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We were working in northern Uganda while the LRA was still creating terror in that region. For 20 years it killed and maimed innocent civilians, displaced more than 1.5 million people and abducted at least 25,000 children, subjecting them to the utmost brutality and forcing them to become child soldiers to fight against the Ugandan army. Eventually, a ceasefire was negotiated for northern Uganda, but the LRA remains a threat to the people of eastern DRC, southern Sudan and parts of the Central African Republic. In Sudan, Human Rights Watch has reported continuing LRA attacks throughout 2009 in central and western Equatoria. October reports confirm this, citing a growing number of abductions by the LRA, including those of children. These attacks have particularly serious implications, since they create fear and instability at a time when the people of southern Sudan face many challenges.
The war instigated by the National Islamic Front regime in 1989 left 2 million dead and 4 million displaced. A comprehensive peace agreement has brought some respite from fighting, but the people are desperately trying to rebuild their shattered land and lives. The CPA also provides for a referendum in which the people of southern Sudan would vote whether to remain part of a united Sudan or to secede. However, there is a fear that the north, which does not want the south to secede, might reignite conflict to prevent the referendum and/or secession. Therefore, there are also great fears among the local people that the LRA might be used for this purpose.
In the DRC itself the LRA is seriously destabilising the fragile peace. The UNHCR released a report on 21 December 2009 that describes how, between September 2008 and June 2009, at least 1,200 people were killed and 1,400 people abducted in an LRA rampage, including some 600 children and 400 women, and at least 230,000 people were displaced. According to a CAFOD field office report, LRA attacks on 17 December in Isiro diocese forced 50,000 people to flee their villages. Reportedly, 30 people were killed, many houses burnt and a number of women abducted.
Numerous military offensives over the past year have failed to bring an end to the LRA's campaign of violence across the Great Lakes region. For example, Operation Lightning Thunder reportedly cost the Government of Uganda £10.5 million sterling. According to the Ugandan Chief of Defence Forces, the operation rescued 195 abductees, but at exceptional civilian cost.
The notorious Christmas massacres were essentially LRA reprisal attacks in response to that operation. In those attacks, 150 Congolese civilians were killed by the LRA on Christmas Day alone and, according to Human Rights Watch, more than 620 people, 160 of whom were children, were killed throughout the operation. Charles Arop, who commanded operations at the time of the Christmas massacre, has subsequently surrendered, and a senior commander, Bok Abudema, known to be second-in-command to Joseph Kony, was reportedly killed by Ugandan forces in the Central African Republic last week. Despite these developments, LRA attacks continue across the region, posing an increasingly destabilising threat.
As has been mentioned, the MONUC mandate specifically calls on regional Governments to co-ordinate efforts to tackle the LRA, strongly encouraging
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Porous borders between the DRC, neighbouring Sudan and other countries, combined with a weak state security sector, allow the LRA to roam and attack civilians freely across these countries. Have Her Majesty's Government made any further representations to Ban Ki-Moon about the creation of a regional political office that would focus specifically on the LRA?
While the LRA requires a targeted military strategy to apprehend its top leaders, there also needs to be increased sensitisation at ground level, allowing members of the LRA, or those who have been captured by it-whether abducted children, women sex slaves or fighters-to return home in safety and security. What further steps are Her Majesty's Government taking with the Government of the DRC and other regional Governments to develop not only military but political and social welfare approaches? Furthermore, what steps have the British Government taken to ensure aid relief for victims, for the rescue and rehabilitation of abductees and for the reconstruction of devastated communities?
In conclusion, I offer two examples of the human reality behind the statistics-the reality of the brutality inflicted by the LRA on its victims. I have talked to many children who have escaped following abduction by the LRA. They have described the horrendous programmes of brutalisation and dehumanisation to which they have been subjected. One girl told me how one day at dawn she was forced to kill another child with a panga and to drink his blood. She said, "I still have nightmares when I remember that terrible dawn when I had to kill my friend, but what could I do? It was him or me". A teenage boy described the fate of his friend who had tried to escape but had been recaptured by LRA soldiers. They staked him out on the ground and the boy to whom I was talking and his friends were forced to cut their friend into pieces. The LRA had also killed the father of this teenager, after he had escaped successfully, as a punishment, so he goes around carrying the burden of guilt for the death of his father. Such unmitigated evil must be recognised and contained, not only for the political danger that it poses to the DRC and Sudan in these difficult days but to bring to justice those who have perpetrated some of the most horrendous crimes against humanity in our contemporary world.
