Five million dead from violent conflict in last decade

A recent Oxfam report says that some five million people have died from violent conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa in the last decade, including about 800,000 people in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and 2.5 million in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 1998.

The report, "Africa at the Crossroads", says that "the shockingly high death toll" in eastern DRC continues today. While many of the deaths could be attributed to indirect effects of war, such as malnutrition and disease, thousands were the result of direct violence, Oxfam said.

In 2001, it was estimated that one in every eight households in eastern DRC had experienced a violent death since the start of the war there, and that 40 percent of the victims were women and children, the organisation reported.

"As the UN Secretary-General recently reported, human rights violations and disappearances continue with almost total impunity in the DRC." To date, no single individual has been held to account before a national or international tribunal for these crimes in the DRC.

This culture of impunity has had a significant impact in that if there were no justice, local populations became despondent or might cause further violence by taking matters into their own hands, Oxfam said. The search for justice would therefore have to be tackled at two levels: firstly, a forum where serious war crimes and systematic human rights abuses were dealt with, sending out a clear signal that there would be retribution for such crimes; secondly, the culture of widespread criminal activity would also have to be tackled by improving local justice systems.

It was vital that these solutions were Africa-led, said Oxfam, and that justice would always have to take account of the specific case.

The organisation advocated that African leaders - with the help of northern governments - should strengthen the African Commission on Human Rights, which would include enhanced funding, the appointment of independent and impartial commissioners, and the timely provision of reports by all African member states.

Furthermore, Oxfam urged that all African governments ratify the statue of the International Criminal Court as soon as possible.

To access the full report, see www.oxfam.org.uk/policy/papers/africacrossroads