Open letter to the EU and USA Missions in DRCOngo: Impose sanctions to all actors of human rights violations

Open letter to the European Union and the United States of America on sanctions in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Also sanction the Congolese Government, Uganda, Rwanda and the United Nations Agencies for massive violations of International Humanitarian Law. (The original French version of the letter is here ” LETTRE 22 JUILLET 2024 A L’UNION EUROPEENNE ET AUX USA MISSIONS

Excellency Ambassadors,

We learned with a feeling of satisfaction of your commitment through sanctions which would mark the political will of zero tolerance against impunity which seemed to be a modus operandi in the Great Lakes region. We encourage you to continue this approach to extend the list to other actors of human rights violations. We are aware that these sanctions will not be able to impose peace which remains the priority of the thousands of forced migrants victims of the war in the DRC since 1996 until now, these sanctions increase the list of indirect actions of the European Union, the States The United Nations and the United Nations which have already documented the support of Uganda and Rwanda for the armed groups as well as the series of condemnations and the demands made to Rwanda to withdraw these troops are on Congolese soil.

A large part of the Congolese population is arguing about the option of war against Rwanda, a proposal to which you are fiercely opposed by advocating a political option but which you have already failed to clearly explain what the DRC should negotiate with Rwanda and Uganda and unfortunately it seems that you did not provide a mechanism to impose the negotiations in Luanda and Nairobi. We take this opportunity to share with you that since 2019 when the M23 began to mobilize its fighters in Uganda and Rwanda, the Congolese Human Rights Defenders taking refuge in Uganda had contacted the Mission of the European Union and the United States as well that the United Nations in Uganda, but the latter did not have our support to discourage this, on the contrary these diplomatic missions found understandings with Uganda to force these Human Rights Defenders to flee Uganda, so they had been subjected to several forms of threats in the total silence of the European Union, the United States and the United Nations.

We continue to recall that more than 90% of M23 fighters are well-registered refugees in Rwanda and Uganda where they lived on humanitarian aid from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, which are the primary providers of humanitarian aid to Uganda and Rwanda. By giving millions of money and other forms of aid to Uganda you also turned a blind eye to the mismanagement of this aid and yet you were seized by refugees and human rights defenders. When the debate was triggered in Uganda, on the contrary, you supported the relocation either to European countries or to the USA or to Canada of refugees who were involved in this humanitarian mafia and you completely abandoned the refugees who denounced these crimes. despicable, to even support the Ugandan government, the European Union had changed all the Diplomats who were interested in this issue of support for the M23.

Can we remind you of the appointment by the M23 of a refugee who benefited from resettlement to Canada as coordinator of the M23 for the Diaspora while victims of the M23 do not have the chance to be resettled in Uganda, and also Human Rights Defenders who are refugees in Uganda are completely excluded from any aid.

The desire to put pressure on the actors would on the one hand cancel the refugee status of all members of the M23 and other armed groups found in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya as well as the measure to cut off all humanitarian aid to Rwanda , Uganda and Kenya. In this process, real sanctions would also affect the leaders of the United Nations agencies, especially UNHCR in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. The real will of the European Union and the USA would involve the establishment of Diplomats who would work for the protection of Human Rights Defenders from the DRC currently taking refuge in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya.

We observe that human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo are at different levels, the actors of which should also be sanctioned without distinction. We have already warned several times about the humanitarian aid given to help internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, of which more than 75% of this aid would be consumed by international humanitarian organizations to which you give this aid, 10% consumed by the implementers local and only 15% would reach Internally Displaced Persons and then even a large part of this 15% would also be diverted by a mafia system put in place and which allows this aid to be sold on public markets in Goma.

The consequences are multiple and especially among children, vulnerable women and marginalized communities who miss everything and languish in destitution in these camps. Curiously, the European Union, the United States of America and the United Nations have not put in place mechanisms to ensure that aid is well managed, and in this same perspective the Human Rights Defenders who document the Human rights violations in IDP camps are often threatened and you maintain absolute silence. European Union sanctions which do not affect these humanitarian offenders would for us be a simple deviation from our attention to the suffering of Internally Displaced People, especially in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo. To further distract us, nothing has been done against the perpetrators of the different forms of insecurity in the camps for displaced people here in Goma who are going through a long period of ordeal, the only guarantee of which remains the crackling of bullets every night in the camps. .  Finally, we ask you that a large part of the M23 and Rwandan Army fighters deployed here in North Kivu would be made up of people who lived as refugees on Congolese soil, for whom the European Union and the United States continue to finance. their return to Rwanda even though you are very well informed that they will then be recruited by Rwanda to come and kill us here in the DRC.

The institutions of the United Nations and the Congolese Government involved in these affairs are either strongly led by Rwandans or people close to Rwanda, which has already characterized several forms of violations of the rights of refugees, especially in North Kivu and South Kivu where Forced repatriations to Rwanda are no longer considered the only response reserved for Rwandan refugees. And again those who denounce these practices, especially a large part of our leaders, are either arbitrarily arrested and suffer other forms of threats, intimidation, exclusions, blacklisting, blackmail because of their fight for the protection of the rights of refugees and unfortunately The DRC does not appear to have an organization funded by either the European Union or the USA for the protection of Human Rights Defenders who fight for the rights of refugees. In North Kivu at least more than 90% of security incidents against our office and our facilitators are caused by either Rwandan or pro-Rwandan actors in UNHCR, CNR and MONUSCO.

Sanctions that exclude these categories would be, for us, a simplistic way of agitating public opinion in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Thus to the above, we continue to welcome these initiatives which are indirect and which do not immediately bring peace and we impatiently await that these sanctions also target the United Nations Agencies (UNHCR, WFP, IOM) in Rwanda, Uganda and in the DRC, the National Commission for Refugees (CNR) in the DRC, MONUSCO in the DRC, and the military officials in North Kivu who insecure the camps for Internally Displaced Persons as well as the Congolese Authorities who are responsible for the management refugees and internally displaced persons.