Hutu refugees who survived massacres at OBILO “CAMP DE LA PAIX” had improvised temporary camps along the railway line linking Kisangani and Ubundu, thus forming the makeshift camps of Kasese I and II and Biaro, in the hope of gaining access to humanitarian aid, or even of being repatriated.
Early in the morning of 22nd April 1997 – Kasese I camp, located at 25 kilometres south of Kisangani was the first to be attacked. APR units surrounded the camp and attacked early on the morning of 22 April 1997. Many of the inhabitants fled, but survivors estimate that at least 500 persons were killed in the attack. […].
On the same morning of 22 April 1997, Rwanda APR special units killed at least 200 refugees in the Kasese II camp, in the presence of several APR senior figures.
The massacres lasted seven hours. The vast majority of the victims were weak and sick, after months of flight in extremely difficult conditions. After the massacre, the soldiers headed to the village of Kisesa and ordered the villagers to go to the camps and gather up the bodies, which were initially buried in mass graves.
A day later, the AFDL/APR soldiers returned to Kisesa to dig up the bodies and burn them.
Witnesses indicate that bodies were gathered, graves were dug, and heavy machinery was used to move and burn the bodies. The AFDL blocked access to the area while the massacre was being carried out, and during efforts to remove and destroy corpses.
On 24 April, UNHCR and WFP officials and several journalists visited the Kasese I and II camps under AFDL and APR military escort. All the refugees, including the sick and the children, had disappeared.
“I am absolutely shocked,” said Mr Filippo Grandi, a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “There was a camp here a few days ago. People were sick, hungry and too weak to walk. Now where are they? We are very concerned about their lives and we need answers from the rebels about their fate.”
A UNHCR spokesman said 9,000 of those who disappeared from Kasese would be unable to walk, including 2,500 badly malnourished children.
Straight after the Kasese Massacres, Rwanda APR special units attacked Biaro camp, 41 kilometres from Kisangani.
After the attacks on Kasese and Biaro camps, AFDL soldiers located a number of survivors. informed them that a repatriation effort was underway, and forced to march in the direction of Obilo. At Kilometre 52, they reached a barrier and were told to sit by the side of the road. Soon after, more soldiers arrived and opened fire, killing a large number of unarmed men, women and children.
Reliable, detailed information about the attacks on Tingl-Tingi, Kasese, Biaro and the other camps in this area as such is scarce, due largely to the fact that the AFDL blocked access to them before attacking them. There is clear and credible testimony, however, that women, children and other unarmed non-combatants who survived the attacks on these camps were hunted down and killed indiscriminately, in violation of international humanitarian law.
Report of the Investigative Team of the Secretary-General on serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the DRC (S/1998/581)