Democratic Republic of the Congo: Rescind expulsion of UN official and investigate extra-judicial killings and disappearances

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI Index: AFR 62/002/2014 24 October 2014 DRC: Rescind expulsion of UN official and investigate extra-judicial killings and disappearances The Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should rescind the decision to expel Scott Campbell, senior UN official, and instead investigate the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances documented b [...] Scott Campbell, Head of the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO), was declared persona non grata by the Congolese government on 16 October 2014 following the publication of a report documenting extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances. [...] The UNJHRO report, released on 15 October 2014, documented allegations of nine extra-judicial killings and 32 enforced disappearances during a police operation, Operation Likofi (“bash”), targeting street criminality between November 2013 and February 2014. [...] The report should have triggered prompt, independent and impartial investigations into these allegations by the Congolese judicial system. [...] Instead, on 16 October 2014, the Minister of Interior, Richard Muyej Mangez, accused Scott Campbell of discrediting the national police, demoralizing its agents, and destabilizing the institutions of DRC.