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Children Continue to be Ravaged by Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo despite Signs of Progress - April 26th, 2006

April 26, 2006, Kinshasa and New York – Children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continue to endure some of the most inhumane treatment found anywhere in the world, despite outward signs of progress, according to a new report by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. The report, Struggling to Survive: Children in Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, documents dozens of continued, pervasive and egregious violations against children by all armed forces and groups operating in DRC and urges that immediate actions be taken to protect Congolese children and to hold the perpetrators of crimes against children accountable.

“Despite the presence of the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping operation, the promise of upcoming elections and billions of dollars granted by donors for post-conflict reconstruction in DRC, most Congolese children are not faring any better than they were three years ago – and for some children, health, safety and well-being have drastically deteriorated,” said Julia Freedson, Director of Watchlist, a global network of non-governmental organizations based in New York.

Struggling to Survive details heinous violations against children’s security and rights in each of the six major categories identified by the United Nations Security Council. These categories include killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, abduction of children, denial of humanitarian assistance for children, attacks on schools and hospitals and recruitment and use of children into armed forces and groups. In addition, the report documents a multitude of other abuses, including forced displacement of children, coercion of children into the illegal exploitation of natural resources and arbitrary detention of children.

Violations against children are committed against a backdrop of outward progress towards reconstruction in DRC, such as the demobilization of thousands of children from armed forces and groups, the significant decrease in the number of displaced people in some areas, serious efforts to confront sexual violence and exploitation and the integration of combatants from armed groups into a unified national army. Another recent positive step taken was the International Criminal Court’s arrest of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of the Union des Patriotes Congolais on charges of enlisting, conscripting and using children in hostilities in DRC.

“Outward signs of progress should not lull the international community into a false sense that children in DRC now live in safety,” warned Kathleen Hunt, CARE International’s UN Representative and Chairperson of the Watchlist. “To the contrary, stark evidence of the ongoing rape and mutilation of girls, recruitment and use of children by armed groups and other despicable abuses against children continues to be well-documented. In addition, it’s widely known that thousands of Congolese children are dying of preventable diseases every day and others are missing out on educational opportunities and other possibilities for advancing their lives.”

“The Congolese governing authorities, the UN team and others have yet to implement an effective structure of child protection in DRC. A wide gap remains between commitments to protect children in theory and actual practices on the ground. The widespread trafficking of small arms, difficulties in the disarmament and demobilization process, and the persistence of general insecurity in the eastern DRC will continue to contribute in the weak structure for protection of children for the foreseeable future,” said Beck - Bukeni T. Waruzi, Director of Ajedi-Ka /Child Soldiers Project, a local child protection agency operating in eastern DRC.

“Immediate and sustained actions must be taken immediately by the governing authorities of DRC, all armed groups operating in DRC, the UN Security Council, the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), the humanitarian community in DRC, donors and the International Criminal Court to protect Congolese children from further violations and to find remedies for those who have already endured imponderable suffering,” Hunt added.

Great Lakes states seek UN & African Union Sanctions on rebels in DR Congo, AFP, 22 April 06

BUJUMBURA, April 21, 2006 (AFP) - The nations of Africa's Great Lakes region called Friday for UN and African Union (AU) sanctions to be imposed on rebel groups operating in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In adopting the call, however, the four nations -- Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda -- did not agree to slap similar sanctions on the groups themselves, as had been expected when senior officials began to meet here on Thursday.

No explanation for the change was offered.

Instead, the grouping, known as the "Tripartite Plus Joint Commission", agreed on measures nearly identical to those they called for against nine rebel groups at its last meeting in Uganda in April.

The commission "agrees to ask the AU Peace and Security Council to impose sanctions on leaders identified with these rebel groups and make the same appeal to the United Nations," it said in a statement.

A diplomat who participated in the meeting said a list of rebel chiefs to be covered by the sanctions, which include financial and travel restrictions, was being drawn up and would be sent to UN and AU officials.

The groups include Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Burundi's National Liberation Forces (FNL) and members of Rwanda's former army and Hutu militia implicated in the 1994 genocide.

They are among numerous rebel armies, blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the region, that have taken advantage of insecurity and lawlessness to set up shop in the eastern DRC.

All of them have been active in the eastern DRC and have ignored a September 30, 2005, deadline to disarm issued by commission members.

When this week's meeting opened, a working paper expected to have been adopted on Friday said the four nations would enforce sanctions themselves in a bid to restore stability to the conflict-ravaged region, they said.

The sanctions include barring the groups, their leaders and supporters from access to media, fundraising, political discussions and negotiations, travel and access to visas, according to a copy of the document obtained by AFP.

"Sanctions will be initiated immediately and will be enforced by each country with its own resources," it said.

Participants in the meeting refused to discuss the last-minute change to the document although recent tension between Uganda and Rwanda, and Uganda and the DRC, may have been the cause.

Kampala has angered Kinshasa by frequently suggesting that it be allowed to send troops into the eastern DRC to chase LRA rebels.

It has also irritated Kigali by allowing the leader of an outlawed Hutu rebel group to transit Uganda en route to Europe, where he has since been arrested.

''Credible elections are fundamental" 08 mar. 06 - 01.18h

After a century of colonization, dictatorship and civil war, DR Congo organizes for democratic elections in 2006. On occasion of his visit to the country, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations, reflects on the greater issues affecting the Congo. 


LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW

What are the objectives of your visit to the DR Congo?
Interview by Oscar Mercado and Michel Smitall

Jean-Marie Guéhenno: The peace process in the DRC is going to go through a critical period. Elections are times where there are winners and losers. And so it is going to be a wonderful moment for Congo in the sense that for the first time in 45 years the Congolese will have the opportunity to really express their collective will.

It is also going to be a very dangerous time because of the divisions that any election creates. And the reason why I am coming to Congo is really to see how this political process can be managed in the best possible way, how the international community can support it, so that everything that has been achieved so far will be further strengthened. In my view, the Democratic Republic of Congo today is a very different place from what it was three years ago, and there is considerable progress. As unsatisfactory as the situation still is, it is certainly much, much better than it was three years ago.

