Amnesty International has called on the Government to bring its influence to bear in order end the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Speaking at the launch today of Amnesty's annual report documenting human rights abuses around the world, Mr Colm Ó Cuanacháin, Secretary General of Amnesty's Irish section, said the current situation in the Congo resembled that of pre-genocide Rwanda in 1994.
He said for the first time in its history, Amnesty International had taken the dramatic step of calling for armed intervention in a conflict in order to prevent a repeat of what happened in Rwanda.
Mr Jean-Pierre Eyanga of the Congo Solidarity Group questioned what the international community's reaction would be if Congo was a country in Europe, Latin America or Asia.
Mr Eyanga said the problem "is that it [Congo] has a huge reserve of natural resources. It is rich in soil and subsoil and that is why it is being looted."
The war has been complicated by the involvement of armies and militias from neighbouring countries and Mr Eyanga called on the Irish Government to use its influence over the Ugandan government which, he said, was manipulating various elements in order to maintain its own presence in the country.
General Gerry McMahon, a former Chief of Staff of the Irish Army and veteran of the UN force in Congo, called on the Government to commit Irish troops to a military interventionist force which would attempt to stop the fighting.
The United Nations is considering sending a peacekeeping force to the region and UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno visited Uganda yesterday in an attempt to build support for the intervention of an international force.
Much of the fighting in Congo has taken place in the Ituri region of the DR Congo. Some 50,000 people have died in the last 4 years alone and some 500,000 people have been made homeless as a result.
