21 11 12 Addressing the Conflict in Eastern Congo: Urgent appointment of a UN/AU Special Envoy

 The conflict in eastern Congo is now at a critical juncture with M23’s
recent capturing of the city of Goma in
Congo’s North Kivu Province.    Recent reports suggest that,
despite its continuing denials, Rwanda has continued to provide
military, logistical, and political support to M23, emboldened by the failure of
the international community to hold it fully accountable for its aggression. The
government of Congo has continued to demonstrate an
inability to deal with the threat on its eastern borders, as a consequence of
its failure to initiate necessary reforms of its weak and undisciplined army as
well as other critical institutions.  The UN peace-keeping mission, known as
MONUSCO, despite its repeated assurances that Goma would not fall, has once
again failed to protect the population of a large urban center rom falling in
the hands of notorious human rights abusers.  Meanwhile, since the onset of the
M23 mutiny in April 2012, more than 650,000 people have been displaced in
eastern Congo due to the ongoing conflict.  

 

We believe that it is imperative to initiate a credible
internationally-facilitated political process that is focused during a first
phase on an immediate cessation of hostilities, but in the longer-term also on
addressing the systematic drivers of conflict in the region. The aim of such a
process must be a sustainable departure from the cycle of violence and regional
interference that has defined the conflict for much of the last decade.

 

Efforts to achieve a durable peace in the region must be
led, not by those that continue to perpetuate the conflict, but rather by a
credible facilitation process with the commensurate experience, legitimacy and
stature to elevate the process above the current regional mistrust, and bring
the necessary parties into a constructive dialogue.  This should be done under
the joint auspices of the United Nations and the African Union, as recommended
at the recent high-level meeting on the DRC held at the United Nations on
September 27, 2012. We call on the Security Council to request the
Secretary-General to reach out immediately to the African Union with a view to
appointing an Envoy or Panel in a matter of days.

 

We also call on the Security Council and the African
Union to condemn in unequivocal terms Rwanda and the M23 for their actions and
to immediately apply sanctions against all the individuals identified in the
most recent Group of Experts report as having violated the U.N. arms embargo on
Congo, including the Rwandan military and political officers who have been
supporting and directing the M23. We also call on bilateral donors to
Rwanda to continue and expand the
suspension of all aid programs that are not explicitly directed to the
humanitarian needs of the Rwandan civilian population.   

 

We the undersigned groups strongly reiterate the
attached brief and recommendations, which we widely distributed among senior
policy-makers in governments and international institutions in October 2012. We
believe now as we believed then that military solutions alone will not resolve
this crisis and that a new political process is needed to prevent further
violence in the region.

 

Signed:

Eastern Congo Initiative

Enough

EurAc

Humanity United

Open Society Foundations