Mutiny, rebellion or a new occupation by foreign forces of eastern Congo? This is the question that analysts of the Great Lakes region continuously ask themselves.

On 26 May 2004, the city of Bukavu did not sleep, but awoke to gunshots. Over the following two weeks the city and surrounding areas became the theatre of very violent fighting between regular armed forces and forces of the dissidents of the 10th military region commanded by Colonel Jules Mutebusi. Mutebusi was suspended in April by the Congolese military hierarchy and supported by 3-4 battalions led by another former officer of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie - RCD), General Lauraent Nkunda.

These events, which killed about one hundred people and wounded many others, and led to the fall of Bukavu into rebel hands on 2 June, were reminiscent of the Kabila epic of October 1996, and that of the RCD in August 1998. This story resembles past events, but does it repeat them?

It resembles them because of the similarity of the context: several Congolese dissidents, the military and logistical support of Rwanda, followed by the rapid capture of Congolese cities without resistance and Rwanda denying its involvement.

The events in Bukavu and its surrounding areas were accompanied by a series of grave human rights abuses and war crimes. Besides the killings, there was systematic rape of women, children, even babies. The organisation Human Rights Watch documented dozens of cases of rape, including four three-year old girls. The question that many people forget to ask themselves is why is history repeating itself? Why has the Congo seemingly not learnt its lessons from past events?

It was 2 August 1998 when an armed group called the RCD, supported by Rwanda, took the city of Bukavu. It started with the execution of dozens of military people loyal to Kinshasa at the Kavumu aerodrome and the group then continued quickly on to Goma, then Kisangani, then Kindu, etc while other columns attacked the Inga roadblock and occupied the Kitona military base, in Bas-Congo province. They created their headquarters in Goma.

The government of Laurent Kabila, which had not yet succeeded in setting up an army during its 13-month reign, was on the verge of falling and called upon Angola, then Namibia, Chad and Zimbabwe.

In the following months, Jean Pierre Bemba declared another rebellion in the North - the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (le Mouvement pour la libération du Congo - MLC) - with the support of Uganda.

Internal difficulties led the RCD president Ernest Wamba dia Wamba and the former president of the RCD 'assembly' Mbusa Nyamwisi to create the RCD-Kisangani (which later became the RCD-ML), based in Kisangani, also with Ugandan support.

The methods of the belligerents were simple: killings, destruction, torture and rape.

It was over the next four years that probably the most devastating war for humanity would continue. It involved the governmental forces supported by Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and Chad; the RCD supported by Rwanda and Burundi; and the RCD-ML and the MLC supported by Uganda.

This long war, which some analysts called the "African World War" caused more than three million deaths and more than two million refugees and internally displaced people. Systematic massacres were committed in villages such as Mkaobola, Kasika, Burhinyi, Shabunda and Kisangani. In some places, these massacres bordered on genocide. In Kasika, for example, RCD troops supported by Rwanda decimated approximately 1500 civilians, that is almost 10% of the members of the Banyindu ethnic group, at 18,000 people, one of the smallest of the 300 ethnic groups in Congo. The RCD's efforts eliminated customary chiefs, religious leaders, human rights activists, etc. The people responsible for some of these crimes are known and their abuses documented, but they have never been punished.

The MLC committed massive human rights violations and crimes against humanity, including cannibalism against the Mbuti (pygmy) groups in the Mambasa district of Eastern Province. The RCD-ML, the armed resistance Mai-Mai (or Mayi-Mayi) as well as other armed groups also all committed several human rights abuses, such as rape, killings, pillage, etc.

In addition to these violations, the belligerents engaged in economic exploitation of Congo's riches: wood and minerals. The fauna was also systematically destroyed. Forced labour was used to the profit of armed groups.