Lord Avebury: My Lords, my noble friend Lord Chidgey has done us an important service in drawing our attention so effectively to the disastrous situation in eastern DRC. It is the first time that we have had a full-scale debate on the subject since November 2008. At that time, the Government were keen to keep Parliament fully informed and proactive on what is the
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The Security Council urges the DRC Government to establish sustainable peace, effectively protect the civilian population, develop security sector institutions that fully respect the rule of law, ensure respect for human rights, put an end to impunity and put an end to the depredation caused by the armed groups. However, is Kabila capable of delivering on this programme, even with massive international help? He has not stopped his own armed forces committing massacres and gross human rights violations. None the less, as we have heard, MONUC continues to operate closely with the DRC military, except where the unit is suspected of having committed grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. Even then, it withdraws support from units only if violations persist. Support for one unit was suspended only after it had killed at least 62, and possibly as many as 270, civilians over the six-month period immediately prior to the suspension of co-operation. Co-operation should be suspended immediately where there are allegations of serious misconduct and resumed only when the unit concerned has been fully exonerated.
One reason for the misconduct is the integration of the CNDP militia commanded, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, said, by Bosco Ntaganda. He is wanted for war crimes but was made a general in the FARDC after he made a deal with Kinshasa a year ago. Will the Minister confirm that President Kabila has been asked repeatedly to arrest Ntaganda and other alleged war criminals? What answers do we get when we raise these matters? The deal with the CNDP was not effective because the rebels kept their own independent command structures, partly on the excuse that the Government had failed to implement the 23 March agreement. The other obvious reason identified by Global Witness, as mentioned by my noble friend and others, was that by signing the agreement the CNDP gained additional access to mining sites in the Kivus, including much of the lucrative trade in cassiterite, the primary ore of tin required in the manufacture of electronic products. What has happened to the new agreement signed at Christmas under which the CNDP would dismantle its roadblocks? Is it going to hand over the areas that it controls, such as Bisie, the location of the largest cassiterite mine in eastern DRC?
All noble Lords have mentioned the control of mineral resources by the armed groups, which provides them with large sums of money to buy weapons and pay their soldiers, partly cancelling out the UN's $1.3 billion attempt to bring peace and security to the eastern DRC. The illicit mining and export of minerals are the engine of what the Security Council describes as,
Its response is for MONUC to support the establishment of trading counters in the Kivus, through which minerals would be traded and taxes levied on the transactions. However, the resolution contains nothing about helping
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The Secretary-General says that the new strategy will include completion of military operations against the LRA, a point eloquently raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Cox. However, as she described, the LRA has killed many people in the past year. Even though it has only 100 members in the DRC, they are said to have murdered more than 1,200 people in 2009 and caused 270,000 to flee from their homes. Operations against the LRA were not successful, partly because of the indiscipline of the units involved. I wonder whether the new strategy might include an element that was dropped from the original plan to embed a MONUC company, if not in every FARDC unit, at least in the reintegrated units where the main problem arises.
The Secretary-General says that the LRA is now a regional threat, extending into the CAR and Sudan, as the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, mentioned, but this is nothing new. Mr Ban wants the mandates of the affected countries to be harmonised, but an even better solution would be a combined operation, with UN logistical support, to arrest Kony and to eliminate the group once and for all.
How can we reconcile the deterioration in the humanitarian situation reported by the UN with its action plan for 2010, which provides for a reduction in support of 14 per cent on the mid-year review of 2009? Is this not a reflection of the current global economic situation rather than the actual needs of the population? There is an appalling legacy of suffering from the brutalities committed last year by government and irregular forces alike, including more than 10,000 cases of sexual violence-again mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Cox-recorded in the Kivus alone. If access to North Kivu is improved, as the visit by Alan Doss presages, the demand for humanitarian services will increase steeply.
