Tackling the DR Congo crisis

I am supporting Amnesty International's call for action to avert the continuing crisis facing the DR Congo.

That means welcoming the commitment that Gordon Brown has made to support a request put to the UN Security Council by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to add a further 3,000 soldiers to the 17,000 strong force currently stationed in the DRC.

It also means urging the UK to encourage other members of the UN Security Council to also offer their support by the time they next meet to discuss the deployment of peacekeepers later this month.

In particular it means urging the UK and other Security Council members to act and agree to:

1. Urgently reinforce MONUC peacekeeping contingents in North-Kivu province and in the Ituri and Haut-Uélé districts of Orientale province· Urge all parties to the conflict to ensure that humanitarian aid agencies are not hindered in their work to provide aid to displaced people,

2.Press the governments of the DRC and Rwanda to refrain from providing moral or material support to armed groups operating in eastern DRC. · Assert that justice and an end to impunity must now have a central place in the search for durable peace in the Great Lakes Region.

Please join the campaign and encourage Government action on this by visiting: www.amnesty.org.uk