai-Mai learned of the arrival
of the reinforcements, they promptly moved the hostages to a new
location.

On a taped message played by telephone to Human Rights Watch, Rugsten
appealed to all the concerned parties and to the international
community, "Please don't consider the use of force as an option to free
us. This will put our lives in danger."

Commenting on the Mai-Mai demand that foreign forces withdraw from the
Congo, the hostage said, "I'm sure that the governments that are present
in the Congo are mature, and I'd ask them also to rethink what they are
doing there."

The Mai-Mai are demanding that representatives of the United Nations
Organization Mission in the Congo (MONUC) and of one or more embassies
in the region observe the negotiations. Among the nations whose
representatives would make acceptable observers, the Mai-Mai
named the United States, France, Belgium, Sudan, Libya, Zimbabwe, and
Angola. Zimbabwe and Angola are allied with the government of Congo, now
at war with Uganda and the FLC.

"Local clergy who have tried to arrange the release of the hostages fear
that any attempt to free them by force may endanger their lives," said
Suliman Baldo, Senior Researcher for the Africa Division of Human Rights
Watch. Baldo, who recently completed a mission to the area, also said,
"Civilians in the area fear also that Ugandan and FLC soldiers may take
reprisals on them because they are thought to support the Mai-Mai."

Baldo appealed to the Mai-Mai and to the occupying Ugandan forces and
their local allies of the Front for the Liberation of Congo to show
restraint so as to avoid endangering the lives of the hostages and
jeopardizing the security of the local population.

A Mai-Mai spokesman referred to a recent report by a U.N. panel of
experts that condemned the illicit exploitation of Congolese resources
by Uganda and Rwanda, which have occupied the eastern Congo since
1998. The report cited the DARA operation as an example of
such exploitation.

In the past the Ugandan forces and their local allies have tried to win
over Mai-Mai into their ranks, but in other cases they have fought
against them.

Human Rights Watch documented extra-judicial execution of wounded
Mai-Mai combatants by Ugandan soldiers in August 2000 and reprisal
killings of civilians thought to support the Mai-Mai by Ugandan soldiers
and Congolese rebels in late 2000. These incidents took place in the
same region where the hostages are currently held.

For more information on the conflict in Eastern Congo, please see the
March 2001 Human Rights Watch report Uganda in Eastern DRC: Fuelling
Political and Ethnic Strife at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/drc/.

For more information on the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
please see Congo: A Continuing Human Rights Disaster (HRW Campaign Page,
last updated May 24, 2001) at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/congo/.