We do not want that investment to be put in jeopardy, and so it is very important that the elections coming ahead be one step further on the road to recovery and not a major setback. I think there is quite a possibility that this is going to be a major step forward, but we are going to have to work very hard for that.

Can we assume the elections will take place before end of June 2006?

As to the exact date of the elections, there are still a number of things that need to happen, but I think there is a great commitment of the President himself. When I spoke to him this morning, he was very clear that the election is the number one, the number two and the number three priority. The election is really at the top of his list. So there is a fundamental commitment of the President and there is a strong commitment of the international community. It is not going to be easy but we will have elections in the months ahead. I think that’s a given.

And yet, according to some observers, the country is running short of time for the elections to take place as planned.

If you are talking of June 18, 2006, that is a very specific date, well, there maybe be some limitations, but I think that fundamentally the overall timeframe will be kept. And anyway, there will not be any vacuum, there is a constitution now that provides for the institutions of the transition to stay in place until the elected institutions are there.

It is very important to have good elections, and you can slip a little bit, but if you have good elections and the credibility of the elections, that is really what is fundamental. You do not want to rush things in a way that could damage credibility. You can claim victory when the train arrives exactly at the minute that you had planned, but when the train arrives in such a way that the foundation, the credibility of the whole process is put in jeopardy, that would be a very short-time game.

What will be the role of the United Nations during the electoral process?

Like in any national process, the Congolese have the fundamental responsibility for the elections, from the electoral commission down to the polling stations. Because of the particular situation in the DRC, with infrastructures badly managed during years of war, and no public investments, MONUC will have to give a strong helping hand to the Congolese. And we are working to that effect, we are helping the Congolese as much as possible to make sure their elections will be a success. But the elections fundamentally are the responsibility of the Congolese.

In terms of security, are more troops likely to join the mission?

We would like to see the EU taking a decision to have some kind of reserve to back up our forces with advanced elements in the DRC. The European Union is still discussing it. We will certainly do our best efforts to have forces as mobile and proactive as possible, but we are also making major efforts to train more Congolese police.

We would also like the efforts of the international community to have a more professional Congolese army, to be intensified. Because at the end of the day – for such a huge effort as organizing elections in a country as vast as the Congo – security is the key element that has to be provided by the Congolese. Our forces will certainly be mobilized to help and contribute to that general effort.

Good governance is one of the main challenges the country needs to tackle beyond 2006. What can the international community do to support the DRC in this matter?

As I listen to the Congolese, I see there is a very strong push among the Congolese people, in the Congolese civil society for more transparency to make sure that the resources of the Congo are exploited for the benefit of the Congolese. That effort needs to be supported by the international community.

For instance the wealth of the DRC comes from its extractive industries. It is important that the companies that are involved in that business have transparent accounts, that the Congolese can see those accounts, that they can see that the State collects adequate revenue from that extraction. I think the international community should be prepared to help in that regard.

Most of DRC’s challenges concern the Great Lakes region. Do you have the feeling relations among neighbouring states are really improving?

The current situation in the east has improved considerably. There is still violence, there are still populations suffering, for instance from the FDLR in some places.

Yet, I think we have come to a situation where there is no more international threat. And that is very important. It is very important that the countries of the region send joint messages, for instance to the ex-FAR/Interhamwe that are still in the DRC – they have to take the right decision, they have to disarm and go back to Rwanda. I think that is the message that needs to be repeated time and again, jointly by the leaders of Rwanda and the leaders of the DRC.

If the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda work together, they can all benefit from a stabilized situation. This is a win-win for the region. A more stabilized Congo will have more economic relations with its neighbours in the east. That will be a source of prosperity for the whole region. An unstable, weakened DRC drags down the economy of the whole of Central Africa.

So there is a lot at stake for the whole region. And I do hope that as the elections take place, the conference of the Great Lakes will be an opportunity for the countries of the region to try to course a regional cooperation which will benefit all of them.

How about armed groups in the east of the country, are they still likely to disturb the security situation?

Obviously for the poor people, civilians who are raped, who are killed by those armed groups, many threats remain. There is a lot of human suffering. And the real long-term answer to that is to build also the State of Congo. Like in any country that has returned to normalcy, the State can assert its authority on every square kilometer of its territory so that banditry does not take place, so that people can go back to their homes at night without fear of being attacked, so that the security forces are themselves held accountable, that they are paid at the end of the month, provide security to the people, are professionally trained, that there is a judiciary system in place.

If there is someone who commits a crime, whether it is a private person or someone who is apparently employed by the State, that person should know his crime does not go unpunished. And this is what the return to a strong State in the DRC is all about. It’s really about serving the people.

Finally, what will be the role of the international community after the elections?

The role of the international community after the elections will be discussed with newly elected Congolese authorities. My view would be that, certainly, after the elections there would still be a need for international support if this is going to be the wish of the elected authorities of the DRC.

Elections will create great expectations. These expectations will not be fulfilled in one day, or one month, or one year. So there will be a need for a sustained effort. The strengthening, for instance, of security in the DRC requires a much longer effort, in building up security in the east and consolidating the army. As long as the security forces are not strong enough, there will be a need for some kind of international support along the line of that what MONUC is providing today.

Frankly, I think the international community is pretty much aware of that, is aware of the need to renew its support. There has been a major effort of the international community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It would be a pity to put that investment at risk by foolishly drawing down too quickly without coordinating with the Congolese. That drawdown, of course, will have to happen; but it should happen in good coordination with the authorities of the DRC as they strengthen their authority and the provision of services in the country.

 

 

The new constitution in the Democratic Republic of Congo has officially been adopted, giving the country a new flag and a new legal framework. BY Arnaud Zajtman BBC News, Kinshasa 19/02/06

Although the constitution has formally come into force most changes will only happen after elections due in June.

The constitution, approved in a referendum, is meant to transform DR Congo into a real democracy.

The text says the president has to be elected and is only allowed to rule for two terms of five years.

He also has to share power with an elected prime minister.

The parliament has to be elected and a judiciary is independent.

All this is new for DR Congo, a country which is trying to emerge from years of war and which had its last free elections 40 years ago.

