LONDON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.N. Security Council sanctions on Congolese warlords puts pressure on militias accused of human rights abuses and child conscription, London said.
The U.N. Security Council froze the assets and banned travel for Congolese Lt. Col. Innocent Zimurinda and senior leaders of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, for allegedly recruiting child soldiers, orchestrating mass rapes, summary executions of child soldiers and general human-rights abuses.
Henry Bellingham, the British minister for Africa, said the sanctions showed the international community was serious about confronting human rights abuses and the recruitment of child soldiers.
"This action will also increase pressure on the FDLR militia who are already weakened by Congolese military operations and the arrests of its leaders in Europe," he said in a statement.
A spokesman for the United Nations said that a human rights team found that hundreds of women were gang-raped in late July and early August by members of the FDLR and a local militia called Mai-Mai.
U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area have been supporting an effort to beat the FDLR, who are linked to the Rwandan genocides in 1994.
Human Rights Watch called on the leaders of the European Union, the United States and African Union to consider a mixed tribunal to bring justice to the victims of Congolese violence.
