UN Mediation In DRCongo
Yields Positive Results
The
UN envoy for DRCongo, Olusegun Obasanjo has announced plans to scale back his
regional mediation efforts.
Obasanjo, a former president of
Nigeria, told the UN Security Council that the situation in war-torn eastern
Congo had dramatically improved over the past year.
He said improved ties between Presidents Joseph Kabila of Congo and Paul Kagame
of neighbouring Rwanda had been vital in reducing violence, but admitted some
underlying problems remained.
’’Today ... the situation has
been dramatically transformed,
many refugees were returning home, the Tutsi rebel group had become a
political party and the threat from other armed groups had diminished,’’
Obasanjo said.
Obasanjo said a final report on
the situation would be submitted to an African Union summit in January. He said
himself and fellow mediator, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, would
remain ’on alert’ should their services be needed again. He proposed
turning his support office in Nairobi into a ’listening post.’
Obasanjo was appointed a year
ago after a revolt by Tutsi insurgents caused 250,000 people to be driven
from their homes in eastern Congo, the latest chapter in a conflict that has led
to more than 5 million deaths since 1998.
Obasanjo and Mkapa mediated
peace talks in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, but the breakthrough came when
Rwanda decided to help end the rebellion it had previously been accused of
backing.
A peace deal was signed in
March.
Recurring crisis
Obasanjo, whose official title
is special envoy for the Great Lakes, said it was hard to tell how deep the
rapprochement between Kabila and Kagame really was.
"The slide to war that
threatened the region last year was effectively reversed," he said. "But what we
have successfully treated were only the symptoms, not the underlying ailments
that have led to repeated crises in the region."
One of those ailments was the
weakness of governing institutions and especially the armed forces in Congo, he
said.
Human rights groups say the
Congolese army is almost as lawless as the rebel groups and the United Nations
said this month it was suspending support for some army units accused of
murdering civilians.
Obasanjo nevertheless praised a
UN-backed army operation against a Rwandan Hutu rebel group based in eastern
Congo, despite charges by rights activists that it has prompted savage reprisals
by the group against civilians. He said the campaign was "achieving reasonable
success."
Obasanjo's announcement that he
was winding down his mission comes as the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping
force in Congo is also looking at an eventual exit strategy.
REUTERS/Yinka
