KINSHASA: DR Congo must identify both senior army personnel and politicians behind the massacres in the volatile Kasai region, a top UN human rights official told AFP Thursday.
Jose-Maria Aranaz, the UN human rights director in the country, was speaking just a day the UN said another 38 suspected mass graves had been discovered in this central part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“With more than 80 mass graves identified ... it is essential that the inquiry goes beyond those who physically did it and identifies command responsibilities at the military and political level,” said Aranaz.
Aranaz dismissed as “unconvincing” the suggestion that rogue elements of the security forces were responsible for the violence.
“We have to stop the killing,” he said.
The international community has voiced alarm over the violence, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, according to statistics compiled by the Roman Catholic church.
The UN’s MONUSCO peacekeeping mission in the country had previously spoken of “more than 400 dead” while about 1.3 million people are thought to have fled their homes.
An investigative mission this month found the latest mass graves in the Diboko and Sumbula areas of the Kamonia territory, the UN said.
The violence began last year when a tribal chieftain known as the Kamwina Nsapu openly challenged the authority of President Joseph Kabila’s government.
That provoked a crackdown by security forces and the Kamwina Nsapu was killed in a police operation in August 2016.
His armed followers fight on and some believe that their leader is still alive because authorities failed to give his body appropriate funeral rites.
In February MONUSCO accused the Kamwina Nsapu militia of “atrocities ... including the recruiting and use of child soldiers,” but also condemned “a disproportionate use of force” by government troops.
Two western experts sent to investigate the conflict by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres went missing in March. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave by peacekeepers a fortnight later.
The government blamed the tribal militia for their murders.
On Tuesday, the US urged the UN Security Council to punish those responsible for the flareup of violence. It also threatened sanctions against the Democratic Republic of Congo if elections are not held this year.
President Joseph Kabila’s mandate is due to end in December.
DR Congo must identify those behind Kasai massacres: UN official
DR Congo must identify those behind Kasai massacres: UN official
Bangladesh’s religio-political party open to unity govt
- Opinion polls suggest that Jamaat-e-Islami will finish a close second to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the first election it has contested in nearly 17 years
DHAKA: A once-banned Bangladeshi religio-political party, poised for its strongest electoral showing in February’s parliamentary vote, is open to joining a unity government and has held talks with several parties, its chief said.
Opinion polls suggest that Jamaat-e-Islami will finish a close second to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the first election it has contested in nearly 17 years as it marks a return to mainstream politics in the predominantly Muslim nation of 175 million.
Jamaat last held power between 2001 and 2006 as a junior coalition partner with the BNP and is open to working with it again.
“We want to see a stable nation for at least five years. If the parties come together, we’ll run the government together,” Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman said in an interview at his office in a residential area in Dhaka, days after the party created a buzz by securing a tie-up with a Gen-Z party.
Rahman said anti-corruption must be a shared agenda for any unity government.
The prime minister will come from the party winning the most seats in the Feb. 12 election, he added. If Jamaat wins the most seats, the party will decide whether he himself would be a candidate, Rahman said.
The party’s resurgence follows the ousting of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a youth-led uprising in August 2024.
Rahman said Hasina’s continued stay in India after fleeing Dhaka was a concern, as ties between the two countries have hit their lowest point in decades since her downfall.
Asked about Jamaat’s historical closeness to Pakistan, Rahman said: “We maintain relations in a balanced way with all.”
He said any government that includes Jamaat would “not feel comfortable” with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who was elected unopposed with the Awami League’s backing in 2023.
