New Slam for rights record of DR Congo

The American human rights group, Human Rights Watch, has called on western donors to make aid for the Democratic Republic of Congo conditional on an improvement in its human rights record.

In a statement released ahead of a meeting in Brussels of the World Bank on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch urged donors to continue the policy adopted during the rule of President Mobutu: funding non-governmental organisations while avoiding government bank accounts.

The group says the authorities in Kinshasa have made little progress towards establishing a democratic state: it says they engage in brutal and arbitrary arrests of those they regard as political opponents and defenders of human rights.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service