Congo disputes UN report on Kinshasa battle abuses

Democratic Republic of Congo rejected as untrue on Saturday the findings a UN human rights report accusing government troops of using excessive force and summary executions during battles in Kinshasa last March.
A UN human rights investigation released on Friday concluded both government soldiers and fighters loyal to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba committed serious human rights violations during heavy fighting last March 22-23.
At least 300 people were killed, including civilians. It documented "excessive and indiscriminate use of force throughout the military operations conducted by the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republican Guard".
The report also criticised "the use of heavy weapons by both sides in the city centre as well as in heavily populated residential areas where no military objective could justify the means or degree of force used...".
President Joseph Kabila's spokesman, Kudura Kasongo, denied the army used excessive force in its efforts to dislodge several hundred members of Bemba's personal guard from positions around the failed presidential candidate's central Kinshasa residence.
"When you have heavily armed soldiers who, like them, were threatening the (presidential palace), there is no other choice than to deploy against them," Kasongo told Reuters. "(The army) used the weapons that they believed appropriate given the situation," he said.
The report found at least 300 people, including some 40 civilians, died in the clashes. It accused government forces of summarily executing Bemba soldiers who had surrendered. "We executed no one," Kasongo said. Bemba, a former rebel leader and one of four vice presidents in Congo's 2004-06 post-war transitional government, lost the second round of an historic 2006 presidential poll to Kabila.
However, he refused to disband a personal security detail of former rebel fighters despite government demands that he do so. After initially seeking refuge inside a South African embassy compound following the fighting, Bemba went to Portugal for medical treatment last April amid calls by Kabila's staff for his arrest and trial for high treason.
The UN report called on Congolese authorities to carry out a full judicial investigation into the March fighting and compensate victims or their families. The investigation noted that the chief military prosecutor had set up a commission to examine the legality of detention of individuals arrested during and after the fighting, but added that no other investigations or prosecutions were initiated.