Advocacy group says "slow-motion holocaust" unfolding

Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group, said on Monday that "a slow-motion holocaust" was unfolding in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The group said the emerging picture of the security situation in the east was "a tapestry of pain for the Congolese people, who are at the mercy of armed groups who steal crops, murder civilians, rape women, and capture children with impunity".

On a recent assessment mission to the area, the group said its members discovered, directly and indirectly, isolated incidents of rape used as a war tactic by the Mayi-Mayi in Shabunda to prevent women from accessing their fields; children unable to receive vaccinations because mothers in Katanga Province had no clothing to wear in public; men able to work only at night due to a lack of clothing; widespread child prostitution and sex slavery; and the pillaging of fields and stealing of crops by all of the armed groups in the area.

The group said it could not recommend a massive external intervention in the Congo crisis, because the political will necessary to end the war was lacking at the international and regional levels. It added that the east of the country, where needs were greatest, was neglected.

The efforts of the international community appeared "feeble and ineffective", the group said, and were dwarfed by the scale of the suffering they were intended to mitigate.

Much of the violence in the east, which has increased in recent months, derived directly from the collapse of the state, the group said, was "totally devoid of a political or strategic rationale". The breakdown in the village economy was forcing young boys and men to enlist in the army, "where they are not paid or fed, but at least they get a gun". Refugee International described much of the violence as "banditry", which simply allows the soldiers to survive. RI statement www.refintl.org/cgi-bin/ri/index