§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the latest information they have received, from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or other sources, about the number of Rwandans and Burundians respectively who are missing in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo; and what steps they will take, with other European states, to persuade President Kabila to allow the United Nations Secretary-General's investigators to visit the region and investigate allegations of massacres.
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham DeanThe latest figures available from the UNHCR suggest that 155,000 people remain unaccounted for throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Twenty-five thousand refugees are known to be residing in the country, but it is not known what proportion of those are Rwandans and Burundians. We and our EU partners continue to press President Kabila to allow the UN Secretary-General's human rights enquiry team to proceed without preconditions. We have made clear to President Kabila that our future relationship with his 271WA Government will depend on progress on this issue, and towards democratisation, respect for human rights and the rule of law. At the World Bank preliminary meeting on the Democratic Republic of Congo on 5 September, we and other donors stressed that progress in the field of human rights, and especially on the UN enquiry team, is a central factor in enabling us to engage in more concrete discussions about aid.