Smith Human Rights Mission Reinforces U.S. Support of Critical Kivus Peace Conference
Goma - U.S. Rep Chris Smith launching a four-day human rights mission that will focus on combating human trafficking, child soldiers and sexual violence while at the same time underscoring US commitment to critical peace negotiations due to convene on January 7, 2008.
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The US has both a humanitarian and a national security interest in helping them attain stability and security in this critical region of Africa. I’m here to reinforce American support for the peace conference and emphasize our long-term commitment to securing universal human rights as the most effective means to obtaining a genuine and lasting peace.
The US is expected to play a significant role in the January 7th conference scheduled to take place in the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma where insurgent fighting has intensified after the 2006 elections. Rebel forces as well as the government military have recently committed some of the worst human rights abuses in the world in this region of Congo. UN peacekeepers in the region have also come under fire for sexually abusing and trafficking Congolese women and young girls in 2004.
As Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, Smith convened a hearing on the sex trafficking abuse issue in Congo and he remains concerned that the UN must continue to aggressively to address this abuse.
To my dismay and anger I have learned on this mission that the UN is planning on cutting back and downgrading their investigative effort to combat human trafficking by UN personnel, Smith said. That is unacceptable and I will be working to restore the anti-trafficking investigative positions here in Congo.
How much money is needed to be figuratively "re-booted"
Just how much cash is needed, since 2007's $22,631,483 still wasn't enough :confused:
Other Humanitarian Funding to Democratic Republic of Congo 2007
Table H: List of commitments/contributions and pledges to projects not listed in the Appeal as of 06-January-2008
Warlord's Delegation at Congo Talks
By EDDY ISANGO, Associated Press Writer
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GOMA, Congo (AP) -- One of Congo's fiercest warlords sent a delegation on Sunday to meet with members of the government on the first day of peace talks in the provincial outpost of Goma.
The delegation of 10 rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda arrived in Goma under the guard of U.N. troops. The rebels declared a cease-fire last week.
A spokesman for the delegation said its No. 1 concern is the continued presence in Congo of the extremist Hutu militia FDLR, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda.
U.N. Faults Congo Army for Violence
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Congolese government forces summarily executed civilians and members of a politician’s private militia and used excessive force during clashes with the militia last year, according to a preliminary report by United Nations human rights investigators.
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The United Nations panel had investigated clashes in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, in March between Congolese forces and security guards of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former warlord who was runner-up in 2006 presidential elections.
In a statement released Friday in Geneva, the United Nations human rights commissioner’s office said the government killed at least 300 people last March.
The Congo defense minister, Chikez Diemu, spoke for the government.
“There are means of dealing with such serious issues, and not through the media,” Mr. Diemu said from this far eastern city in North Kivu Province where officials were gathering for peace talks with another warlord.
Congolese officials said the clashes started when Mr. Bemba’s troops took over a part of Kinshasa. Mr. Bemba, who once controlled an army of 20,000 but had only a battalion of roughly 600 men at the time, said his men were defending him from an assassination attempt.