The U.N. Organization Mission in Congo (MONUC) should immediately send more military and civilian observers to the strife-torn Ituri province in northeastern Congo, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The latest flare-up of the deadly interethnic conflict between Hemas and Lendus has resulted in hundreds of civilian killings and the displacement of thousands.
From the onset of the conflict in 1999 to the current spiral of killings, leadership disputes within the splinter Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML) and manipulation by the occupying Uganda army have combined to stoke the violence, Human Rights Watch said.
To dissuade the RCD-ML and Ugandans from causing more harm to unprotected civilians, and thus help in mitigating the conflict, the letter recommended that, under the terms of its current mandate, MONUC should send more military and civilian observers to the region to monitor the behavior of militia forces on the ground. Given the rapidly deteriorating situation, Human Rights Watch also called on the office of the Secretary-General and the Security Council to increase political pressure on all parties to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement so the governmental actors will more likely insist that local forces under their sway also adopt the necessary measures to end abuses against civilians.
