110 HRES 795 IH: Condemning the ongoing violence in the U.S. House of Representatives 2007-11-05 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 795 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 5, 2007 Mr. Cooper (for himself, Mr. McGovern, Ms. McCollum of Minnesota, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Lynch, and Ms. Schakowsky) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Condemning the ongoing violence in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and recognizing the threat such violence poses to the overall peace of the Great Lakes region.

Whereas the Democratic Republic of the Congo took the significant step in 2006 of holding the first multi-party, democratic elections since independence in 1960; Whereas since independence, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been consistently troubled by civil and ethnic warfare; Whereas since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 nearly 2,000,000 refugees have fled Rwanda and now reside in the Kivu and Goma regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Whereas since the conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo began in 1994, nearly 4,000,000 people have been killed and more than 3,400,000 displaced as a result of the ongoing and escalating violence; Whereas since 2000 the Mission of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) peacekeeping force has stationed 16,640 troops and 644 military observers, from 49 countries in the DRC to maintain peace between the government and rebel forces; Whereas the United Nations declared 2006 as a make or break point for the region; Whereas General Laurent Nkunda’s rebel faction has operated in the North Kivu region since 2005 in opposition to the Kinshasa government; Whereas forces loyal to General Nkunda have been responsible for the displacement of nearly 120,000 refugees from Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi; Whereas in June 2007, the United Nations proclaimed General Nkunda the single most serious threat to stability in the DR Congo; Whereas on October 16, 2007, President Joseph Kabila gave the forces loyal to General Nkunda 3 weeks to integrate into the national army; Whereas on October 17, 2007, President Joseph Kabila authorized the national army to disarm General Nkunda; Whereas the violence directed at women and girls is unusually extreme, and includes the widespread use of rape as a tool of subjugation; Whereas on October 18, 2007, Amnesty International issued a report accusing state security forces of systematic torture and slaughter of opponents of President Joseph Kabila; Whereas due to its large size and locality in the Great Lakes region, the instability of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo affects the stability of residents in Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi; and Whereas the increase of violence between General Nkunda’s forces and the national army has spread into the Virunga National Park and threatened the safety of the population of mountain gorillas: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)condemns violent attempts to resist the freely elected Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and encourages all parties involved in the conflict to reach a lasting cease-fire; (2)calls on all private militia to disband to end the continuing threat to peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; (3)reaffirms its support for constitutional government, the rule of law, human rights, and democratic processes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and calls upon regional African leaders to support the preservation of a democratic political system in the country; (4)encourages the United States Government to state publicly its strong support for the disarmament and reintegration of forces loyal to General Nkunda into the national army; and (5)condemns the infiltration of soldiers into the Virunga National Forest and the danger it poses to the mountain gorillas.