A/HRC/10/59 page 15 reports, at least 25 defenders fled the CNDP offensive and are now living as internally displaced persons in North Kivu or asylum-seekers in Uganda. Others are reportedly in hiding in the Rutshuru area. They all fear to return. Some of these defenders suffered human rights abuses during their flight, and some of their relatives were reportedly executed or abducted because of their human rights activities. 47. In July 2008, in Kitshanga, Masisi territory, human rights defenders providing medical care and rehabilitation of torture and rape victims were accused by CNDP leaders of informing the international community on the incidence of rape in their area of control. These leaders further attempted to take away confidential medical registers. 48. In the Province Orientale, church workers who denounced violations committed by LRA troops and sheltered the civilian population were assaulted in the Dungu-Doruma area. 49. Following the resumption of fighting in North Kivu and the Province Orientale in October 2008, student demonstrations, reportedly instigated by local authorities, took place in several cities against the MONUC. Human rights defenders who denounced the manipulation of students by local authorities in Kisangani were accused of being “anti-patriotic”. 50. In South Kivu, a draft bill on the protection of human rights defenders was introduced into the Provincial Parliament by Deputy Ngongo and will be examined by the relevant committee of the legislative chamber in the course of the next months. With European Union funds, MONUC has also operated a protection programme for witnesses and human rights defenders in 11 provinces, mainly in the east of the country. 51. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, having received an invitation from the Government to carry out a fact-finding mission, expects to undertake such a mission in 2009. 5. Children and armed conflict 52. Information, verified through the country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting in the framework of Security Council resolution 1612 (2005), showed a general decrease in the number of allegations of grave violations against children from June 2007 to September 2008 in the DRC.23 However, children remained highly vulnerable in areas of ongoing conflict such as Ituri and the Kivus. Any modest protection gains that may have been registered through 2007-2008 are now being obliterated as a result of the renewal of hostilities in the east of the DRC. 53. All the parties to the conflict are committing grave violations against children such as the killing and maiming of children and as mentioned, rape and other grave sexual violence. Perpetrators include armed elements of the remaining Mayi Mayi groups, CNDP, FLDR, LRA, and other armed elements, as well as members of the Congolese security forces.24 23 See S/2008/693. 24 Ibid., para. 16.