Concern Grows Over UN Experts Disappearance in Congo DRC

…Government Blames Reckless Traveling.

Congo DRC Government Spokesman Lambert Mende

By TZ Business News Staff.

 

Belgium on Friday, March 17, 2017 joined the United States, European Union and the United Nations in  expressing  growing concern over the disappearance of  two  UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo and four Congo DRC nationals.

Belgium called on the Congolese authorities to use all possible means, with the support of MONUSCO, to find the missing persons.

New York Times reported on  Wednesday, March 15, 2017 that two United Nations officials and four Congolese citizens have disappeared in a conflict-ridden region of the Democratic Republic of Congo where army soldiers have been accused of murdering civilians, the United Nations mission there has said.

The officials — Michael Sharp, an American, and Zahida Katalan, a Swede — were traveling in the Kasai region on Sunday with three Congolese drivers and a translator when they disappeared, the United Nations mission said on Monday, March 13, 2017 . The UN added that it was doing everything possible to locate them.

The officials, who are in Congo as part of a peacekeeping mission, had traveled to Kasai to investigate possible human rights violations after reports that government soldiers there had killed at least a dozen unarmed civilians, including children.

According to New York Times the Congolese government said in a statement on Monday that the United Nations officials had traveled to the province of Kasai-Central by motorcycle and were thought to have been abducted by unidentified forces near the village of Ngombe, in the Bukonde area.

Lambert Mende, a spokesman for the government, said that the judicial authorities in the area were investigating the disappearance and trying to identify the perpetrators. He suggested that the United Nations officials had acted recklessly in traveling without informing the government.

Belgium said in a Statement Friday, March 17, 2017 that  it  is deeply concerned with the disappearance of two members of the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and of four Congolese support staff, last weekend in Kasai Central province.

“Five days after they were reported missing, Belgium calls on the Congolese authorities to use all possible means, with the support of MONUSCO, to find these persons,” the statement distributed by Africa Press Organization (APO) said.

The statement adds:  Belgium expresses its appreciation for the Group of Experts for the important monitoring and investigation work carried out under difficult conditions and welcomes the work of the experts Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalán in carrying out their United Nations Security Council mandate.

Their disappearance is a serious blow to the efforts of the international community to bring back peace and stability in the DRC. Belgium is deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the DRC, particularly in the Kasai region.

There are reports of massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the region, including the disproportionate use of force, arbitrary executions and the discovery of mass graves.  Belgium pleads, together with its European partners, for an international and independent investigation, in addition to and in support of national efforts.

New York Times said  videos recently emerged on social networks showing what appeared to be Congolese government soldiers walking down a country road and shooting people.

The European Union, the United Nations and the United States have called on the Congolese government to investigate the footage, which human rights activists say is evidence of war crimes committed during a counterinsurgency operation.

After initially ridiculing the video as fake, the government abruptly changed course and said in February that it had opened an investigation.