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RIGHTS-AFRICA: Security Council Urged to Protect Civilians

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 2008 (IPS) - As diplomats prepare to leave for Africa where the U.N. Security Council is due to meet next week, calls from activists are growing for strong international action to address the worsening human rights situation in many parts of the continent.

"Killings, rape, abduction, and displacement are going on right now," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, an influential U.S.-based group that tracks rights violations across the world.

Despite their appreciation for the U.N.'s peace-building efforts, Gagnon and other activists who work with the world body strongly believe that in Africa's war zones, no peace initiative can produce enduring results unless the Security Council intervenes to protect civilians.

"The Security Council's itinerary takes it to five nations in which millions of people are suffering the effects of armed conflict," Gagnon added in a statement. "The Council should address these issues head-on."

The 15-member Council is due to visit Sudan, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya from Jun. 1 to Jun. 10. During their trip to Africa, the Council members will discuss a number of crucial issues relating to peace, security, and development facing the continent.

A U.N. official told IPS Wednesday that the Council's Africa trip was "particularly significant" because in Sudan there were renewed hostilities between the north and the south, and in the Darfur region, deployment of U.N. peacekeepers continues to face obstacles.

"In Côte d'Ivoire, elections are coming, and the disarmament process is not complete," said Yves Sorokobi, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Somalia needs to show its engagement in the reconciliation process."

In response to a question about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the spokesperson added that the Council wanted to make sure that recent agreements between the government and armed groups would hold.

But above all, he said, the Council is concerned about the plight of millions of refugees and internally displaced people who have fallen victim to the ongoing armed conflicts in several countries.

Though activists acknowledge that in the last eight months, much progress has been made towards establishing peace in eastern Congo, they say that serious human rights abuses are still occurring in the DRC.

In an open letter released Wednesday, HRW urged the Security Council to take "concrete action" to tackle the humanitarian and human rights crisis in eastern Congo, and to ask all parties to the Goma agreement to uphold their commitments to respect human rights.

The rights watchdog also called for the Council to deplore the alleged attacks by the Sudanese army and its allied militia against innocent civilians in West Darfur that took place some three months ago, and the "ongoing indiscriminate and deliberate attacks" on civilians in other areas.

HRW said it wants the Council to insist that the government fully account for the whereabouts of more than 100 people who were held after a rebel attack on the capital city of Khartoum on May 10. The group also demanded the surrender of the two suspects wanted for more than a year by the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague.

"The Council should insist on accountability for crimes committed during Khartoum's scorched-earth campaign," said Richard Dicker, director of HRW's International Justice Programme.

Regarding the situation in Côte d'Ivoire, HRW warned that upcoming elections could overshadow the issue of impunity for rights violations. It demanded immediate disclosure of a report submitted to the Security Council by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights some three and half years ago, in December 2004.

"Justice cannot be set aside," said HRW's Dicker. "Ending impunity is critical to prospects for peace and stability."

In expressing their concerns about the continued use of child soldiers, activists urged the Chadian government to ban the use of child soldiers, and prosecute those who commit crimes against children

On Somalia, another hotspot, the rights group suggested the Council take measures to end attacks on aid workers, amid calls for the establishment of an international commission to investigate human rights abuses.

"Somalia is one of the world's starkest and most neglected tragedies," said Gagnon. "Yet the international community's response has been myopic at best. The Council should use this moment to correct that."

Gagnon seems equally perturbed by reports suggesting another wave of violence has been unleashed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that has been at war the Ugandan government for the past 16 years.

During the conflict, the LRA became notorious for abducting children to be used as soldiers or porters. The militant organisation claims to be fighting for the rights of the Acholi ethnic group, but been widely accused by rights groups of killing innocent civilians, raping women, looting stores, and burning schools.

The group, according to Refugees International, a U.S.-based humanitarian think tank, is believed to have kidnapped over 30,000 children since 1986. Some of its top leaders are currently facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

Gagnon and other rights activists said they want the Council to order a thorough investigation into the LRA's attacks on civilians in the Central African Republic and southern Sudan.