New York, United States - The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Margot Wallstrom, on Thursday called on Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to investigate allegations of sexual violence and take practical steps to prevent them. The Pan African News Agency (PANA) reports that Wallstrom made the call following reports of women being raped during recent expulsions from Angola to the DRC. ``I urge both governments to do their utmost to stop sexual violence and to protect their populations, particularly women and children,” she said in a statement.

She also stressed the need to bring the perpetrators to justice.

``Key to address sexual violence along the Angola-DRC border is constructive dialogue and cooperation with the Congolese authorities,” the UN official said.

Wallstrom also reiterated that, ``regardless of what the actual number of rapes and other forms of sexual violence along the border may be, one rape is one too many'.

She noted that the practical measures needed include ``a reiteration through the respective chains of command of existing Army and Police Command Orders prohibiting sexual abuse, and reinforcing the commitment for zero tolerance of such violations in Army and Police Codes of Conduct'.

She also called on the Angolan government to grant UN protection staff regular access to detention or holding centres or similar locations, and to facilitate the participation of the UN and the Organization for Migration (IOM) as an observer in the organized expulsions being carried out.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that more than 12,000 Congolese citizens were expelled from Angola between September and December 2010.

OCHA stated that humanitarian assessment missions that visited the areas of arrival in October and November found that many of the individuals had endured ill-treatment and human rights
abuses, including torture.

Also, it said that there were also more than 100 confirmed cases of sexual violence at that time.

Pana 18/03/2011