DR CONGO CONSTITUTION President limited to two five-year terms Presidential age limit reduced from 35 to 33 President names prime minister from largest party Provinces increased from 10 to 26 Same-sex marriage banned

The constitution was promulgated in front of the president of the African Union, Denis Sassou Nguesso and the South African President Thabo Mbeki, who acts as a mediator in the DR Congo crisis.

In the ceremony, also attended by the former warlords who currently sit in DR Congo's power-sharing government, the new flag was put up.

It comprises the colour blue to symbolise peace, crossed by a red line and hedged by two yellow lines - red to recall the blood of the four million who died as a result of the war and yellow for the vast mining of deposits of DR Congo.

Elections are due before the end of June. The constitution says that until then the former warlords who are currently ruling the country remain in place.

 

Congo to enact constitution but poll concerns grow.  17 feb. 06 - 15.46h

KINSHASA (Reuters) - African leaders head to Congo on Saturday to witness the promulgation of a post-war constitution paving the way for elections by mid-2006, but that timetable looks increasingly optimistic as the weeks slip by.

The new constitution takes effect as soon as it is adopted but President Joseph Kabila's transitional government, which includes former rebels and political foes, will run the huge country until polls designed to end a decade of war and chaos. Speculation is growing that parliamentary delays and the logistical nightmare of the first national democratic elections in 40 years will make meeting the June 30 deadline impossible. The transitional parliament is still discussing a delayed electoral law which the electoral commission says must be in place before it even sets the date for polls. "It is impossible to get the whole process finished on time," said a U.N. official, who requested anonymity because talk of election delays within the Congo peacekeeping mission has been banned. "We may get the first round out of the way by June 30 -- then at least voting would have started," the official added. Presidents Thabo Mbeki of economic powerhouse South Africa and Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the neighbouring Republic of Congo, who is also chairman of the African Union, are due at Saturday's ceremony. Their presence will highlight the international importance of peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose war at one point sucked in six foreign armies. Elections, seen as the cornerstone to peace deals that ended the five year war that killed some 4 million people, mostly through hunger and disease, were initially due by mid 2005. But that date was missed due to fighting in the east, divisions within the fragile government and the mammoth task of planning polls in a country the size of Western Europe but lacking basic infrastructure.

The 2005 delay sparked violent anti-U.N. protests.

TEST RUN

Congo's constitution was accepted in a December referendum seen as a relatively successful test run for parliamentary and presidential polls despite huge logistical challenges in transporting voting materials and collecting results. But the coming elections will see numerous candidates instead of a simple "Yes" or "No", making ballot papers more complicated and the process more time-consuming. "We all know how complicated this all is -- there are going to be huge numbers of candidates," the U.N. official said. As weeks slip by, newspapers in the capital Kinshasa are asking if Congolese must wait yet longer to elect new leaders. "Even if they had a magician's wand, we wonder how the electoral commission is going to make up lost time and organise all the elections before June 30, 2006," read an editorial in one of the best selling papers, Le Potentiel. The independent electoral commission is weary of setting dates only to face delays and spokesman Dieudonne Mirimo refuses to speculate on whether the deadline is feasible.
It is not in our hands," he said. "We are waiting for the electoral law and then we can work out the electoral timetable ... But the longer it is delayed, the tighter it gets." The international community funds the $1 billion-a-year U.N. peacekeeping mission and is paying $430 million towards the elections, but donors' patience is wearing thin. "Slippage (of dates) is not an option," said one diplomat. "Some people, Congolese and foreigners, are pushing for a delay but the elections must be held by the end of June and it is still doable. What is tight is whether a new government will be in place by July 1."

 

 

Security Council stresses need for disarmament of armed groups in Africa's Great Lakes Region - 28 jan. 06 - 20.52h - Security Council / DPI

The Security Council stressed the need for Governments in Africa’s Great Lakes region to disarm and demobilize militias and armed groups which continued to attack civilians, United Nations and humanitarian personnel, threatening the stability of individual States, as well as the region as a whole.

Adopting resolution 1653 (2006) on Friday, 27 January 2006, the Council strongly condemned the activities of such groups as the Forces démocratique de liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), Burundi’s Palipehutu-Forces national de liberation (FNL) and Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which continued to attack civilians and United Nations and humanitarian personnel, as well as to commit human rights abuses against local populations. The Council reiterated its demand that all such groups lay down their arms and engage voluntarily and without delay or preconditions in their disarmament, repatriation or resettlement.

Underscoring the primary responsibility of Governments in the region to protect their populations in accordance with international law, the Council stressed the importance of ensuring the full, safe and unhindered access of humanitarian workers to people in need. It called upon all States in the region to deepen their cooperation with a view to ending the activities of illegal armed groups and underlined that those States must abide by their obligations under the United Nations Charter, and that they must refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of their neighbours.

The Council reiterated its demand that the Governments of Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi take measures to prevent the use of their respective territories in support of activities of armed groups present in the region.

Speakers in the ensuing day-long open debate, including several Foreign Ministers, urged unshakable commitment to the Great Lakes region, stressing that the peace processes would remain fragile for some time and that the promise of a strong Central Africa risked relapsing into conflict without steadfast international support and “economic intensive care”. They generally agreed that the regional approach taken by the Security Council was the right one, and that the region’s long-term stability required a growing pool of democratic nations with inclusive governments, stable institutions and functioning judiciaries. Many said it would not be possible to develop the continent as long as its very heart
-- its strategic epicentre -- was engulfed in grinding poverty and violent armed conflict.

Spotlighting recent positive developments were the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region in November 2004. The resulting Dar es Salaam Declaration was both a framework for negotiations and an outline of guiding principles for action. Many speakers cautioned against losing sight of the strategic importance of convening a second such conference as soon as possible -- following a postponement of a summit that was to have been held in Nairobi, Kenya, in late 2005 -- in order to build on the momentum and ensure that the commitments “sketched out” in 2004 led to real achievements now.

Speakers also stressed the importance of implementing the reconstruction zone plan set out by Ibrahima Fall, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Great Lakes. Under that plan, for example, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo would be deemed “zone number 1”. Efforts towards peace in those three countries, which had experienced interconnected conflicts, would need international support to gain stability, particularly the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Also speaking today was the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania, whose delegation holds the Council presidency for January. In addition to interventions by the 15 Security Council members, additional participants in the discussion, including at the ministerial level, were representatives of the Republic of the Congo; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Namibia; Botswana; Qatar; Rwanda; Sudan; Belgium; Canada; Burundi; Angola; Zimbabwe; Kenya; Uganda; Zambia; Australia; Tunisia; South Africa; Egypt; Republic of Korea; Algeria; Senegal; Central African Republic; Nigeria; Pakistan; Brazil; Cameroon; Guatemala; and Norway.

