AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE

AI Index: POL 30/002/2003 (Public)
News Service No: 132
2 June 2003

As G8 leaders gather in Evian, France, Amnesty International urges them to
make good on their promises, made at last year's summit, "to promote peace
and security in Africa."

"Tough action by the G8 leaders can liberate the people of Africa from the
devastating effects of conflict. If the G8 are serious about change in
Africa, they must act on the sources of conflict -- the trade in arms and
in natural resources that fuels wars across the continent," Amnesty
International said.

The conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is perhaps the
most horrifying example of the impact on human rights of wars fuelled by a
scramble for resources and enabled by the easy flow of arms.

It is estimated that up to 3 million people have died as a result of the
conflict in the DRC since 1998. Hundreds of thousands of Congolese
civilians have been tortured and killed during fighting driven by the
desire of the warring parties to secure control of natural resources.
Thousands of others have died due to malnutrition and lack of access to
humanitarian assistance after being forced to flee their homes. The region
of Ituri, north-east DRC, has seen the worst of the violence: there have
been mass killings and targeted rapes based on ethnic identity, by members
of different ethnic groups, yielding a spiral of deadly reprisal attacks.

It looks increasingly likely that an international force will be dispatched
to Ituri, a move Amnesty International had called for and now welcomes. The
organisation emphasises that the rapid reaction force should have a robust
mandate to ensure the maintenance of law and order and to protect civilians
in Bunia, to locate and protect those civilians who have fled outside the
town, and to ensure that humanitarian assistance can reach civilian
populations in need.

"But solutions to the crisis in eastern DRC needed to be based on
prevention and not just on cure. The G8 must take decisive action to break
the links between the trade in arms, the trade in natural resources and
conflicts like that in the DRC."

The first decisive step that the G8 should take is to initiate a worldwide
arms trade treaty with legally enforceable national export controls. Such a
treaty would serve to turn off the flow of arms to human rights abusers and
make it no longer so easy for companies, dealers and brokers - often with
the collusion of government officials - to violate United Nations arms
embargoes.

Amnesty International is also calling on the G8 governments to publicly
support the work of the UN Sub-commission on the draft Norms on the
Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations. Companies based in the G8
should be held to account for overseas operations which may be contributing
to human rights violations. Governments should strengthen national
legislation to ensure companies respect human rights wherever they are
operating.

"Only if the G8 takes powerful steps in the areas of the trade in arms and
the accountability of companies involved in the trade in natural resources
will their stated intention to increase peace and security in Africa really
make a difference," the organisation concluded.

For more information and actions on the G8 summit, visit our G8 pages -
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/g82003-index-eng

Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web:
http://www.amnesty.org

For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org