Over three million have perished since 1998 in Congo and the people of Ituri fear genocide, writes Seán Love
While Iraq has dominated foreign news coverage for the last several months, a human rights crisis of staggering proportions has been unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - and Amnesty has real concerns that mass killings on a Rwandan genocide scale are imminent.
Over three million have perished since 1998 in the tragic war ravaging DRC. In Ituri, a small province in the east of the country with a population of four million, 50,000 have been killed in the conflict and more than half a million have been displaced. And this is set to escalate dramatically if the international community does not act immediately. It is not a hi-tech conflict with heat-seeking missiles and cluster bombs. It is characterised by mass killings with bows and arrows, spears, axes and machetes.
Amnesty has received reports, affirmed by the investigation of a UN team into atrocities committed around the town of Mambasa in just one week last October, which reveal that there were 117 cases of summary executions, 65 cases of rape including of children, torture, and illegal arrests. A number of victims were executed, mutilated, and cannibalised. We know the identities of some of the women and children who suffered this appalling fate.
The United Nations Observation Mission in Congo (MONUC) is totally under-resourced and ineffective, and has been unable to protect civilians adequately. The Security Council is currently discussing the potential reinforcement of MONUC, and the nature and mandate of a possible rapid reaction force. Ireland must do whatever it can - including offering troops - to push the Security Council for an immediate deployment of a rapid reaction force to protect civilians in Ituri, pending agreement on the expansion and strengthening of MONUC's mandate.
What is happening in Ituri is part of a wider, complex conflict waged in the DRC since August 1998, in which the government forces of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi and their armed proxies have fought against the DRC government (supported by Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia), against other assorted armed political groups, and sometimes between themselves. Currently there is no political authority in Ituri - the DRC government is itself unable or unwilling to maintain law and order. Civilians are being threatened by a range of armed militias, organised on ethnic lines.
Ituri is an area of considerable natural wealth, with large deposits of gold, diamonds, oil and other precious minerals. The competition for control of these resources by combatant forces of the surrounding countries and their proxies has been the major factor in the crisis. Foreign multinationals are also significant benefactors of this natural wealth.
Ituri is a critical test of the Security Council's commitment to prevent mass killings. Tens of thousands of people have fled the town of Bunia in the region, and opposing Hema and Lendu ethnic militia groups remain fully armed and ready to attack again. The rapid reaction force's mandate must include the maintenance of law and order and to protect civilians in Ituri, to locate and protect those civilians who have fled outside the town, and to ensure humanitarian assistance can reach civilian populations in need.
The scale of what has happened is breathtaking, but the truth is that without immediate action it is likely to get suddenly much worse. The conflict has progressively drawn in more and more ethnic groups and is spreading.
Deliveries of humanitarian aid to ethnic groups considered as "rival" have been obstructed by combatants, leading to the deaths of countless civilians in desperate need.
All of the Congolese armed political groups and militias involved in Ituri use child soldiers, some as young as 10.
Amnesty has heard that the Ugandan military, which has regularly switched sides in the conflict to protect its own interests, has regularly ordered local communities to provide children, girls as well as boys, to serve as soldiers. Three months ago, a Ugandan military leader reportedly decreed that "each family in the area under its control must contribute to the war effort by providing a cow, money, or a child" for its army.
Uganda holds sway in the Ituri region of DRC, and the Irish Government has good connections with the Ugandan government through its Ireland Aid programme. There is an obligation on the Irish Government to use its influence on Ugandan President Museveni to help end the massive human rights violations taking place.
We are on the precipice of a major human rights tragedy and the international community - not least Ireland - must play its part in ensuring that a rapid reaction force operating under a UN mandate is sent straight away to Ituri. It's impossible to know how many thousands of lives the UN will save if it immediately sends troops to the region, but we've had a clear glimpse of what will happen if it doesn't.
• Sean Love is director of Amnesty International's Irish section