Subject: AI appeal to President Bush
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AFR 62/023/2003 (Public)
News Service No: 166
10 July 2003
Uganda: President Bush, while in Africa consider the DRC
As US President George W. Bush starts his inaugural visit to Uganda on
Friday, Amnesty International is urging him to back calls for a truly
robust international military force capable of protecting civilians in
the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
President Bush should also insist that Uganda cease all
forms of support to armed groups in eastern DRC known to have committed
human rights abuses.
The conflict in DRC - a conflict that has been, in
part,
waged at Uganda's instigation - has so far cost the lives of more than
three million Congolese, particularly in eastern areas of the country.
Four years ago almost to this day, the protagonists of
the
conflict in the DRC agreed a cease-fire in Lusaka, Zambia. One month
later, a UN military mission, MONUC, was deployed to monitor the
implementation of the agreement.
"The commitments made by the belligerents at Lusaka in
July 1999 to protect human rights and to cease all acts of violence
against civilians have since been comprehensively reneged on. The
intervening years have brought nothing but sorrow to the civilian
population of the DRC, especially in the east of the country. Civilians
in
this region have suffered a succession of atrocities, including mass
killings, torture and rape.
"With only a restricted mandate, and without the
personnel
or resources needed to stop the killings, MONUC has largely been
relegated
to a mere observer to this cruelty."
MONUC's mandate is currently under review by the UN
Security Council. On 7 July, the US Ambassador to the UN, Richard S
Williamson, told the Security Council that "the international community
has been too slow and too timid to respond to [the] grievous crimes"
committed in the course of the conflict.
Amnesty International is calling on the US Government to
use its influence as a Permanent Member of the Security Council to:
Confer a clear obligation on MONUC troops to protect civilians, and give
MONUC the increased number of troops and the resources and equipment it
needs to fulfil its mandate, particularly with regard to the protection
of
civilians.
Expand MONUC's deployment geographically so that it can play an
effective
role in protecting civilians throughout eastern DRC.
Establish a team of MONUC human rights investigators to document and
publicly report on violations of international human rights and
humanitarian law in the DRC, with a view to the future prosecution of
the
perpetrators.
Amnesty International also calls on President Bush, in
his
discussions with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, to press the Ugandan
Government to end all military and related support to armed groups in
eastern DRC, to cooperate fully with any international investigations
into
human rights violations committed in the course of the conflict, and to
bring to justice Ugandan army personnel or other individuals on Ugandan
territory suspected of committing human rights violations in DRC.
Background
The Lusaka cease-fire agreement was signed on 10 July 1999.
To date, both Uganda and Rwanda, another major
protagonist
of the conflict, have benefited from a generally lenient US attitude
towards their involvement in DRC, which has included mass human rights
violations by their own forces as well as by armed political groups they
have created and armed. Ugandan and Rwandese government forces have
largely withdrawn from the DRC, although both countries continue to
stoke
the conflict in the east through their direction of and support to a
host
of armed political groups.
In May 2003, following a series of ethnically-motivated
killings in the Ituri region of north-eastern DRC, some of which took
place under the eyes of MONUC troops, the UN Security Council authorized
the dispatch of an Interim Emergency Multinational Force, under French
command, to Bunia, the major town in Ituri. The IEMF will be withdrawn
on
1 September, after which an enlarged MONUC force is expected to take on
the role of providing security in the region.
Public Document
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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web:
http://www.amnesty.org
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