Military

DATE=7/7/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

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

NUMBER=2-305164

BYLINE=JENNY BADNER

DATELINE=NEW YORK

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Acting U-N High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, is urging the international community to help stop atrociites in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Correspondent Jenny Badner has more from the United Nations.

TEXT: Mr. Ramcharan describes systematic human rights violations in more than a dozen towns throughout the Congo. He points to the brutal massacres of hundreds of civilians, including women and children. In some cases, women were burned alive. In others, he says, civilians' were hacked with machetes, axes, spears and arrows.

/// FIRST RAMCHARAN ACT ///

We are talking about no ordinary killings in the course of conflicts. We are talking about events that shock the human conscience.

/// END ACT ///

Some of the localities are near Bunia in the eastern region where a French-led multi-national force recently arrived to halt the atrocities committed against civilians in inter-ethnic violence. Other towns are in the far northwestern part of the country.

A U-N team investigated the violations by speaking to witnesses and visiting mass graves.

Mr. Ramcharan says one of the worst massacres occurred on April third in the town of Drodro.

/// SECOND RAMCHARAN ACT ///

The most shocking violation of human rights reported by witnesses include some 408 cases of summary executions. More than 80 cases of persons seriously wounded or mutilated and numerous accounts of stores and shops looted.

/// END ACT ///

The violence is part of a chain of inter-ethnic conflicts between armed militias and rivalries among dissident armed groups and rebel factions.

Mr. Ramcharan says that a lack of security and minimal cooperation has hindered the U-N investigation. He called on the Security Council to devote greater attention to the human rights violations throughout the Congo and to end the culture of impunity.

/// SECOND RAMCHARAN ACT / /

The threat of justice to those who commit serious human rights violations is one of the means that we have at our disposal and one of the means that we must be willing to use.

/// END ACT ///

In an open debate on the human rights report, several Security Council members discussed the importance of a political solution carried out by a transitional government in the Congo. Meanwhile, the Security Council is expected to consider bolstering the military strength of the existing U-N peacekeeping force in the war-torn country. (SIGNED)

NEB/NYC/JB/BJS/RH/FC