OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, DC, Dec 17 (OneWorld) - Renewed fighting between army troops and rebel forces in the eastern province of North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is worsening displacement among civilians in the area and leading to forced recruitment of displaced people, including children, as fighters.

Antonio Guterres, head of the UN High Commission for Refugees, denounced this practice Sunday after touring refugee camps in North Kivu, where close to 20 per cent of the population has been displaced due to conflict.

"Members of armed groups as well as members of the national army go into the camps," Guterres said, adding: "There is recruitment of young people in the camps. This is not acceptable." Last week the UN denounced incursions by fighters into schools to recruit children.

Fighting in the two eastern provinces of the DRC, North and South Kivu, has intensified in recent weeks as government troops and 4,500 UN peacekeepers joined forces to uproot armed insurgents led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda.

Nkunda was identified last week by the UN Mission to the DRC, known by the acronym MONUC, as one of those most responsible for forcibly recruiting child soldiers.

But Nkunda is seen by locals as the protector of Congolese Tutsis in a region bordering Rwanda and heavily populated by Rwandans who fled that country in 1994. The situation is complicated by the presence in eastern Congo of Rwandan groups such as the Interhamwe, which perpetrated some of the worst offenses against Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide.

Despite warnings of the offensive against Nkunda planned for early December, many civilians in North Kivu chose not to depart because they feared attacks by anti-Tutsi forces, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Now they are caught in the cross-fire, vulnerable to the violence and crimes committed against civilians by most armed groups active in eastern Congo.

Already, over the past year more than 400,000 Congolese have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict. North Kivu province alone has some 800,000 displaced persons. The recent fighting is said to have displaced another 60,000.

Guterres pointed out that the situation places tremendous strain on the capacity of humanitarian groups such as UN office on refugees (UNHRC), responsible for housing, feeding, and protecting the displaced against violence by armed groups.

A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), led by the humanitarian group CARE, issued a statement last week deploring particularly the sexual violence taking place in the area. Noting over a recent 12-month period UNICEF and local groups had identified 13,000 rape survivors -- of whom 4,200 were children -- the NGOs called rape in eastern Congo a "crime against humanity."

The statement charged that sexual violence is being used by all warring parties as "a tactic of war, to humiliate and demoralize individuals, destroy families and terrorize communities."

Along with the physical and emotional impact of rape, affected women and girls face an elevated risk of HIV infection. HIV prevalence among the population of eastern Congo is estimated at above 5 percent.

The NGOs called on the Congolese government, other armed groups, and the UN to provide better protection for civilians, especially women and girls. MONUC is charged with helping the government to stabilize the country after a decade of war. While much of the country has achieved stability, fighting in the resource-rich and ethnically diverse eastern provinces continues unabated.

MONUC's mandate expires December 31, and human rights groups are pressing for a new, stronger mandate that stresses the protection of civilians.

"Security Council members must ensure the blue helmets in Congo have a strong mandate to protect vulnerable civilians and the means to carry it through," said HRW's Anneke Van Woudenberg last week.

The DRC is the third-largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, with a total population of 55 million. Some 4 million have died during the past 10 years, as conflict, often related to control of the country's mineral wealth, persisted.

An international task force formed Sunday will seek new, more effective means to implement a peace plan agreed to last month in Nairobi, Kenya, that would disarm all foreign fighting forces in the country and seal off the border with Rwanda.

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