Finally, there needs to be a set of end points to which MONUC aspires as part of the April strategy revision, with target dates for their achievement. The DRC will need substantial aid until it controls and is able to tax its huge mineral wealth, which should be one of the objectives. Once it has eliminated the LRA and FDLR and completed the reintegration of the CNDP, the UN military should pack up and go.
Baroness Rawlings: My Lords, as we know, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a vast country with immense economic resources. It is also the site of one of the world's worst ongoing humanitarian crises. It has been described as being in the centre of what could tragically be referred to as Africa's world war. I, too, therefore, thank the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, for introducing a debate on the conflict in eastern Congo and support the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on the African Great Lakes all-party group.
The ongoing, protracted war has claimed 3 million lives at the last estimate, either as a direct result of fighting or because of disease and malnutrition. Continued attacks against civilians are vicious and widespread. Attacks are accompanied by rape and abductions, many of the abductees being made to become sexual slaves or perform forced labour. They often die from their injuries when abused; others are shot or burned to death.
It has been grimly calculated that, for every rebel combatant disarmed during the operations in November 2008 against the FDLR, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses have been burned down and destroyed, and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes. Can Her Majesty's Government say what work the UN is doing to cut off the financing of such rebel groups? Will the Minister update the Committee on the living conditions and situations of the hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced due to the conflicts? Where are they? What action is being taken to make certain that humanitarian assistance for them is being delivered and that further suffering is prevented? How are Her Majesty's Government bolstering the UN's role in Congo so that it can more effectively meet humanitarian needs, reduce the remaining violent conflicts, strengthen security through its police force and generally offer greater protection for these groups?
MONUC was specifically mentioned by noble Lords today. Do Her Majesty's Government believe that it is at full strength, or should it have more troops? Refugees International has said that,
Among other criticisms, it has been remarked that UN,
In fact, FDLR rebels have been able to use vast international networks to bolster their supply of arms and recruit extra soldiers.
How confident are the Government in the UN's new strategy to tackle the conflict in eastern DRC, rather than continuing to provide blanket support for Congolese soldiers? What checks are being made to make certain that these efforts are not being abused? Given that this is a regional conflict, what discussions are HMG having with neighbouring countries about their role in the conflict?
In this very volatile region, of which eastern Congo is the heart, with Uganda on its border, a demarcation exercise is currently taking place over access to oil found in Lake Albert. Given the difficulties that oil has caused and will no doubt continue to cause in the developing world-it has been identified by Professor Paul Collier as "a natural resource curse"-what steps are the Government taking to monitor these events and to make certain that the demarcation takes place according to clear and consensual lines?
The situation in eastern Congo is a humanitarian catastrophe, as we know. It will deteriorate even further if the international community does not strengthen the UN's ability to act on its behalf. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response.
Lord Brett: My Lords, like all noble Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey. I am very grateful to him for bringing this debate before us today and giving us an opportunity to discuss the situation in the DRC. By my calculation, 47 questions have been asked and I doubt whether I shall be able to do them justice in the 12 minutes available to me. However, I have been helped by your Lordships, who have described the human tragedy in the DRC far better than I could and, indeed, far better than my civil servants, who have drafted a speech for me.
My noble friend Lady Kinnock, who is in Brussels today, will be visiting the DRC before the end of the month. I shall ensure that your Lordships' concerns, and indeed suggestions, are brought to her attention, together with the letter that I shall inevitably have to write to cover a number of the questions which have been posed but which I cannot possibly answer in the time available.
As noble Lords have said, there has been widespread concern about the atrocities that continue to be committed not only by some rebel groups-in particular, the FDLR-but also by the Congolese armed forces during Operation Kimia II. We are clear that the situation is unacceptable. Although MONUC and the Congolese army have claimed relative success over the FDLR in the past few months, the humanitarian cost of operations in the region has been unacceptably high, as has been eloquently indicated by your Lordships. We are now moving into the phase of Operation Amani Leo. It has only a five-month mandate but will have a very tight focus: while it will put pressure on the FDLR fighters, it will also strengthen civilian protection.
It is important that lessons from the previous mandate and from the abuse of civilians that has taken place are learnt and that the United Nations, through MONUC, is more effective in avoiding some of the things that have gone on. My brief says that 1.5 million people are internally displaced in eastern DRC, although I think that the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, said that the figure was 2.1 million. What is half a million when we are talking of such numbers? The truth is that it is a tragedy for millions of people. Although some of the armed groups are now operating on a smaller scale-the Lord's Resistance Army, for example-they continue, as has been more than adequately expressed, to commit human rights abuses.
