IRELAND: The Government must be prepared to commit Irish troops to a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a former chief of staff with the Defence Forces said yesterday. Kitty Holland reports.
Lieut Gen Gerry McMahon, speaking at the publication of Amnesty International's annual report, also called on the Government to use its influence with the DRC's neighbour, Uganda, and within the European Union and the United Nations to bring an end to fighting in the central African country, which has claimed three million lives since 1998.
"The international community's silence has to stop," said Lieut Gen McMahon, who has extensive peace-keeping experience.
The main area of fighting is in the north-eastern Ituri region, about the size of Ireland and with a similar population, which has seen 50,000 people killed in the last four years and half a million displaced.
"It is a very confusing situation where you have involved Uganda, Rwanda, the DRC government, five different political groupings, each with their own militia, with huge human rights abuses perpetrated on an innocent population," he said.
Mr Colm Ó Cuanacháin of Amnesty in Ireland said the signposts in the DRC were the same as those during the lead-up to Rwanda's genocide.