Human Rights Watch said in a new report that police in Congo's capital conducted youth killings in a three-month crackdown against organized crime gangs, according to Reuters.
The rights group says "Operation Likofi" launched last November aimed to quash an upsurge in armed robbery and other crimes by small gangs known as kuluna, the Human Rights Watch reported.
During the sweep against the kuluna, Kinshasa police conducted numerous raids, and innocent victims were at times mistakenly targeted, Human Rights Watch said.
In the report released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch says police behind the sweep killed at least 51 young men and teenage boys, at times when they were unarmed, outside their homes, or in open markets, for intimidation, Reuters reported. Five were aged from 14 to 17 years old, and nearly three dozen more people disappeared, it said.
The report also said authorities led a broad cover-up such as by issuing gag orders to doctors, threatening journalists, and denying relatives access to bodies of their loved ones, according to Reuters.
Human Rights Watch urged international donors and the United Nations to "publicly and privately" pressure Congo into arresting and prosecuting those responsible.
The report was based on interviews with relatives, police and government officials and others, Human Rights Watch said.
HRW said General Celestin Kanyama, said to be the commander of the operation, should be suspended pending a judicial probe of crimes associated with the operation.
Congo is a former Belgian colony the size of Western Europe, and has been in wars between 1998 and 2002, according to Reuters. In the east of Congo, armed groups fight for control of the region's mineral resources.
Congo authorities said some officers had been convicted, but its report said six magistrates had indicated that only convictions for lesser crimes such as extortion were meted out and not for killings or abductions, Reuters reported.
