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Democratic Republic of Congo

: I was going to refer to the international arrest warrants that my hon. Friend mentions. It is extremely important that there is a good likelihood that those who have committed atrocities will be arrested and punished by the international authorities. We can learn from our experience in other parts of the world. Atrocities have clearly taken place on a massive scale in the DRC. I shall draw my remarks to a conclusion because I want to give the Minister plenty of time to tell us what the Government are going to do about the dreadful situation in the DRC, but I should like to concentrate on the elections for a moment. Let us hope that the 16,000 peacekeepers can be deployed to ensure free and fair elections. There is quite good press coverage in the DRC at present. Let us hope that the press can operate freely and fairly during the elections, so that we and the citizens of the DRC can be thoroughly informed of what is going on in them. Following the elections—which, as has been said, will be quite inclusive—the rule of law needs to be properly established. One of the worst things that that we have heard about during the debate is the treatment of children, not only their forcible recruitment into the various militias, but the lives of street children who have to live other than in their own homes at night and who can be picked up, taken to police stations and tortured there. There are many similar child-related issues—sorcery has already been mentioned. Perhaps the most tragic thing in the world is human rights abuses against children, because they are even more defenceless than some adults. All of us—particularly the Government through aid and the NGOs—have a great deal of work to do to help street children. One issue that has not been mentioned is the number of people in prison. Often, a prison sentence in the DRC is a death sentence. The prisons are overfull and people are there without proper trial. Following the elections, we will be looking for re-establishment of the rule of law, a proper justice system and a proper penal system. This has been an illuminating debate. The Government can do a great deal. Other colleagues have said that we should put pressure on the DRC's neighbours, Rwanda and Uganda, which are after all friends and allies of ours, to sort out their militias. That will not be easy, particularly given the situation in Uganda with the Lord's Resistance Army. However, I cannot understand why the world has stood by and let the Lord's Resistance Army operate in the way that it has, particularly with the recruitment of child soldiers. We look forward very much to what the Minister has to say about DRC. No doubt he will bring a great solution to that dreadfully afflicted country.