The soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been ordered to respect human rights.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Congolese army also announced that it would punish any servicemen found guilty of committing crimes.

"From this day, any serviceman guilty of reprehensible acts will feel the full force of the law," said the statement from army headquarters signed by Colonel Leon Richard Kasonga, the spokesman for the Congolese army (FARDC).

The statement listed "rapes, forcing civilians to carry out forced labor, theft, extortion, torture, looting, malicious destruction of fields or the killing of livestock, or any other reprehensible act."

Any commanders who do not ensure that civilians and their belongings are protected from the army's troops will also be held responsible, it added, AFP reported.

The FARDC, which has about 140,000 troops, has often been accused of attacking civilians, particularly in conflict zones where they are pursuing rebels from the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.

AGB/HGL