On 22 July 2002 in Pretoria, the parties to the conflict signed peace accords, which paved the way for the end of this devastating war. The agreement allowed for power sharing amongst the different factions, offering positions of responsibility in the new transitional institutions, curiously in relation to the level of involvement in crimes, implying that crimes can pay. When the transitional institutions were put in place in Kinshasa, the RCD, MLC, RCD-ML, Mayi-Mayi, non-armed political opposition and civil society shared power. Besides the civil society and the non-armed political opposition, one could talk of power sharing amongst criminals.

However, a group of largely Rwandophone officers in eastern Congo, as well as certain nominated parliamentarians and senators refused to join the transitional institutions in Kinshasa, despite the efforts of the new government. They established themselves in the city of Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu bordering Rwanda, where the governor, Eugene Serufuli had already allegedly set up a militia under the cover of the organisation called "All for Peace and Development" (Tous pour la paix et le dévéloppement - TPD). Neither the RCD nor the government seemed to have full control over the governor of Goma or the group of officers in question. These officers had something in common: blood on their hands and impunity.

The events of May and June 2004 benefited from disorder: an army not yet unified and consequently no unified command of the eastern region; the absence of a legitimate territorial administration; massive human rights violations; and generalised insecurity in the eastern part of the country.

These officers seemed to have profited from the situation to organise themselves. Significant stores of arms were found in the possession of the officers and security agents close to the RCD in February 2004. The next month, Colonel Mutebusi, then second commander of the 10th military region (South Kivu), led a mutiny against the head commander, General Prosper Nyabiolwa, for having arrested and transferred to Kinshasa Major Kasongo for indiscipline. The General escaped and fled to Kinshasa, while three of his bodyguards were killed, allegedly by Mutebusi's men.

The RCD, which has always been supposed to administer this part of Congo while awaiting the establishment of a new territorial administration, came to the defence of the mutineers and threatened to leave the transitional government if Major Kasongo was not freed, thus forcing the government's hand. Investigation of the arms cache was never pursued. Mutebusi was suspended but never punished. Impunity!

Following this, Mutebsi started another mutiny on 26 May 2004. He attacked the positions of the regular army and the situation degenerated until the intervention of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission (MONUC). The city of Bukavu was divided in two (Mutebusi controlled the part bordering Rwanda and the regular army controlled the rest of the city) for a week.

But, from Goma, General Laurent Nkunda headed towards Bukavu with his 2 000 men to reinforce Mutebsi. He is believed to have been supported by troops from the Rwandan army. He raised the spectre of genocide against the Banyamulenge in Bukavu, a thesis which he later rejected when retreating. This argument was also rejected by MONUC, human rights organisations based in the region, the Banyamulenge organisation "Shikama", Commander Masunzu - a Munyamulenge leading an armed group in the high plains of Itombwe.

There were, however, serious human rights violations committed on all sides. Civilians were killed and rape appeared to be systematically used by the mutineers as a weapon of war. In the IDAP, Muhungu, Ndendere and Bugabo areas, door-to-door rape was practiced, leading some to believe it was a punitive action by the mutineers.

When, on 2 June, Laurent Nkunda took the city, two new groups appeared, who allied themselves with the two opposing parties. Mr Odilon Kurhengamuzinmu, commander of the militia called Mudundu 40 (M40), which during the last three years had changed alliance between Kinshasa and Rwanda on several occasions, this time associated himself with Mutebusi. A dissident faction of M40 led by Foka Mike allied itself with the regular army.

Under the occupation of the mutineers from 2 to 8 June 2004, the city of Bukavu was the scene of flagrant human rights violations. In addition to approximately 100 dead, the local organisation "Justice for all" (Justice pour tous) has compiled a non-exhaustive list of 617 women and girls raped, 18 stores pillaged, 254 people wounded by bullets, 60 vehicles stolen, 12 depots of manufactured goods and food stores pillaged and the Cooperative of business people (Coopérative d'hommes d'affaires - COOPERA) burnt. The central bank and commercial bank were looted of all their reserves by the mutineers.

