Military

DATE=02/21/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N/CONGO (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-299894

BYLINE=LIS SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations says nearly three-million internally displaced people in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo are living under precarious and destitute conditions. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports that representatives of nine U-N aid agencies, who made a two-week assessment mission to the area, say the needs of the people are immense.

TEXT: The U-N agencies say many of the two-point-seven-million homeless people in the eastern Congo have been repeatedly displaced because of rebel fighting. The U-N says North Kivu and Orientale Province have been hardest hit.

In the last six months, one-half-million people have fled these areas. The leader of the U-N mission, Guillermo Bettocchi, says millions are living in sheer terror. He says the civilian population is being deliberately targeted by rebel groups as a strategy of war.

Mr. Bettocchi says most are victims of looting, kidnapping, killings, extortions and other human rights abuses.

/// BETTOCCHI ACT ///

In one commune alone, the commune of Uvira, women's organizations have reported five-thousand cases of rape since October last year. This means that there is an average of 40 cases of rape every day, all committed by armed elements and men in uniform, with a sign of cruelty, like rapes committed in the presence of relatives and family members.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Bettocchi says the real number of rapes is probably much higher, because many go unreported.

He also says large numbers of children, some as young as eight-years-old, are forced to serve as soldiers.

Another member of the mission, senior World Food Program official Claude Jibidar, says four years of fighting among rebel groups in eastern Congo have completely wrecked the region. He says roads do not exist.

/// JIBIDAR ACT // OPT ACT ///

Apart from the towns or the areas that are 50 kilometers within the borders, all the rest of the country has to be accessed by air, which immediately represents a lot of resources (for aid agencies). But, for the moment, there is no other solution, either because of insecurity or because there is no infrastructure.

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Early this year, the United Nations aid agencies appealed for two-hundred-68-million dollars to carry out humanitarian operations in Eastern Congo. So far, no pledges have been received.

U-N officials acknowledge that the Congo has become one of the world's forgotten crises. (Signed)

NEB/LS/ALW/FC/TW