UNifeed: UN / DR CONGO HUMAN RIGHTS

UN / DR CONGO HUMAN RIGHTS

According to a Human Rights Watch report, more than 1,400 civilians were deliberately killed this year in eastern Congo during two successive military operations. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that because of the killings, the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) has suspended certain operations with the Congolese army. UNTV

Duration:02:21Date:14 December 2009

Categories:

United Nations Television, POLITICAL AND LEGAL QUESTIONS, MAINTENANCE OF PEACE AND SECURITY, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

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Full Script

STORY: UN / DR CONGO HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 2.21
SOURCE: UNTV/ MONUC
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS

DATELINE: 14 DECEMBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior UN building

14 DECEMBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Anneke Van Woudenberg, Senior Researcher on DRC, Human Rights Watch:
“Between January and September of this year, 1,400 civilians were brutally killed. Some chopped to death by machete, some hacked to death, others burned in their homes, some clubbed to death by sticks or bats. These were not civilians who got caught in the crossfire; these were not civilians who were in the wrong place in the wrong time. These were civilians who were deliberately targeted.”
4. Med shot, reporters
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Anneke Van Woudenberg, Senior Researcher on DRC, Human Rights Watch:
“MONUC have got themselves into a very difficult situation by now supporting and backing the Congolese army who are committing war crimes in Eastern Congo, and the ongoing support that the UN is providing, that MONUC is providing, such as food, rations, fuel, transporting soldiers, transporting weapons, helicopter attack support for military operations, is now in a situation where MONUC are themselves being implicated in violations of the laws of war, in the human rights violations, if they do not ensure that better conditionality is in place for their support of such operations.”
6. Med shot, reporter
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Anneke Van Woudenberg, Senior Researcher on DRC, Human Rights Watch:
“We do not believe that the UN is committing war crimes here, because we don’t believe that they are intending to do that. But they are now involved in violations of the laws of war – the legal term that would be used here. What you and I would talk about more simply would be implicated in human rights violations if they knowingly continue to support operations where their partner is participating and committing in war crimes.”
8. Med shot reporters
9. Tracking shot, Secretary-General arrives at dais
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
“Unfortunately this Kimia II operation has been proved to be where many civilians’ casualties have happened, and that is why we have immediately suspended our military operations and cooperation with some part of the Congolese National Forces.” 
11. Wide shot, dais

STORYLINE:

A report released today (14 December) documenting human rights violations in the Eastern Congo indicates that since military operations began last January 1,400 civilians have been “brutally killed”.

Anneke Van Woudenberg from Human Rights Watch, responsible for the report entitled “You Will Be Punished”, explained that the attacks on civilians have come from all sides, including the Congolese army, the Rwandan Armed Forces and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan Hutu rebel group.

She said that these civilians “were deliberately targeted” and not just caught in the crossfire or “in the wrong place in the wrong time.”

Van Woudenberg noted that the United Nations Mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) “have got themselves into a very difficult situation by now supporting and backing the Congolese army”, accused of committing war crimes, and “are themselves being implicated in violations of the laws of war”.

The Human Rights Watch official said that the report does not believe that MONUC is committing war crimes, but rather that it “would be implicated in human rights violations if they knowingly continue to support operations where their partner is participating and committing in war crimes.”

Later at a press conference, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that the joint operations – known as Kimia II – have caused “many civilians’ casualties” and said that as a result military operations and cooperation with some part of the Congolese National Forces have been, “immediately suspended.”

Kimia II came on the heels of Operation Umoja Wetu conducted in January by an unprecedented alliance of DRC and Rwandan troops in North Kivu against the FDLR.

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