07 05 13 UN Envoy tells Security Council there is ‘renewed opportunity’ for DR Congo peace efforts

“I believe we do meet at a moment of
renewed opportunity,” Mrs. Robinson told a closed door session in New York of the
15-nation Council via video teleconference.

 

“There is a fresh chance to do more than
just attend to the consequences of conflict, or to manage crises of the kind
seen again most recently last November. There is a chance to resolve its
underlying causes and to stop it for good,” she added, cautioning that while
there are no guarantees of success, “we can be sure that if it fails, the
consequences will be grave.”

 

Mrs. Robinson just wrapped up a week-long
regional visit to respectively, the DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, South Africa
and Ethiopia, to seek the views of political and non-government leaders on the
implementation of the UN-brokered “Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework
for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region” or as she describes
it, a “framework for hope”.

 

The Framework, adopted in February with
the support of 11 nations and four international organizations (11+4), aims to
end the cycles of conflict and crisis in the eastern DRC and to build peace in
the long-troubled region.

 

The Special Envoy told the Council that
she was “glad to report some encouraging news” as Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi
“stated their willingness to implement their commitments under the Framework”
and supported Mrs. Robinson’s role as UN Envoy to the region.

 

She added that it was also encouraging to
see that the leaders in the region, particularly President Joseph Kabila and
President Kagame, continue to talk to each other, either bilaterally or through
the intergovernmental group known as the International Conference on the Great
Lakes Region (ICGLR), which is due to hold a summit on recent developments in
the region in July.

 

The Envoy’s 28 April to 5 May visit came
amidst seemingly heightened tensions in the region as the 23 March Movement
(M23) armed group publicly decried the upcoming deployment of the Force
Intervention Brigade within the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), and broke off the so-called Kampala talks.

 

In March, the UN Security Council
authorized the deployment of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO to carry
out targeted offensive operations, with or without the Congolese national army,
against armed groups that threaten peace in eastern DRC.

 

The overwhelming majority of the Congolese
she met with in Kinshasa and Goma were
enthusiastic about the Brigade, the Special Envoy said, while many in the
humanitarian community and officials in Burundi,
Rwanda and Uganda expressed concern about the
potential consequences of military operations.

 

Mrs. Robinson told the Security Council
that the Brigade should “act mostly preventatively, as a deterrent with limited
strategic military operations” and operate “in full compliance with
international human rights and humanitarian law, and with maximum consideration
for the protection of civilians.”

 

She added that MONUSCO was already
“undertaking mitigating measures in this regard.”

 

The Brigade “while an important tool,
should be seen as one element of a much larger political process aimed at
finding a comprehensive solution to the crisis in eastern DRC,” Mrs. Robinson
stressed.

 

She also reiterated her support for the
stalled Kampala
talks between the DRC Government and the M23 group, and urged Mr. Kabila “to
remain committed to this process with a view to expediting it as soon as
possible.”

 

Turing to regional economic cooperation,
Mrs. Robinson stressed that it is important for the people of the eastern DRC
and the Great Lakes region overall to feel
that there is “a peace dividend to be had.” She noted the Summit
of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries known by its French
acronym CEPGL which will be posted for the first time in two decades next week
in Burundi.

 

The South African Government has also
taken measures to boost economic partnership with the DRC and plans to do more
on behalf of President Jacob Zuma, Mrs. Robinson said, including in sectors
such as governance, agriculture, infrastructures and revenue collection.

 

Mrs. Robinson said that while she focused
on engagement with leaders and Governments during her visit, she also strove to
work from the bottom up with civil society to generate “the widest possible
constituency” for the peace accord, particularly among women.

 

“I intend to mobilize the women of the
Great Lakes countries to play an active role in support of the PSC Framework,”
she said, adding that she will build on current initiatives and existing
regional fora, including a regional action plan for UN Security Council
resolution 1325 on women peace and security, by Femmes Africa Solidarité, of
which Mrs. Robinson is a partner.

 

As one of her other priorities for the
visit, Mrs. Robinson said she also sought to encourage participation for the
11+4 oversight mechanism which is due to meet for the first time on 26 May on
the margins of the African Union Jubilee Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and
then again in September at the UN General Assembly in New York.

 

Mrs. Robinson said she
plans a second visit to the region later this month.