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U.S. "Deeply Concerned" About Human Rights Workers in Congo

U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
October 18, 2000
STATEMENT BY PHILIP T. REEKER, DEPUTY SPOKESMAN
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
BEATING OF HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS
The United States is deeply concerned by reports of violence against
human rights workers in the rebel-controlled and Rwandan-occupied area
of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. On October 9,
according to a report issued by Human Rights Watch, soldiers of the
rebel group Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) disrupted a meeting of
human rights activists at the offices of the non-governmental
organization Groupe Jeremie in the rebel-held town of Bukavu in the
eastern Congo. The human rights activists were reportedly taken to a
military camp and released later in the day, and Groupe Jeremie's
offices looted.
Our embassy in Kigali has raised the reports with high-level officials
of the Rwandan government who have promised to investigate them.
The United States echoes the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights Mary Robinson's demand to the rebels last week to
immediately cease its intimidation of non-governmental organizations
and civil society in eastern Congo.