A/HRC/10/58 page 4 Introduction 1. The human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been of grave concern throughout the period under review. Mass killings, sexual violence and other serious human rights and international humanitarian law violations were perpetrated as conflict resumed in North Kivu in August 2008 and unprecedented attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army of Uganda (LRA) were carried out against civilians in Oriental Province resulting in several hundreds of deaths. The launching in January 2009 of an unprecedented joint military operation by the Forces Armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC) and the Rwandan army to disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Congo put a halt to the ongoing conflict between Government forces and the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP), but raised new concerns about protection of civilians and the issue of accountability being sidelined in the reintegration of CNDP forces - now led by Bosco Ntaganda, an indictee of the International Criminal Court (ICC) - into the FARDC. 2. During the reporting period the fight against impunity made no progress, mainly due to lack of capacity, political will and interference from the authorities. The continued practice of appointing and promoting, among the ranks of the FARDC, human rights violators undermined the fight against impunity and perpetuated the cycle of violence by preserving or enhancing the power of human rights abusers. In the most dramatic setback, the Congolese Government was considering appointing Bosco Ntaganda to a senior position within the FARDC. Despite several requests by the Security Council, most recently in resolution 1856 of 22 December 2008, the Congolese authorities have yet to establish a vetting mechanism to screen senior military and police officers alleged to be responsible for serious human rights violations. 3. While international attention has focused mainly on the conflicts in eastern Congo, the public space for protests and criticism has diminished considerably throughout the country during the reporting period. In spite of relatively recent presidential, national and provincial elections, rather than fostering public debate, central and local authorities have attempted to stifle those critical of their policies. The clashes in Bas-Congo province in February-March 2008 between the Police nationale Congolaise (PNC) and the local politico-religious movement Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK), which caused over 100 deaths, are the most striking examples of such repression. Members of other political groups or parties, such as the Movement de libération du Congo (MLC) have also been the targets of threats, arbitrary arrests followed by incommunicado detention, torture and other forms of intimidation or repression. At the time of writing, an estimated 160 political detainees continue to be kept in pre-trial or illegal detention. 4. Mainly as a result of inadequate wages for law enforcement agents, police and army officers commonly use their position to obtain financial or other benefits by using arbitrary arrests and physical force. Equally underfunded is the management of prisons and detention centers, where the lack of food and health care has led to an alarming number of starvation cases and even more escapes during the reporting period. The judiciary is endowed with similar flaws of underfunding. As a consequence, the judicial system is hampered by corruption and by the interference of external actors such as agents of the executive branch. The lack of an independent and impartial judiciary deprives citizens of a functioning legal or official framework through which to lodge complaints or seek redress.