DRC: Ending the nightmare

The international community must compel leaders of the transition government to place political will behind the transition agenda, and hold Rwanda and Uganda to their commitments to support peace in Congo. In addition, a regime of individually-targeted sanctions should be developed and implemented by donor countries against Congolese political leaders and others who violate peace accords or continue participating in the plunder of Congo’s resources. These are two recommendations of a report by a delegation of human rights and peacekeeping experts from American non-governmental organisations that visited the DRC from July 25 to August 4, 2003. The report found that Congo’s transition process is complicated by: widespread impunity for atrocities perpetrated during the war; the continuing violence - and prospect of violence - in Ituri and the Kivu provinces; the flow of arms and military support that sustains militias; and the continuing presence of Congolese and foreign armed groups, primarily in the east.