Peace possible in DRC - UN
2009-10-17 09:36
United Nations - There is a real prospect for peace in eastern Congo after years of conflict, a senior UN official said on Friday.
Alan Doss, who heads the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, told the UN Security Council that there has been progress on a number of fronts in the past year.
Earlier this week, a coalition of 84 humanitarian groups issued a report saying more than 1 000 civilians have been killed and nearly 900 000 displaced in eastern Congo by the Rwandan Hutu militiamen, known as the FDLR, and Congolese forces since January.
The report said the Congolese army military operation, which is backed by the UN peacekeeping force, is not doing enough to protect civilians in the region.
Doss said, however, Congolese military operations have "significantly eroded the strike capacity and domination" of Rwandan Hutu militias and the Lord's Resistance Army in North and South Kivu and Orientale province in eastern Congo.
Hostilities
The Congolese military launched a military operation earlier this year aimed at forcing out the Rwandan Hutu militiamen, many of whom fled to neighbouring Congo after participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide that killed more than 500 000 people.
Doss also cited a significant increase in repatriation of Rwandan Hutu combatants and their families and the arrest of two major figures wanted for the roles in the Rwanda genocide.
He recalled that a year ago, Congo "was faced with a security crisis of grave dimensions following the resumption of hostilities by another rebel group, the National Council for the Defence of the People.
"A year on, there is now a real prospect that the conflicts that have long blighted the eastern Congo can be ended," Doss said.
He cautioned that significant problems remain including integrating up to 20 000 former fighters, some with very bad human rights records, into the army.
This has aggravated the army's "existing problems of indiscipline and crimes committed against the population", he said.
Doss told the Security Council that despite efforts by the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers to improve and extend protection to civilians, it is impossible to protect everyone in the Kivus, which are the size of California with a population of eight million.
Encourage defections
He strongly disagreed with suggestions by some observers that operation in eastern Congo - known as Kimia II - be suspended to give the army time to improve discipline.
"We believe... that reducing the pressure now would give the FDLR time to regroup and rearm," Doss said.
He said it would also send "an ambiguous message" to some elements of the Congolese army who have co-operated with the Rwandan Hutu militias in the past.
"Above all, a suspension of operation Kimia II would be celebrated as a victory by the FDLR," he said. "It would strengthen the ties between the leadership abroad and the combatants on the ground, thus annihilating years of efforts of sensitisation aimed at weakening these links."
Doss agreed, however, that military pressure against the FDLR needs to be bolstered by enhanced measures to protect civilians and encourage defections.
- AP