Additional statements were made by the Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Union, and the Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid of the European Commission. Austria’s representative spoke on behalf of the European Union, as did the Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region of the Netherlands.

What happens to asylum seekers who are sent home to DR Congo?

 Asylum questions for DR Congo - By Jenny Cuffe
BBC World Service Assignment Programme

What happens to asylum seekers who are sent home? As part of a BBC World Service investigation, Jenny Cuffe has followed the footsteps of failed asylum seekers sent back from Europe to the Democratic Republic of Congo. What she found raised questions over how European governments are treating those they deport.

Malnutrition is widespread in Congolese prisons

The woman at the rear of the Air France flight to Kinshasa was still screaming as we taxied down the runway at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Hemmed in by French police officers, she pleaded to be allowed off the aircraft. As the plane took off, her screaming subsided to a low whimpering. This was a failed asylum seeker being sent back forcibly to her country of origin, the DR Congo.

Throughout the European Union, there are hundreds of people in a similar situation - nervously waiting a one-way ticket back to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.

Although Africa's bloodiest conflict has cost an estimated four million lives since 1998, many EU countries judge it safe to send failed asylum seekers back. They say that there is a transitional government which plans elections next year.

Many asylum seekers, however, claim they will not be safe on return. I wanted to find out the truth.

Secret service

In a curtained room in down-town Kinshasa, I was introduced to "Simon", a member of the ANR, the Congolese secret service.

Based at the airport, his job includes seeking out, interrogating and, if necessary, detain returning asylum seekers.

Simon told me that returnees are taken to an office for questioning. Some are asked for a bribe of about $120.

But those who "have problems with the government" are detained. "Political dissidents, people who leave the country and go to say bad things about the government," said Simon. "We have to arrest them and show them what they did was not good."

Simon said that another task was to identity any asylum seekers with connections to DR Congo's enemies, especially Rwanda.

Simon has instructions to pick out those who have a Rwandan name, or even those who look Rwandan.

I asked him what happens to these men and women. He became evasive. They are handed over to the authorities. What happens next? He shrugged. "Everything. I cannot say more. Everything."

European informants

Simon's job relies on information coming back to Kinshasa from DR Congo's embassies in Europe. Dutch authorities are currently investigating whether dossiers which include allegations by Congolese asylum seekers have been passed to Kinshasa.

Crucially, Simon's testimony raises questions about the checks made by European authorities.

In a letter last year, the British Ambassador to Kinshasa wrote: "All passengers arriving at Kinshasa are liable to be questioned by DR Congo immigration officials. We have no evidence that returned failed asylum seekers are singled out for adverse treatment." Other European countries take the same view.

'Pierre' was deported from Brussels in April. He had sought asylum and says the scars on his arms are proof that soldiers beat him, having accused him of hiding weapons to use against the President.

 

The softly-spoken graduate told the BBC that on his return he was interrogated for 48 hours, whipped and taken in a jeep to Kinshasa's state prison, Makala. There, he said, the beatings continued.

The United Nations has described the regime in DR Congo's prisons as one of rape and torture. If prisoners do not have relatives to bring them food, they may eventually die of starvation, it reports.

Pierre says he was able to get out of the jail because a relative raised $900 to buy his release. But he remains in hiding after the guards said they knew where to find him.

Human rights lawyer Celestin Nikiana has started to list the prisoners in Makala. He has found two of the prisoners to be former asylum seekers who have been there for more than five years without charge: Alain Londole , who was returned by Belgium, and Willy Ayi-Ansha, sent back by Italy. Mr Nikiana believes there is at least one other asylum seeker, returned from Belgium, being kept in the prison's political wing.

Secret jails

The UN has also criticised unofficial jails run by DR Congo's national intelligence service. These are said to be places where prisoners are subjected to "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment and even torture". Human rights campaigners say they have information that one former asylum seeker is being kept in one of these secret centres.

Azaris Ruberwa, vice-president in charge of defence and security, denies returning asylum-seekers are unwelcome.

But he added: "There are still some secret services or security services which commit some abuses against the laws of the country. We hope that once the election is organised these problems will all be solved.

"I don't deny the fact that there are cases of security agents who are abusing, but I can guarantee that there is no policy from the government here to do any harm to detainees."

Although campaigners have warned some people deported from Europe may be put at risk, they have not yet been able to produce convincing evidence.

Government checks

Under the present arrangements, the legal responsibility to check that returned asylum seekers will be safe rests with individual European governments.

And despite plans currently being developed for a common European policy on migration and asylum, there at present no plans to make the European Commission responsible for monitoring what happens when the asylum seekers are sent back.

This means that governments like the UK take on trust the good intentions of receiving countries.

For its part, however, the Home Office said those who are returned to their home countries are only sent back because it has been "judged safe" for the deportation to take place.

"To date, we have not received any objective evidence to support allegations of either systematic or arbitrary detention or ill treatment of returnees," said a spokesman.

"The situation in Democratic Republic of Congo, including the treatment of returnees, is kept under review in consultation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other EU countries.

"We do not routinely monitor the treatment of returnees to any country. We would not remove them if we considered that they were likely to suffer persecution on their return.

"The only people who are removed are those who do not have a well-founded fear of persecution and do not therefore need international protection".

 

U.N. Congo peacekeepers retreat - 25 jan. 06 - 14.13h

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- The United Nations says the campaign in Congo's Garamba National Park against the Uganda-based Lord's Resistance Army has been canceled.

It comes the day after eight U.N. peacekeepers from Guatemala were killed and five wounded Monday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's northeastern region during a firefight with members of the LRA, generally known as a band of adult-led children that roams north from Uganda up into southern Sudan and westward from Uganda into the Congo and back again.

