UK unveils plan to double its funding to rebuild the Congo's road network

The UK will double its funding for a road-building in the Democratic Republic of Congo to improve access to some of the world's most remote regions, UK Minister for Trade and Development Gareth Thomas announced today while on a visit.

The DRC has one of the least developed roads networks in the world - 95% of the DRC's 152,400 km of roads are effectively just paths, making it difficult to get food, medicine and trade routes open. Only one out of ten of the provincial capitals are easily accessible by road.

This severely hampers development prospects and has been cited as a reason the country is so poor. Of the 60 million citizens, around 45 million live on less than 50p a day. One in seven children die before their fifth birthday, and every day nearly 100 Congolese mothers die in childbirth.

During his visit to the country, Africa Minister Gareth Thomas announced the Department for International Development would double its funding for road building programmes from £38 million to £76 million.

The road building programme will bring together the Department for International Development (DFID), the Government of the DRC, the World Bank and other donors to build, and maintain, the country's roads. This is key to helping to promote trade and investment, as well as security.

The 'Pro-Routes' roads programme will:

* Support the DRC Government to open and maintain between 2,500 km and 3,000 km of priority roads;

* Provide better access to social services and markets;

* Help the Government of the DRC to run its own road-building and maintenance programme, and also help it to establish a 'second generation road fund', through tax on petrol and diesel sales;

* Boost the ability of private sector businesses to carry out road maintenance; and

* Develop a forward-thinking road sector strategy which will ensure the continuation of the roads programme, and also set up a wide-ranging environmental and social strategy which will ensure the natural forest of the DRC, and the population, is protected.

Gareth Thomas said: "With an area the size of western Europe, it only has 2,000 km of paved roads, compared with 398,000 km in the UK.

"By doubling the amount of UKaid for the DRC's road building project , ordinary citizens and businesses will get better access not only to medical care and schools, and also to export markets, which will help lift the country out of poverty.

"With the global economic crisis hitting developing countries like the DRC hardest, and 45 million people living on less than 50 pence a day, new roads will bring much-needed new development opportunities for the people of DRC, and help them live in peace and stability."

Studies have shown that in areas where there are no roads, bandits and rebels often commit crimes and then disappear into heavily forested areas to escape justice. Roads allow soldiers and police better access to keep law and order.

Better roads mean small-scale farmers can get their produce to market before it rots or spoils, and also brings down prices in the area by increasing competition from traders, thereby helping the local population.

Problems in getting medical supplies and aid to more remote regions because of poor transport links, leads to more women dying in childbirth, and children dying from preventable diseases.

The DRC is heavily reliant on imports, even on items which it grows or supplies from within its own borders, because exports can be brought in more cheaply.

Aegis calls on Government to adopt Parliament’s recommendations and completely close the ‘impunity gap’ for genocide suspects in UK

In a report released today, the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Human Rights says inconsistencies in the way the UK applies international law have created an “impunity gap” for perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It commends the Government's recent decision to amend to legislation to partially address the problem, but calls for it to close remaining loopholes in the law and to re-establish a specialist war crimes unit to investigate people in the UK who are suspected of such offences.

Under the law as it stands, no-one in the UK can be prosecuted for war crimes in internal armed conflicts, genocide or crimes against humanity committed before 2001. Even if people here are suspected of committing such offences since 2001, they can only be prosecuted if legally resident here, not merely if they are present in the country (for eg., visiting on a student or business visa).

The Aegis Trust worked with MPs and Lord Carlile QC, Lord Falconer QC and Baroness D’Souza to prepare amendments to the Coroners and Criminal Justice Bill which would have closed these loopholes. Tabled in the House of Lords, they triggered the Government’s decision last month to extend jurisdiction of UK courts to prosecute international crimes as far back as 1991.

As the Committee points out, however, this only takes jurisdiction back to the date on which Crimes Against Humanity became recognised as crimes in international law. It argues for jurisdiction on genocide and war crimes in internal armed conflicts to be extended back to the dates on which they were recognised in international law (e.g. 1948 for genocide).

The Committee also supports Aegis’ call for replacement of the ‘residence’ test with a simple ‘presence’ test, so that anyone present on UK soil could be subject to jurisdiction on international crimes, not only those who are legally resident. This is the test used by other common law countries such as Canada, the US, New Zealand, South Africa.

“The Aegis Trust is delighted that the Joint Committee on Human Rights has adopted all of our recommendations for strengthening UK law in this area,” says Aegis’ Head of Campaigns Nick Donovan, whose evidence is quoted in the Committee’s report. “We too commend the Government for the bold progress made last month, and call on it to finish the job by closing remaining legal loopholes which benefit suspected war criminals in the UK.”

In June Aegis published a report that brought together, for the first time, details of people entering the UK who are suspected of international crimes. The report – 'Suspected war criminals and genocidaires in the UK: Proposals to strengthen UK law' – examines 18 cases, including those of suspected genocidaires from Rwanda, alleged torturers from Zimbabwe, Iraq, Liberia and the Congo, and alleged war criminals from Afghanistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. They include such people as a Lieutenant Colonel from KHAD, the Soviet-era Afghan government’s secret police; an alleged Tamil Tiger assassination hit squad driver, and a member of Sierra Leone’s ‘Mosquito’ rebel group, notorious for murder, rape, looting, burning, sexual slavery and forced amputations.

The Joint Committee’s report comes at a time when the workload of the UK Border Agency’s war crimes team is increasing. Several weeks ago, the Government revealed that in the first six months of 2009, recommendations of immigration status refusal following investigation were up four-fold on the preceding four years. Since 2004, there have been 421 cases where immigration action was recommended and 30 cases where the matter was referred was made to the police. How many of these people are currently at large in the UK is unclear.