We continue to support humanitarian work in the region. The DfID budget spend in the DRC was £47 million in 2009. Of this, £30 million was contributed to the humanitarian pooled fund, which is available to agencies doing aid work within the area. Here, I would rather try to answer some of the questions that have been raised in different forms by a number of noble Lords than frustrate them by giving facts and figures of which they are fully aware.
The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, asked how we reconcile the fact that we appear to be spending less money while the problem is increasing. The humanitarian action plan budget is set and reviewed mid-year. In 2009, the budget was increased by that review from $831 million to $946 million. While a slight reduction in the overall amount took place in mid-2009, the
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The mandate of MONUC is, as has been said, short-term until the strategic review, which will be dealt with in April. That relates to the operational part of the continuing mandate of MONUC, which is already determined to be for a year from 2010. The troop ceiling remains unchanged at 21,000. That is the assessment of what is required. UN Security Council Resolution 1906, which supports this, mandates a presence for 12 months from May 2010. We hope that a new mandate will complement a period of progress in the DRC, with positive developments in security sector reform and the re-establishment and reintegration of those who will give up arms and come back into the society that we seek to restore. We do not envisage that a drawdown of troops will arise from the review. It will be an opportunity to reconfigure the resources, based on the judgment of the special rapporteur, Alan Doss, on the most effective way of using those resources.
As this is the first debate on this issue since 2008, the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, asked whether we could have such debates periodically. I have not learnt many lessons while I have been in this House, but what I have learnt is that you do not make commitments for debates in the House. That is a matter for the usual channels. There are other opportunities, as have been taken on this occasion, for members of the Opposition to initiate debates, through the Thursday balloted debates and QSDs. However, I will take the request and report it faithfully to the Chief Whip.
The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, also raised the question of the ability of the Kabila Government to deliver on the Security Council's demand to protect civilian populations. Other noble Lords made the point that the state institutions of the DRC do not provide for the strong government that is an essential component for that country to gain for its citizens the kind of freedoms, humanitarian support and lives that they deserve. We are supporting the development of the DRC state institutions. The international community has been focusing on that for some time. We are actively pursuing security sector reform to make sure that those institutions comply with human rights norms. The Government of the DRC have also launched their own initiative to tackle impunity, which, as several noble Lords said, remains an issue.
I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, that there need to be realistic and achievable benchmarks-some way of measuring the way forward. That is what
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The noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, talked about resources and, in particular, helicopters. The contribution that the UK makes to the UN peacekeeping operation will be in the region of $100 million this year. While we have no plans to provide helicopters bilaterally, we understand from MONUC that three troop-contributing countries, of which there are 57 in total, will explore the possibility of providing additional cover.
The noble Lord also raised the question of joint civilian and military operating teams. Again, we think that this is a very important way forward. We agree with all those who have said that there cannot simply be a military solution to the problems of the DRC. It will require a military and political solution. He also asked whether there should be a civilian protection expert group to inquire into and report on the needs. The recent UN system-wide strategy for the protection of civilians in the DRC has been developed by the Protection Cluster and MONUC. The aim of that strategy is to consolidate the protection of civilians, report on responses and improve the current actions to be in line with international human rights and international humanitarian law. This work is a response to the MONUC mandate's requirements to report on this. I believe that there is a greater focus and concern, which is certainly reflected in the Security Council resolution.
MONUC has always been committed to tackling indiscipline and human rights abuses within the Congolese army and will continue to withdraw support from units implicated in the carrying out of atrocities. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, made criticisms that the action was not moving quickly enough and that there had to be atrocities before you could prevent atrocities-if that is not too unkind an interpretation. The Security Council resolution states:
"MONUC military leadership shall confirm, prior to providing any support to such operations that sufficient joint planning has been undertaken, especially regarding the protection of the civilian population".
In practical terms, that means that the support that we are providing is in the form of food, fuel and transport. We will not withdraw humanitarian support in those circumstances. MONUC is working closely with the Congolese army to investigate the human rights abuses of each brigade that MONUC is supporting.
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