The U.N. Mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC, said Tuesday the Garamba Park operation was canceled and peacekeepers taken to the city of Kisangani.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, division commander for peacekeepers in eastern Congo who was visiting U.N. World Headquarters in New York, told reporters Tuesday the remaining peacekeepers were extracted by helicopter from the scene of the battle.

Asked about reports some of the slain peacekeepers had been decapitated by machete, he declined comment, saying he had heard no such reports and was awaiting debriefings of the combatants and medical examinations of the dead.

However, Cammaert did say the peacekeepers had been following up on reports from civilians and non-governmental organizations in the area saying LRA members armed with AK-47 automatic weapons were harassing civilians in the region, forcing many to flee the area.

He described the region as heavy jungle with patches of savannah.

In eastern North Kivu province, south of the park, a U.N. humanitarian mission said the situation in Kanyabayonga and Lubero was calm following massive displacement caused by the nearby presence of armed insurgents.

The mission said local authorities estimated 50,000 internally displaced people were sheltered in churches and schools.

RDC: Attack Against Armed Forces, Former Disident General Maybe Involved - 20/01/2006

 

A post of the armed Forces of the democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) was reportedly attacked in the Rutshuru territory, around 90km from Kivu, north of the capital of the eastern province of North Kivu.

 According to the government troop commander Jean Marie Kasikila – quoted by the AFP news agency – among the assailants were Rwandan elements tied to former general Laurent Nkunda, who in 2004 occupied the city of Bukavu for a few days and of whom there has been no news.

 According to Kasikila, a former Mayi Mayi rebel integrated into the unified Congolese army, the attack was backed by soldiers of the regular Rwandan forces, whose infiltration across the border was already denounced in the past days by the officers. 

No official comment has arrived from Rwanda, for long accused of backing armed movements in DR-Congo to benefit from the exploitation of natural resources of the territory, as amply documented in different UN reports.

DR Congo, One journalist freed, another still in jail without charge; where is the freedom!

New York, November 8, 2005—A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo today freed journalist Jean-Marie Kanku on bail after 12 days of detention, press freedom group Journaliste en danger (JED) said. But journalist Patrice Booto, who was detained last week without charge, remains behind bars, JED said.

Local journalists raised the detention of both men in a meeting yesterday with Vice President Azerias Ruberwa which was called to demand an independent inquiry into the November 3 murder of veteran journalist Franck Kangundu and his wife. The journalists also demanded better security for the media in the run-up to 2006 elections.

“These clearly arbitrary detentions along with the murder of Franck Kangundu and his wife suggest that press conditions in the DRC, already bad, are deteriorating,” said Ann Cooper, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Unless the government can find a way to improve security for the press prior to elections next year it will jeopardize the legitimacy of those elections,” she added.

Kanku, publisher of the private newspaper L'Alerte, told JED he had been charged with publishing “false information” in connection with articles attacking Lando Lurhakumbirwa, director of the state intelligence agency, the ANR. The national security court released him on bail equivalent to $150, ordered him to check in with the court on Tuesdays and Fridays, and not to leave the country.

Booto remains in detention at a Kinshasa police station following his arrest on November 2. He has not been formally charged or brought before a court. Booto is publisher of the thrice-weekly Le Journal and its sister publication, Pool Malebo. Both publications were suspended for three months in September by the independent but officially sanctioned High Authority on Media (HAM), after they published articles alleging that the DRC government had given a large sum of money to Tanzanian education agencies, at a time when Congolese teachers were on strike for more pay. Some local sources suspected that the HAM's action was the product of political pressure.

The meeting with Vice President Ruberwa was held after 1,000 journalists and other media workers joined a large silent demonstration in Kinshasa to protest the killing of Kangundu, a political affairs journalist with the private daily La Référence Plus, and his wife at their home. Although the motive for the double murder is not known, journalists fear that it may be related to Kangundu’s journalistic work. The government has announced the arrest of two suspects and promised to set up an inquiry.

UN condemns DRC rapes, AFP; 20/10/2005
 

Kinshasa - United Nations officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday condemned the widespread practice of rape carried out in different parts of the country by members of the security forces.

"Monuc (the UN mission in the DRC) is very worried by cases of rape regularly committed by elements of the (security) forces," mission spokesperson Kemal Saiki told reporters in Kinshasa.

Saiki cited five cases of rape between the end of September and mid-October which had been the subjects of recent investigation by Monuc's human rights division.

There were witness reports of the rape of teenage girls and women while they were in provisional detention.

At Kananga in the centre of the country a girl of 14 arrested on October 11 for theft said she "had been raped in turn by three police officers during her detention", Saiki said, adding that the police officers had been arrested and the girl was receiving hospital treatment.

At Mbuji-Mayi in the centre of the country, two were women were gang-raped on October 12.
They said that "five soldiers forced their way into their houses, stole anything of value, tied up their husband and then took turns to rape the wife," Saiki reported.

Other similar cases had been reported in Goma and Bukavu in the east, and near Mbandaka in the north.

In most cases those responsible had not been arrested.

Militiamen Holding Hostages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Oct. 19, 2005

More than 500 "Mai Mai" militiamen have taken 43 Congolese disarmament officers hostage near the town of Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and are threatening to burn the hostages alive if they do not receive their disarmament compensation, officials said Oct. 19. A U.N. spokesman said there has been a problem with the promised compensation. The militiamen are demanding the $110 initial disarmament pay

DRC marchers demand axing of government

June 30 2005 at 04:09PM

By David Lewis

Kinshasa - Security forces shot in the air and lobbed teargas at thousands of protesters who marched through the Democratic Republic of Congo's rundown capital on Thursday, demanding the government's resignation over delayed elections.

Army helicopters clattered over the sprawling city as protesters clutching handkerchiefs over their eyes hurled stones at riot police. Trucks of soldiers raced at the crowds and soldiers erected barricades to hamper their progress.

No details of injuries were immediately available but a Reuters reporter saw bruised protesters with bandages on their heads who said they were beaten by police.

Some protesters said people had been killed, but there was no immediate confirmation. A local television station aired footage of an injured marcher whom it said had been hit by a bullet. Police raided the station after the broadcast.

Frustrations have been rising over the delay to the first democratic polls in 40 years. The elections were the cornerstone of a 2003 peace deal to end a five-year war which killed up to 4 million people, mainly from conflict-related hunger and disease.

