Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 10:14 AM
Subject: AI Secretary General appeal to UN on Ituri, DRC
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AFR 62/022/2002 (Public)
News Service No: 183
Embargo Date: 17 October 2002 00:01 GMT
Democratic Republic of Congo: UN must take urgent steps to stop the
escalation of ethnic killings
In an open letter to the United Nations Security Council, Irene Khan,
Secretary General of Amnesty International, called for urgent attention to
be given to the escalation of human rights violations in the Ituri region
of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Security
Council will meet today to consider the new report of the Secretary
General on the United Nations Organisation Mission in the DRC (MONUC).
In her letter Ms Khan writes: "There have been mass killings and
targeted rapes based on ethnic identity. Extremist calls for "ethnically
pure towns and villages" have increasingly been spread. Extremists who
were once on the margins of the ethnic groups are now in leading
positions. As extreme hatred is escalating, Amnesty International fears
that deliberate incitement could lead to the possibility of genocide."
The intensification of ethnic killings and extremist behaviours in
Ituri is such that the international community needs to take urgent
action. In particular Amnesty International calls for the Security Council
to increase the numbers of observers in the region in order to dissuade
further attacks against civilians and to ensure that attacks against
civilians are investigated and monitored.
Amnesty International strongly supports the possibility of
training a civilian police force to ensure the safety of the local
populations, as suggested by the UN Special Representative to the DRC. In
particular, Amnesty International urges the Security Council to fully
implement the mandate of the MONUC and take the necessary action to
protect both the civilian population and its personnel.
The organization receives consistent reports of large-scale
killings of unarmed civilians that are carried out, ordered and condoned
by leaders using ethnic affiliations to acquire or maintain economic and
political power. As a result, armed clashes between members of the Hema
and Lendu ethnic groups has left an estimated 50,000, mainly civilian,
dead since June 1999, and forced around 500,000 people to flee, with
60,000 displaced in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, alone.
Aside from the deepening violence directed against civilian
communities, the repeated political divisions and ethnic-based violence
have had a disastrous impact on international humanitarian agencies
operating in the region. Certain agencies have been deliberately targeted
for threats, obstruction and even killings.
Since 1998 the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) have occupied
the mineral-rich province of Ituri in the north-eastern part of the DRC.
Members of the UPDF have supported rival armed political groups, allowing
violence between different Congolese ethnic groups to escalate, while at
the same time instigating wide-spread human rights violations.
Amnesty International believes that since 1999, members of the
UPDF have taken part in attacks on unarmed civilians and have committed
atrocities in the context of the
armed conflict. Given that the UPDF has not only failed to protect
unarmed civilians but has also played an active part in violations of
human rights, Amnesty International believes that it is the international
community's responsibility to prevent the deterioration of the situation.