Rwanda's involvement in support of the mutineers in terms of soldiers and arms has been reported by the local organisation "Heirs of justice" (Heritiers de la justice), the Congolese transition support committee (Comite d'accompagnement de la transition congolaise - CIAT), largely composed of representatives of the G8 countries, and a coalition of Belgian NGOs.

The Rwandan government denies its involvement, reminiscent of its denials in 1996 and 1998 that Rwanda was not in Congo, even while its troops fought beside Kabila's Alliance of democratic forces (Alliances des forces democratiques - AFDL) and the RCD, respectively.

Following diplomatic pressure, Rwanda, which had hosted some 3000 refugees in May and June, closed its border with Congo. Bukavu was retaken by the regular army on 9 June 2004, leaving Mutebusi and his ally M40 to occupy the town of Kamanyola and a part of Luvungi and Bwegere, close to the Rwandan border in the Ruzizi plains, some 60 kilometres south of Bukavu.

Fighting continues in various parts of the South Kivu region, boding ill for a possible stagnation or breakdown of the fragile peace process in the country.

The impunity of those responsible for crimes committed in eastern Congo over the past 6 years seem to be the determining factor in the continuation of abuses against civilian populations. Those who have never heard of war crimes include troops under the command of the infamous: Major Bora Uzima in South Kivu; Gabrial Amisi, alias "Tango Fort" (currently in the regular army) in Uvira, Kasika and Fizi; Laurent Nkaudna who was behind the massacres in Kisangani; Jules Mutebusi who was responsible for the bombing of the Banyamulenge; Thierry Ilunga (currently in the regular army) in Mwenga, etc.

These officers are currently either peacefully reintegrated into the regular army (Amisi and Ilunga) or are currently in leadership positions in eastern Congo and implicated in the current war in South Kivu. None of them have ever been sanctioned or punished for their responsibility in these crimes.

The system in place in Congo, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established on the South African model, seems to pave the way for the continuation of impunity.

The option to cover up and leave unpunished war crimes and crimes against humanity such as the systematic rape of three-year-old girls; the indiscriminate bombing of civilian Banyamulenge populations by Rwandan helicopters; the massacre of civilians in Kisangani, Kasika, Makobola, Burhinyi, etc; the cannibalism against Pygmy communities in the Eastern Province: Is this the way forward for the Congolese state to re-establish itself?

In my opinion, this will only sow the seeds of an even more catastrophic socio-political situation in eastern Congo.

* Innocent Bulemba works for Amnesty International. This article was written in his personal capacity.

* Please send comments to

* NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned from the author for Pambazuka News. While we are pleased that several print publications have used our editorials, we ask editors to note that if they use this article, they do so on the understanding that they are expected to provide the following credit: "This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, Editors are also encouraged to make a donation.

>>>>> For the full French version of this article, please click on the link below.

Mutinerie, rébellion ou une nouvelle occupation par des forces étrangères de la partie orientale du Congo, voilà la question que ne cessent de se poser actuellement les analystes sur la région des grands lacs. Le 26 mai passé, la ville de Bukavu ne dort pas mais se réveille sous des coups de balles et que les deux semaines suivantes la ville et ses environs devient le théâtre des combats très violents qui ont opposé les forces de l'armée régulière et celles des dissidents de la 10ème région militaire commandées par le colonel Jules Mutebusi, suspendu au mois d'avril dernier par la hiérarchie militaire congolaise, appuyées espar quelques trois ou quatre bataillons commandés par un autre ancien officier du RCD, le général Laurent Nkunda. Ces événements qui ont fait une centaine de personnes civiles tuées et plusieurs blessés, et qui ont conduit à la chute de Bukavu aux mains mutins, le 2 juin, rappellent l'épopée Kabila en octobre 1996, et celle du RCD en août 1998. Cette histoire se ressemble, mais ne répète t-elle pas?