The protests were called by opposition politicians who say President Joseph Kabila's transitional government should resign.

"The people were just trying to demonstrate peacefully but soldiers came in and started firing," said Lysee Dimandja, a member of parliament.

"This is a shame for our institutions. It will just antagonise the population," she said before riot police fired teargas to disperse the crowd gathered around her.

"We're just trying to demonstrate peacefully and they started shooting," said a young man, running from the protests in another part of the city of nine million.

DR Congo violence at poll delays

Riot police have fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse thousands of opposition supporters in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital.

One person was killed as protesters angry at postponed elections chanted anti-government slogans in Kinshasa.

Elections should have been held by the end of June according to a peace deal.

But logistical and voter registration problems, continued clashes in the east and government in-fighting, has led to their postponement till next year.

In an address to the nation, President Joseph Kabila promised a swift end to the lengthy transition period.

Earlier this month, MPs voted for a six-month delay. It was then announced that presidential and parliamentary elections would not be held until March next year.

Pledge

According to the BBC's Arnaud Zajtman in Kinshasa, a number of other protesters were wounded and dozens arrested by police.

In his national address marking the 45th anniversary of Congolese independence from Belgium, Mr Kabila said it was time for change, which he said had lasted 15 years and had failed to improve things for normal people

"I am determined to put an end to the spiral of endless transitions and give the people the opportunity to freely choose those who should preside over their destinies," he said.

But our correspondent says people on the streets of the capital say they do not trust the president or the current government.

Elections should have taken place by the end of June under the terms of the 2002 peace agreement, which ended a civil war which led to millions of deaths.

Sporadic ethnic conflict is still taking place in the east, despite the presence of the world's largest United Nations' peacekeeping force.

President Kabila came to power after his father, Laurent - who overthrew long-time ruler Mobutu Sese Seko - was assassinated in 2001.

Opposition

The demonstrators are supporters of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) an opposition party which fought dictatorships in DR Congo for decades through peaceful means but never made it to power.

The peace agreement helped set up a power-sharing government, which includes former rebel groups, but the UPDS is not part of the transitional administration.

The party is led by veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi, who headed the opposition under former President Mobutu and they are boycotting the voter registration process.

Officials say it might take at least four months for the estimated 28 million voters to be registered in the vast country.

Lack of progress in the peace process and mistrust between the parties and government, along with poor infrastructure, mean that elections remain a distant prospect, our correspondent says.

UN Peacekeepers Clear Area of Militia Members in Eastern DR of Congo

UN News Service, June 28, 2005

United Nations peacekeeping troops undertook a successful cordon-and-search operation in the Ituri district of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) yesterday, two days after the transit sites for ex-combatants were closed down, and cleared the designated area of militia members, the UN mission said today.

Under heavy weapons fire, the soldiers from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Morocco, with Indian air support, forced members of the Ituri Patriotic Resistance Front (FRPI) from their hiding-place in Medu, 25 kilometres south of Bunia, the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) said.

The operation was aimed at dislodging the militia members and then disarming them, MONUC's military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Thierry Provendier, said.

Horrible: Never see like that - Killed for the Gold

The New York-based pressure group Human Rights Watch has published a damning report about the exploitation of the rich gold fields which lie in the conflict zones in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It says ethnic militias, armed Congolese factions, the governments of neighbouring countries and international companies all turn a blind eye to the most appalling brutality in their scramble for gold

This report is about gold, and about greed.

It is absolutely no coincidence that some of the bitterest fighting in the DR Congo conflict and some of the most abominable treatment of civilians has taken place near Bunia in Ituri District, the site of one of Africa's richest goldfields.

Ugandan and Rwandan troops and a whole range of armed factions and militias fought over the area.

One local resident told Human Rights Watch: "Every time there was a change of armed group, the first thing they did was start digging for gold."

Miners criticised

This report details what happened during the conflict - rape, summary executions, ethnic killings and forced labour in the mines.

There was a complete disregard of safety standards, with miners even being ordered to demolish the rock pillars holding up the roof of one mine to get at the gold in the rock. Around 100 miners were killed when the mine collapsed.

The authors of the report accept that some commanders, and Ugandan and Rwandan army officers, did from time to time try to restrain some of the worst excesses of the local militias, but says no-one has ever been prosecuted or held responsible for any of the abuses and massacres.

The report also criticises one of Africa's best-known mining companies.

Ashanti Goldfields - which later became AngloGold Ashanti - got its mining concession for Mongbwalu from the government in Kinshasa.

But it started to work there when the area was outside government control, and in the hands of a particularly brutal armed group called the FNI.

The company denies that it had any working relationship with the FNI, but did admit to Human Rights Watch that on one occasion it paid the group $8,000 (£4,400) - under duress, it said, when the FNI threatened the safety of its staff and assets.

Human Rights Watch says the decision by AngloGold Ashanti to work in a context of violence and conflict put the company "on the thin edge of ethical and responsible business".

'Tainted gold'

In the view of the authors, everyone who benefited from this free-for-all in the goldfields was complicit in the abuse.

It points out the profits made by Uganda, which exported nearly $60m worth of gold in 2002.

Yet Uganda only produced $25,000 worth of gold itself that year, and recorded no legal imports.

Human Rights Watch says gold smuggled out of DR Congo pays no taxes and duties and brings almost no benefit to the Congolese population.

Most of that gold - "tainted gold" according to Human Rights Watch - ends up in Switzerland, far away from the miserable and violent conditions in which it was produced.

They say that it is the chain of Congolese middlemen, Ugandan traders and international companies which together provide the revenue stream which buys the weapons to prolong the suffering in north-eastern DR Congo

WHO KILLED HERMAS MUPOLO?

Born in Democratic Republic of Congo in 1963.

After his Degree in Sociology at University in Congo(Lubumbashi), He went to continue his studies in Geneva University in Switzerland to learn Town Planning.

After the Master Degree He decides to go back home to rebuilt the country.

He was working with Government and United Nations project of Mobilisation and Disarmament of Child Soldier, Facilitate of Unification of the Army and Restore Peace after many years of War in Congo.

