12 12 13 DR Congo: UN peacekeeping on offensive after defeat of M23, says senior UN official
will go on with this fight against all armed groups,” Special Representative of
the Secretary-General in the country, Martin Kobler said, referring to the UN
peacekeeping force in the DRC (MONUSCO)
which he heads.
“I
brought a message of hope to the Security Council. I think the situation is
different now in the DRC after the end of the fight against the M23,” he told
journalists after the briefing, but cautioned that military successes much be
backed by civilian determination and access to services such as health care and
education otherwise “we will go back to square one.”
The
M23 – composed of soldiers who mutinied from the DRC national army in April –
along with other armed groups, has clashed repeatedly with the FARDC. At various
times, UN officials have also deplored the activities of other armed groups in
the region, including Mayi Mayi, the FDLR, the National Army for the Liberation
of Uganda (NALU) and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
In
March, the 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.
Around
1,500 to 1,800 combatants are estimated to be members of the FDLR (Democratic
Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), one of the groups MONUSCO is focusing on,
along with ADF in the north.
Mr.
Kobler described a “wave of surrenders” among rebels, 70 per cent of whom are
below the age of 30, and who are eager to return to civilian
life.
He
noted, however, that unlike the M23, the FDLR is a smaller group that continues
to live among civilian populations making the offensive more
difficult.
“The
operation started on 27 November, and yesterday and the day before, progress was
made to clear areas and streets of FDLR positions,” Mr. Kobler
said.
Among
recent successes, he said for the first time in years, MONUSCO forces were able
to reopen a street from Pinga in the North Kivu towards the provincial capital
of Goma: “From yesterday on, people can bring their vegetables to the Goma
market, they can visit their families outside the area after a two-year
paralysis.”
After
a failure last month between the M23 and the Government to sign an official
political agreement, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes
Region, Mary Robinson, said it is hoped that the document will be cosigned
tomorrow by Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Malawi's Joyce Banda, who
is also the chairperson for the Southern African Development Community
(SADC).
The
agreement is part of ongoing talks between the M23 and the Government, held in
Kampala, Uganda, under the auspices of Mr. Museveni as mediator and Chairperson
of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), as well as
Ugandan Defence Minister and Facilitator, Crispus Kiyonga.
The
Special Envoy also stressed the importance of the 11-nation Peace, Security and
Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the Region, which she has dubbed a
“framework of hope.”
“It's
time for the people of the region to feel that the framework is making a
difference in their lives through a peace dividend,” Mrs. Robinson told
journalists in New York.
Also
speaking to the press, Ambassador Gerard Araud of France, which holds the
Council's rotating presidency for December said today's briefing by Mr. Kobler
and Mrs. Robinson was “the most positive … of the year.”
“Let's
not see the world in a rosy manner but this has been a positive development,” he
said. “When you look where we had been eight months ago, beginning of 2013, I
think it's quite a feat to see where we are right now.”
Today's
briefing comes a week after the UN launched its first-ever unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs), in the interest of better protecting civilians, in the eastern
part of DRC.
Hervé
Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, who was in Goma at
the time and also participated in today's briefing, said that the deployment of
the unarmed aircraft, authorized by the Security Council last spring, is still
evolving, but is starting with two UAVs. The goal is to have the craft up around
the clock and adequately cover all the terrain in the relevant DRC
provinces.
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