Stats tell the dangers of life in eastern Congo

DAKAR, Senegal — Two years after Congo held its first free elections in half a century, life is as dangerous as ever for many in the east despite the presence of one of the largest U.N. peacekeeping forces in the world, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Since the supposed end of a 1998-2002 war, "peace, social reconstruction, justice and reconciliation remain distant dreams in Congo," said the report, "Living With Fear," based on rare polling data carried out by the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Payson Center for International Development at Tulane University.

The report is based on 2,620 interviews in 2007 in the three provinces hardest hit by violence — North and South Kivu, and Ituri, while 1,133 others were completed in the capital, Kinshasa, and the central city of Kisangani.

Government officials in Congo could not immediately be reached for comment.

Though the country is rich in diamonds, gold and other minerals, most of Congo's people remain poor and desperate.

According to the report: "Fewer than half the people surveyed felt safe sleeping, walking at night in their village or meeting strangers."

In the three worst-hit eastern provinces, about 80 percent of respondents said they had been displaced at least three times in the last 15 years.

About 61 percent of those polled in the east said they witnessed the violent death of a family member or friend, while 60 percent said one more of their household members had disappeared and 34 percent said they themselves had been abducted for more than a week. More than half reported being forced to work or being enslaved by armed groups, while more than a third said they had been tortured.