Rwanda -backed rebels committed possible war crimes in Eastern Congo, calling rights groups

Human Rights Group Amnesty International on Tuesday accused the M23 rebels in Eastern Congo for killing, torturing and forcibly disappearing civil prisoners in two rebel-controlled cities. Amnesty said in a statement, “These acts violate the International Human laws and may be funds for war crimes.” Decades of struggle in Eastern Congo increased in January, when Rwanda-supported M23 advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma in North Kivu province, followed by Bukevu in February. Amnesty said that between February and April, it interviewed 18 citizens, who were detained by M33 in Goma and Bukevu, accused of supporting the Kangoli army or government. Former prisoners said that the rebels did not provide any evidence of these allegations and many were not informed about the cause of their custody. According to the rights group, they were held in congested, unequal cells without enough food, water, hygiene facilities or health care. Many people said that they saw that fellow prisoners die of harsh situations and torture. Some described how they saw the M23 fighters that killed two detainees with hammers and shot another who died on the spot. All of the former prisoners interviewed by Amnesty said that they were either tortured or M33 fighters were tortured in detention, describing severe beating with wooden rods, electric cables or engine belts. The rights group stated that relatives searched for their loved ones on sites in custody, but M33 often refused to provide them access to them or denied that their relatives were there, which Amnesty said the amount to implement the volume to disappear. M23 is one of around 100 armed groups who are dying to establish a leg in the mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the most important human crisis in the world. More than 7 million people have been displaced, including 100,000 who ran away from home this year. According to United Nations experts, the rebels are supported by around 4,000 soldiers from neighboring Rwanda, and sometimes the congregation capital Kinshasa, the east, is swearing at the east as about 1,600 km (1,000 mi). Despite the Congo’s Army and M23, the fight between the two sides continues to work towards a truss last month.