President Joseph Kabila should take immediate steps to ensure that his government and security forces practice what he promises the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Amnesty International urged today as reports show an alarming increase in arbitrary arrests and detentions.

This week, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, told his countrymen in his New Year address that 2002 would be a year of peace and reconciliation.

A reconstituted expert panel set up by the UN Security Council to examine the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is expected to reassemble in late January 2002 for an additional six-month period, UN News reported on Friday.

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo confirmed on Monday that fighting has taken place between rival armed opposition groups in and around Isiro and Buta, in the northeast of the country.

An estimated 13,000 people have been affected by heavy rains and flooding in Mbandaka, in the northwestern province of Equateur in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Wednesday.

A plane carrying at least two senior members of a rebel movement operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo crashed on Friday in Geti, Ituri province, a spokesman for the movement announced on Radio Candip.

A UN panel on the exploitation of the Democratic Republic of Congo's natural resources told the UN Security Council on Friday that there was a need for a plan to rebuild state institutions, and that this process should be linked to an international conference on peace and development in Africa's Great Lakes region.

Frédéric Kitengie was arrested in Kinshasa on 5 December by National Intelligence Agency (ANR)agents. Frédéric Kitengie was interrogated about an interview he did with Moïse Katumbi, president of the Congolese football team, who is also the brother of Katebe Katoto, a declared candidate for the presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has yet to be released.

The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday joined a declaration by other African countries to take action to reduce death rates as a result of poor hygiene, and that called for the issue of disease-contaminated water to be put at the centre of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the UN Environment Programme reported.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) appealed to the international community on Monday for US $5 million to support the inter-Congolese dialogue, due to be held in South Africa in early 2002.

Twenty-five journalists have been imprisoned because of their work under Joseph Kabila, according to Journaliste en Danger 2001 annual report.

According to AFP (agence France Presse), the Democratic Republic of Congo is going to ratify the Rome Statute as stated by the Minister of Justice Ngele Masudi on December 6, 2001 in Kinshasa. The Minister of Human Rights , Ntumba Luaba, added, "It is in the best interest of the DRC to ratify the Rome Statute for the ICC not only because it is a victim of an unjustified aggression, but also because it is a State of Law which has accepted the jurisdiction of the International Court."

A Belgian commission of inquiry on the Great Lakes convened on Friday in Brussels to investigate alleged involvement of Belgian and non-Belgian companies in the illegal trade of natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and to explore measures to halt such activities from fueling war in the region.

Mr. José Mafwata Shamba, Secretary General of the Rassemblement National Populaire (RNP) party, was arrested on October 4 and subesequently detained. He has not been allowed access either to legal counsel or to his family since his detention began, giving rise to fears that he may be being subjected to ill-treatment or torture, which are prevalent in the DEMIAP's jails and have even lead to deaths in detention.

The main aim of the EU troika’s visit to Central Africa, lead by Belgian foreign minister, Louis Michel is to examine the peace progress achieved in the different States and to examine the possibility of establishing a Great Lakes conference under the auspices of the EU and UN.

Reaction to the addendum of the April report by the UN panel of experts on the illegal exploitation of wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has, so far, been mixed. DRC Information Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi said his country rejected any suggestion that Angola, Namibia, or Zimbabwe - allies to the Kinshasa government since war erupted in August 1998 - were looting the resources of the Congo, saying that these were "countries that came to our rescue in this war of aggression".

Despite recent instability in Bangui, capital of the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that the situation in Zongo, across the Bangui river in the northwestern Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remained "calm", with no major new influx of refugees reported.

The failure of the inter-Congolese dialogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October was foreseeable, according to a new report from the International Crisis Group, 'The Inter-Congolese Dialogue: Political Negotiation or a Game of Bluff?', that analyses the impasse in the peace process.

Declaring that the plunder of Congo's riches "continues unabated," a UN-appointed panel called for a moratorium Monday on the purchase of diamonds, gold and other resources from areas controlled by foreign forces or rebel groups.

The head of a Congolese non-governmental organization from Uvira has been detained and severely beaten by the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) Human Rights Watch has said.