DRC militias still recruit kids
2008-06-08 22:06
Goma - A United Nations Security Council delegation visiting eastern Democratic Republic of Congo called on Sunday on militias and armed groups haunting the region to disarm.
Chief delegate Jean-Maurice Ripert, the French ambassador to the UN, said: "The council is calling for the militias in the region to disarm and, if asked, Monuc (the UN's largest peace-keeping mission) can help."
Ripert said that "all militia chiefs are committed to disarming", but so far had failed to do so.
Congo also had to work with its neighbours, notably Rwanda, to bring peace to the troubled region, he said.
In a pledge of commitment, the delegation said in Kinshasa on Saturday that the United Nations was not likely to withdraw its Monuc mission from Congo soon.
Under present peace agreements more than 6 000 Hutu rebels in eastern Congo - some of whom took part in the 1994 massacres in Rwanda - were to be repatriated, and Congolese militias had to disarm.
Continued recruitment of children
All Congolese armed groups in the eastern Nord and Sud-Kivu provinces signed a ceasefire in Goma in January, committing themselves to dissolve and disarm their troops.
Even though no major fighting had broken out since then, some groups continued to recruit fighters, including children, and clashes repeatedly erupted in Nord-Kivu, which had accommodated 857 000 people displaced by the war.
The UN delegates met with provincial governor Julien Paluku after arriving in Goma and said that warlords who were causing problems had to be brought to justice and that impunity was unacceptable.