A new Human Rights Watch report, "'You Will Be Punished': Attacks on Civilians in Eastern Congo," documents in detail the deliberate killing of more than 1,400 civilians between January and September 2009 during two successive Congolese army operations against a Rwandan Hutu militia, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The report is based on 23 HRW fact-finding missions this year and interviews with over 600 victims, witnesses, and family members.

"Continued killing and rape by all sides in eastern Congo shows that the UN Security Council needs a new approach to protect civilians," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The Security Council should send a group of experts to Congo to kick-start a serious civilian protection plan." (HRW via AllAfrica, Dec. 13)

See our last post on the wars for Central Africa.

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