In the main Academy building of the University of Leiden, Rapenburg 73, the Netherlands, in commemoration of Prof. Mr. B.M. Telders in International Law, who died on 6 April 1945 in concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

Main speaker: P.C. Cammaert, major general of the marines, division commander UN Peacekeeping Force in the Eastern Part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).

ICHI-chairman Caspar ten Dam visited this symposium, and made ICHI known among the speakers and the public during the break and the discussion period after the break. He personally thanked general Cammaert for his forceful approach and his maximal use of the strengthened UN mandate and of his 16,700 troops to curtail and disarm the local militias by force if necessary.

Especially since Cammaert’s appointment in March 2005 the number of atrocities by the militias in Eastern Congo has decreased dramatically; roughly half of all these irregular forces have handed in their weapons as well.

However, general Cammaert did warn during his speech that the demobilisation, demilitarisation en reorientation programmes will fail if these were not shored up by longer term planning, financing and implementation.

Otherwise the more than 12,000 former child soldiers and other former fighters will take up their weapons again so as to secure their livelihood, and to regain a certain ‘stature’ through intimidation and violence against the local civilian population.