Hermas died Yesterday 8^th April 2005 around 7.30 pm after assassination at the Petrol station in Kinshasa Town Area, near he was living.

After many shot in air, armed group shot him inside the Petrol Station’s Shop.

Hermas was Christian, married father of 4, his wife is also Sociology by profession.

Hermas’ Family is in the dangerous situation.

The human rights organisation demand investigations about this case and others who was killed.

Adsad Team

DR Congo parliament adopts new constitution14/05/2005

KINSHASA, May 13 (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo's national assembly on Friday adopted the country's draft constitution as part of a process aimed at restoring stability in the central African nation.

The text, which will later be put to a national referendum, was adopted with 348 deputies voting for it and five against, with eight abstentions among the 361 deputies present.

The constitution, which has already been approved by the DRC senate, gives the president the authority to appoint and remove from office the prime minister, to dissolve the assembly, and to legislate by decree.

The constitution seeks to lay the bases of a democratic regime in which there will be free elections for the first time in 40 years.There will be a large degree of decentralisation in a unitary state with a semi-presidential regime.

Its adoption was a precondition for legislation making it possible to set a date for general elections.

The draft replaces a transitional constitution which emerged from a peace deal reached in Pretoria in December 2002 by Congolese politicians. This provided for a transition period following a civil war lasting almost five years (1998-2003) which drew in half a dozen neighbouring states and caused, directly or indirectly, some three million deaths.

The terms of the new constitution provide for the election by universal suffrage of a president for a five year termm renewable once.

The minimum age for a presidential candidate is 30, opening the way for the current president, Joseph Kabila, 33, to run.

The govermment will "define the nation's policy acting in concert with the president."

The DRC will be split into 26 provinces instead of the present 11. This is seen as a concession to supporters of a greater degree of federalisation.

The lower house introduced a number of amendments to the senate version, limiting presidential power and abolishing the death penalty.

International observers had warned that an earlier draft gave the president too much power and gave the parliament insufficient ability to hold him to account.

The version adopted Friday is aimed at appeasing the European Union, chief source of the DRC's funding, which would be unhappy with a text that did not take account of its financial support and advice.

Under the 2002 agreement, the post-war transition period was supposed to end in June with the first free and democratic elections in the country for 40 years.

But the transition agreement permits a delay of six months for polls to be held and the independent electoral commission has asked for such a postponement.

DR Congo president, visiting volatile east, attends ecumenical event Sun Oct 17, 5:02
KISANGANI, DR Congo (AFP) - Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) (DRC) President Joseph Kabila attended an ecumenical ceremony during his landmark visit to the troubled east of this vast central African country.

DR Congo's Kabila to make first ever trip to troubled east of country Thu Oct 7,10:41 AM

KINSHASA (AFP) - Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) President Joseph Kabila said he would travel to the country's formerly rebel-held and still restive east next week, his first trip there since coming to power in 2001.

Mon Aug 9, 9:55 AM
By Finbarr O'Reilly

WALIKALE, Congo (Reuters) - On the mud wall of an abandoned thatched hut in the Congolese jungle town of Walikale, the words "Stop, Please" are scrawled in white chalk.

Failed coup bid deals fresh blow to fragile DR Congo peace process

KINSHASA (AFP) - The shaky peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites), the vast central African country emerging from a war that left 2.5 million dead, looked even more fragile Friday after a failed coup against President Joseph Kabila.

Crowds Attack U.N. Compounds in Three Congo Cities

Thu Jun 3, 4:57 AM
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Thousands of angry protesters attacked U.N. compounds in at least three cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) on Thursday as demonstrations swept the country over fighting in its volatile east, U.N. staff said.

U.N. Military Chief of Staff Colonel Clive Mantell told Reuters crowds of civilians attacked U.N. offices in the central town of Kindu and the southern mining center of Lubumbashi.

U.N. staff said compound guards shot and killed two looters who attacked a supply warehouse in Kinshasa, and protesters were trying to enter a compound in the northeastern city of Kisangani.

Rwanda Warns Congo Against 'Genocide' in Bukavu

Thu Jun 3, 4:57 AM
By Robert Walker

BUKAVU, Congo (Reuters) - Rwanda said on Thursday any attempt by the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) to target Tutsis in their effort to regain control of the eastern town of Bukavu would amount to "ethnic cleansing or genocide."

Congolese President Joseph Kabila accused Rwanda of helping renegade soldiers seize Bukavu and said Congo's army was being mobilized to retake control.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande told Reuters in Kigali that Kabila had a right to retake the town but he said the international community should intervene if that military effort was seen as targeting one tribal group.

"Such an action would amount to ethnic cleansing or genocide, Rwanda is part of the international community and would definitely play its role in opposing genocide," he said.

For the first time in nearly a week there was calm on Thursday in the eastern Congo town at the center of a battle that has sparked fears of a resumption of war between the two countries. There were reports of looting, but no shooting.

Civilians looted two barges loaded with 300 tonnes of food aid on Wednesday, said Ndeley Agbaw, head of the World Food Program office in Bukavu.

Former rebel fighters from the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma, the biggest rebel faction during the Democratic Republic of Congo's five-year war which was officially declared over last year, remained in control of the town one day after seizing it.

There were no signs of Congolese army troops on the streets, still littered with broken glass from a week of fighting. Bukavu was largely deserted except for fortified vehicles speeding through town filled with renegade soldiers, kitted out with brand new uniforms and guns.

Local residents remained indoors and aid workers were confined to their compounds.

But in the capital Kinshasa, about 2,000 students were heading to the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeepers armed with stones and tires, after attacking the U.N. mission there on Wednesday, furious that the United Nations (news - web sites) let Bukavu fall.

Even before Kabila's comments, analysts said the insurgency threatened to derail the peace process in Congo, where a transitional government is struggling to restore central administration after the devastating war.

Under a 2003 agreement, former rebel fighters are supposed to be incorporated into a new national army, but some RCD-Goma commanders have refused to take up their posts or fallen out with rival government army chiefs.

After taking control of Bukavu, the commander of the renegade troops said his troops were fighting to protect their fellow Banyamulenge tribesmen -- Congolese ethnic Tutsis who have long complained of attacks and killings by security forces.

