UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council in a report Wednesday political and peace-building progress has been made in the Congo.
However, he added, "establishing respect for human rights remains a major challenge," referring to continuing massacres and rapes in the Congo, the former Zaire, in Central Africa.
The U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has created an Electoral Assistance Unit to coordinate international support for elections to be held within the mandated two years after the transitional government was formed earlier this year.
The 19-page report report said the unit has helped the Congo's Independent Electoral Commission develop an electoral road map.
Annan's report also pointed up the problems caused by the lack of infrastructure in a river-laced nation the size of Western Europe.
The report said there were massive violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, "including massacres, summary executions, forced disappearances, abductions, arbitrary arrests, rape and other forms of sexual violence and torture, have continued unabated despite political progress at the national level."
