Security Council to end two days of talks on DRC

The Security Council will conclude two days of talks on the crisis in the DRC on Friday. The meeting was held with members of the political committee, formed after the Lusaka ceasefire agreement and representatives of rebel groups. In Thursday’s session, the Council noted that amid continuing inter-ethnic clashes in several provinces and heavy fighting between foreign armies in the northeastern city of Kisangani, “the situation in the DRC has deteriorated while the cost in human lives has soared”. In a statement read by the Council’s chairman Jean-David Levitte of France, the Council said that the 1.7 million victims of the conflict had either died in massacres, or while trying to flee the violence, or as a result of the lack of humanitarian aid due to insecurity. He noted that continuing hostilities in Equateur and Kasai provinces, the uninterrupted violence in Kivu and the clashes between Rwanda and Ugandan forces in Kisangani were “key elements” of the Congolese crisis. Levitte said that the resumption of hostilities between Rwanda and Uganda had drastically aggravated the situation and seemed to “toll the bell” for the Lusaka accord. “It is unjustifiable for two foreign armies to be fighting on the soil of a third country, a war which has resulted in at least 300 people dead and 1,500 wounded,” he said. Levitte noted also that the presence of the forces of the two countries in DRC was becoming a “major source of insecurity”. He observed that the national dialogue effort remained blocked due to the government’s rejection of the neutral facilitator. Levitte also observed there was hostility towards the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC). His address followed a closed door meeting by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative for the DRC Kamel Morjane who introduced Annan’s report issued earlier this week and gave an update on the current conflicts. Morjane later told journalists he had asked the Security Council to immediately authorise some 250 armed UN soldiers to move into Kisangani to maintain peace following the withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan troops. The Security Council was due to adopt a resolution on whether to impose sanctions against Rwanda and Uganda on Friday.