Some 2,500 have fled to Rwanda since fighting started. At least 65 people have been killed since then.

"We must make sure that the Banyamulenge are safe in Bukavu," the commander, Laurent Nkunda, told reporters.

But a statement issued after a government meeting in Kinshasa, Kabila called the protection of the Banyamulenge "a ploy by Rwanda to enter Congo."

He blamed the crisis on Kigali.

"It's an aggression against our country by Rwandans who control the town of Bukavu. We have decided to mobilize our resources and men and finances to defend ourselves," he said on state television.

Muligande said Kabila's allegations were a face-saving effort occasioned by the shame of losing Bukavu to "rebel soldiers within the Congolese army."

He said U.N. peacekeepers were in Bukavu "and they can attest that there is no single Rwandan soldier in there. There is no single Rwandan soldier anywhere in (Congo)."

Sebastien Lapierre, a spokesman for the United Nations mission (MONUC) in Bukavu, said he could not confirm the presence of Rwandan troops in the town.

About 1,060 U.N. peacekeepers are deployed in and around Bukavu, while the regular Congolese army is thought to have some 1,000 soldiers on the ground. Colonel Clive Mantell, MONUC's chief of staff, said Nkunda may have up to 4,000 soldiers. (Additional reporting by Finbarr O'Reilly in Kinshasa and Mary Kimani in Kigali).

Volcano near DR Congo-Rwanda border erupting since Saturday

Tue 11th May 2004

KIGALI (AFP) - The Nyamulagira volcano, in the far east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) near the Rwandan border, has been erupting since the weekend, forcing people to flee their homes, but military movements have prevented access to the site, officials said.

"Nyamulagira began erupting Saturday at 5:48 am (0348 GMT)," vulcanologist Celestin Kasereka told AFP in the Rwandan capital Kigali by telephone from Goma, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the volcano.

An officer stationed in the region who asked not to be named added: "It began Saturday. There are people who are fleeing their homes and herds of livestock that have been evacuated."

Several battalions of Rwandan rebels -- who include former militiamen held responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda -- have taken positions in recent months in the dense forests of the region where they have clashed with DRC forces.

Kasereka said the area, where rebels are hiding out in forests at the foot of the volcano, was off limits to experts and aid agencies.

"The UN and local administrative authorities say we shouldn't go there because there are lots of movements (of rebels and government troops)," he said.

"So far most of the activity has been concentrated in the main crater. A fissure opened on the north-northwest, and several cones formed. All of it (the fissure) faces the (nature) reserve and people say clouds of ash are falling towards Kichanga," Kasereka said, referring to a village some 40 kilometers northwest of the volcano.

Military sources in the region said the eruption had dislocated some of the rebels.

Nyamulagira, which erupts at least once every two years, has never threatened Goma, which was devastated by another volcano closer by, Nyiragongo, in January 2002.

UN Troops Kill 10 Militiamen in Eastern Congo

Fri 7th May 2004

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers killed 10 ethnic Lendu militiamen who tried to ambush them Friday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites)'s volatile northeastern province of Ituri, the U.N. said.

Two Bangladeshi peacekeepers were injured in the fighting, which highlights the continued unrest in Ituri, where militiamen from the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups have clashed repeatedly.

Fighting between the two groups in the mineral-rich region has killed an estimated 50,000 people since 1999.

The peacekeepers had been on a routine patrol when they were attacked by fighters from the Lendu FNI faction near Kombokabo, 16 miles southwest of Bunia, the capital of Ituri, the U.N. said in a statement.

Nepalese troops and an attack helicopter were sent as reinforcements and the militia group fled after an unknown number of their men were also injured, the U.N. said.

Almost half of the 10,800 soldiers in Congo's U.N. force are based in Ituri, but they have been unable to deploy as widely in the region as they had hoped due to continued attacks.

The clashes come days before leaders of all Ituri factions are expected in the capital Kinshasa for talks with the government about their inclusion into the process meant to guide the country to democracy after a war that ended in late 2002.

Angola: Congolese Migrants Face Brutal Body Searches

Soldiers Abuse Migrants in Expulsion Drive, Probe Body Cavities for Diamonds

(New York, April 23, 2004) The Angolan government must stop its military forces from conducting brutal body searches, beatings and rapes of Congolese migrant workers in northern Angola, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since early April, tens of thousands of migrant workers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been subjected to brutal physical abuse as part of an operation conducted by Angolan soldiers to expel them from the diamond-rich border province of Lunda Norte. Angolan authorities claim that they are repatriating Congolese and other workers who have been illegally mining diamonds in northern Angola.  
 
Congolese migrants returning to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) describe the abuses and public humiliation they have endured in Angolan towns such as Luremo and Cafunfo where Angolan soldiers searching for diamonds have forced them to undergo public strip searches. The widespread searches include degrading vaginal and anal searches, beatings and the looting of their goods. Some of those refusing searches have been raped or arbitrarily detained.  
 
“The Angolan government must immediately stop its soldiers from carrying out brutal abuses against Congolese migrant workers,” said Peter Takirumbudde, Executive Director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. “If these workers are illegal migrants, the authorities need to follow proper legal procedures that respect the rights and dignity of the individual.”  
 
Humanitarian organizations have expressed particular concern about the health risks linked to the manner in which the body searches have been carried out. Those conducting the searches appear to be using one plastic bag or glove for multiple inspections rarely dipping it in disinfectant. Such procedures could increase the risk of transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.  
 
In the past three weeks, at least 20,000 Congolese migrant workers have been forcefully expelled from Angola. This is in addition to earlier expulsion that started in December last year. The United Nations estimates that some 80,000 to 100,000 Congolese civilians have been or are in the process of being expelled from Angola to the DRC.  

UN military observer shot dead in DR Congo's Ituri region

Thu Feb 12, 5:19 PM

KIGALI (AFP) - A Kenyan military observer working with the United Nations (news - web sites) Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) (DRC) was shot dead in the increasingly volatile northeastern region of Ituri, a UN spokesman told AFP.

Kabila calls for new partnership between Belgium and DR Congo

Tue Feb 10, 2:20 PM ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Visiting President Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) called for a radical change in ties with Belgium, the former colonial power long seen in his country as a harsh oppressor.