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STORY: OHCHR / DRC VIOLENCE
TRT: 2:58
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 JANUARY 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, briefing room Palais des Nations Geneva
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The United Nations joint Human Rights office in the Democratic Republic of Congo has today published a report that details killings, rapes and other forms of violence, principally targeting the Hema community in Ituri province in the Northeast of the country and says the violence may amount to crimes against humanity”
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The reports says at least 701 people have been killed and 168 injured during inter-ethnic tensions between the Hema and Lendu communities in Ituri, in particular in the territories of Djugu and Mahagi between December 2017 to September 2019. Although that violence continues until the current day.”
5. Close up, shot journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“In addition, at least 142 have been subjected to acts of sexual violence and the great majority of the victims are the member of the Hema community.”
7. Close up, camera
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The investigators who drew up this report say that since September 2019 Lendu armed groups have increasing become organized carrying out the attacks against the Hema and other ethnic groups such as the Alour. Among their objectives is to take control of the land of the Hema communities and their associated resources.”
9. Med shot, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The report documents numerous cases of women being raped, of children – some in school uniforms – being killed, and of looting and burning of villages. And just to give one example on 10 June 2019, when the violence entered its third and most violent phase, in the district called Torges, a Hema man who was trying to prevent armed assailants from raping his wife then had to witness his 8-year-old son being decapitated.”
11. Med shot, cameras
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The report says the barbarity that characterizes these attacks – including the beheading of women and children with machetes, the dismemberment and removal of body parts of the victims as trophies of war – reflects the desire of the attackers to inflict lasting trauma on the Hema communities and to force them to flee and not return to their villages."
13. Close up, reporter
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The report also states that the violence could contain some elements of crimes against humanity through murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillage and persecution.”
15. Close up, journalist
16. Various shots, press briefing room
A report by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said inter-ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ituri Province may constitute “crimes against humanity.”
Speaking to reporters in Geneva today (10 Jan), OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville said, “the United Nations joint Human Rights office in the Democratic Republic of Congo has today published a report that details killings, rapes and other forms of violence, principally targeting the Hema community in Ituri province in the Northeast of the country and it says the violence may amount to crimes against humanity.”
The spokesperson explained, “the report says at least 701 people have been killed and 168 injured during inter-ethnic tensions between the Hema and Lendu communities in Ituri, in particular in the territories of Djugu and Mahagi between December 2017 to September 2019. Although that violence continues until the current day.”
He continued, “in addition, at least 142 have been subjected to acts of sexual violence and the great majority of the victims are the member of the Hema community.”
Colville also said, “since September 2018, Lendu armed groups have increasingly become more organized in carrying out attacks against the Hema and members of other ethnic groups such as the Alur, the investigators said. Among their objectives is to take control of the land of the Hema communities and their associated resources.”
According to OHCHR, the report documents numerous cases of women being raped, of children – some in school uniforms – being killed, and of looting and burning of villages.
Colville explained, “and just to give one example on 10 June 2019, when the violence entered its third and most violent phase, in the district called Torges, a Hema man who was trying to prevent armed assailants from raping his wife then had to witnessed his 8-year-old son being decapitated.”
The report also said that the barbarity that characterizes these attacks – including the beheading of women and children with machetes, the dismemberment and removal of body parts of the victims as trophies of war – reflects the desire of the attackers to inflict lasting trauma to the Hema communities and to force them to flee and not return to their villages.
Colville added, “the report also states that the violence “could contain some elements of crimes against humanity through murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillage and persecution.”
