Amnesty International calls on regional leaders to act against rights violations

The secretary-general of Amnesty International (AI), Irene Khan, called on UN member states on Friday not to supply any form of military materiel to the Great Lakes region. "Amnesty International calls on UN member states not to engage in arms transfers and supplies of military and police equipment or training to the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo], Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda unless these transfers are subject to the most stringent certification and scrutiny to ensure that the equipment will not be used to perpetrate human rights abuses," she told reporters in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, after leading a high-level AI delegation on a nine-day tour of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. "The UN Security Council must insist on the most scrupulous respect of the arms embargo on eastern DRC. It must put teeth in its resolution by setting up a mechanism to enforce the embargo, and provide [the UN mission in the DRC, known as] MONUC with resources to support this mechanism," she added. During her tour, she had met Rwandan President Paul Kagame and subsequently Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, with each of whom she had discussed the roles of their respective governments in ending grave violations of human rights in eastern DRC, "including massive summary killings of civilians, torture, rape, disappearances, forced displacements and systematic use of rape as weapon of war", she said. In the DRC, Khan had met all four vice-presidents of the national unity government and asked them to give the highest priority to stopping, "urgently and immediately", the horrendous cycle of human rights abuse still prevailing in the east of their country. "While the different factions now in Kinshasa wrangle for power and privilege, people still live in fear of death, plunder and carnage in the Kivus, Ituri and other parts of the country," she said. "In order to gain the confidence of the Congolese people and set a new beginning for this country, the Congolese leaders must take firm steps to stop babies from being mutilated, children from being recruited to fight wars, women from being raped." "Neither national unity nor democracy can be built on the back of abuse and impunity... Those who are suspected of having perpetrated war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide must be investigated, regardless of the position or power they enjoy," Khan said.