SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON EXTRAJUDICIAL, SUMMARY OR ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS IN FACT-FINDING MISSION TO DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

11 June 2002



The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Asma Jahangir, will go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 16 to 22 June to gather information concerning extra-judicial killings alleged to have occurred in the city of Kisangani on 14 May 2002 and immediately thereafter.

The visit will start in Kinshasa, where Ms. Jahangir will meet with Government officials and hold briefings with United Nations representatives. The Special Rapporteur is then scheduled to proceed to Goma, where she plans to meet representatives of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), and further to Kisangani, where she plans to meet with, among others, local authorities, international agencies, witnesses and victims of alleged human rights violations, and other private individuals.

“I will endeavour to meet with all relevant parties and interlocutors, in order to make a balanced and independent assessment of the events reported”, the Special Rapporteur said today.

The mission comes at the request of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson following a 24 May Presidential Statement from the Security Council on the events at Kisangani.

On completion of the mission, Ms. Jahangir will share her findings with the High Commissioner, who will in turn brief the President of the Security Council.

Ms. Jahangir, an advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, was appointed Special Rapporteur in August 1998. Since then she has carried out six field visits to Mexico, East Timor, Nepal, Turkey and Honduras, as well as to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania in connection with the Kosovo conflict.




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