Governments and United Nations Must Push for Release of 350 People Kidnapped in Central Africa by Lord's Resistance Army, Says Amnesty International

Human Rights Organization Fears that Kidnapped Will Be Used as Sex Slaves and Child Combatants

NEW YORK, April 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Amnesty International today called on the United Nations and governments in Central Africa to take immediate action to secure the release of more than 350 men, women and children thought to have been abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in recent weeks.

"As in Uganda, these people -- including scores of women and children -- are likely to be used as child combatants and sex slaves, and yet none of the governments in the region has done anything to try to secure their release," said Amnesty International.

The abductions took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR) and southern Sudan while the LRA was ostensibly preparing to sign a peace agreement with the Ugandan government. The peace agreement would end more than 20 years of a civil war that has been characterized by war crimes, including abductions and widespread unlawful killings and mutilation of non-combatants.

The governments of Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo -- with the assistance of the United Nations -- must join together to secure the immediate safe release of those kidnapped and bring those responsible to justice, the human rights organization said.

While kidnapped women and girls have been used as sex slaves, men and boys have been forced into combat and forced to commit atrocities, as well as used as porters to carry looted property.

The most recent abductions took place near Obo, a town on the southeastern corner of the CAR, bordering the DRC and Sudan.

"It is dismaying that it appears that the LRA is actually expanding its forced recruiting operations to other countries with vulnerable refugee populations when it is supposed to be negotiating peace with Uganda," said Sarah Milburn, Amnesty International USA country specialist on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The LRA appears to have moved their operations to southern CAR in a bid to avoid the arrest and transfer of their senior commanders to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where they are wanted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Recent information suggests that the fighters have since crossed into the DRC, taking the abductees with them.

Several LRA leaders were charged by the International Criminal Court in 2005 with large scale abductions and other crimes against humanity and war crimes.

There are currently five security forces operating in the CAR -- the CAR Army, EU forces (EUFOR), UN forces (MINURCAT), multinational Central African forces (FOMUC -- Force Multinationale en Centrafrique) and French government forces.

Amnesty International is calling on the United Nations and other forces operating in the area to assist the regional governments to secure the release of those kidnapped.

The organization also called on international peacekeeping and government forces in the region to cooperate to arrest and surrender any person subject to an ICC arrest warrant, including leaders of the LRA.

For more information, please visit: www.amnestyusa.org.

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Source: Amnesty International

CONTACT: Suzanne Trimel of Amnesty International, +1-212-633-4150

Web Site: http://www.amnestyusa.org/

2008-04-22 20:02:09 0342654 PRNEWSWIRE