SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO APPEALS FOR PROTECTION OF CIVILIAN POPULATION

19.08.02

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mrs. Iulia Motoc, has appealed to the principal leaders of the Hemas and Lendus ethnic communities, as well as to armed groups which are operating in the province of Ituri, to protect the civilian population in the area, especially women and children.
The Special Rapporteur strongly condemned the violations of human rights which are being carried out by the warring parties, including massacres of civilians, summary executions, forced disappearances, abductions, violations of physical integrity, rapes, pillaging and inhuman and degrading treatment.
Mrs. Motoc notes that the poor conflict management has further widened the gap between the two communities.
The Special Rapporteur recalled that the peace agreement, signed on 30 July 2002 between Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, under the aegis of South African President Thabo Mbeki, was a step forward on the path towards peace, reconciliation and the restoration of the respect of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as in the Central African region.
Mrs. Motoc underlined that the peace agreement could not have any effect on the ground without the cessation of hostilities. She called on the ethnic communities and the armed groups to lay down their weapons, to put an end to attacks, to express their support for the peace process, and to work with the United Nations to ensure a favourable climate for the end of hostilities.
The Special Rapporteur called on the Government to take a more active role in the search for a durable and acceptable solution to the ethnic conflict in Ituri.
Mrs. Motoc reaffirmed that negotiations are the only way to end the conflict and she called on the leaders of the ethic communities and the armed groups concerned to end the sufferance of the civilian population in Ituri and to allow them to find peace.



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