MASS rape, brutal killings and widespread torture - these are just some of the horrors that the refugees fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo will escape. Some of the world’s gravest humanitarian and human rights crises can be found within the borders of this African nation where an estimated 31,000 die every month as a result of conflict. Armed political groups and militia are at the centre of the ill-treatment, abductions, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions and other abuses that have gone on for decades. A small number of refugees have been offered the chance of a new life by North Lanarkshire Council, and it’s assistant chief executive Mary Castles said: “North Lanarkshire is the fourth-largest local authority in Scotland. If we can’t do this for the most deprived people in the world, where else will they go? “With a population of 323,000 in North Lanarkshire, 60 to 70 people is a very small number. There are compelling passionate reasons for getting involved in this project. Refugees include victims of rape and torture, people who have lost family to violence and those at risk of deportation.” The latest Amnesty International report on the Democratic Republic of Congo reveals that insecurity, ethnic tension and human rights abuses continue, including unlawful killings, rape, torture and the recruitment and use of child soldiers. According to the International Rescue Committee, an estimated 1000 people from the war-scarred civilian population died every day last year as a result of conflict. Survivors of human rights abuses had little or no access to medical care. Around 2.3 million civilians remained displaced by the end of 2004. Many were cut off from humanitarian aid, and in some areas armed groups refused relief workers access, attacked aid deliveries, looted stocks of food aid or commandeered relief agencies’ vehicles. Bemma Donkoh is the newly-appointed United Nations High Council for Refugees representative in the UK and believes people in North Lanarkshire can have a positive part to play in helping people escape from this African conflict, and called on them to welcome the refugees. She said: “Protracted refugee situations waste lives by perpetuating poverty and despair. Scots can play a key role in addressing this cycle by working with the government and UNHCR to welcome more exiles and helping them to integrate.” The refugees will arrive here in February of next year and North Lanarkshire Council defended itself for being the first local authority in Scotland to take part in the joint UN and UK Home Office resettlement programme. Mary Castles added: “If you’re asking why the Home Office needs local authorities to take part in Gateway, it’s not international government that gives people services, it’s local authorities, health boards and so on. “You’ve seen things on television, you know what the camps are like, some of them are the size of Edinburgh. There are compelling passionate circumstances. They are all living in very poor circumstances, some for years, in refugee camps. “Some people are born in these camps and never get out of them.” The Democratic Republic of Congo - formerly known as Zaire - gained independence from Belgium in 1960. Following five years of political instability General Joseph Mobutu came to power in an army coup and remained largely unchallenged throughout the next two decades. Moves towards democracy in the early 1990s did not succeed in removing him from power, but in 1996 dissident groups supported by Rwanda and Uganda rose in revolt and established a new government in 1997. Conflict continued to affect the country and it descended into a violent civil war soon after, which was finally resolved in 2003 at the cost of over three million lives. Despite the peace process, high levels of insecurity and human rights abuse continue, with unlawful killings, violence against women and torture still widespread. | 
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