Democratic Republic of Congo: A Year of dashed hopes

Amnesty International is concerned that the change of government in the Democratic Republic of Congo has failed to end a culture of human rights abuses and impunity. Before and after it came to power in 1997 the Alliance des forces democratiques pour la liberation du Congo (ADFL) has presided over such abuses as extrajudicial executions, unlawful detentions of political opponents, persecution of human rights defenders and journalists and torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and rape. Military courts are denying defendants the right to a fair trial and many are being sentenced to death. The UN investigation into massacres and other human rights abuses that took place since 1993 has been repeatedly obstructed by the government and has now been withdrawn.

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