NGOs protest region's omission from EU agenda

A coalition of European NGOs, active throughout central Africa, has protested the omission of the region from the agenda of a meeting of European Union (EU) ministers of international cooperation and development being held in Brussels on Thursday, despite a pledge made earlier this year by current EU president Belgium to put resolution of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo among its priorities. A statement from the NGOs, members of the Reseau Europeen Congo (REC - European Congo Network) and the Concertation Chretienne pour l'Afrique Centrale (CCAC - a Great Lakes region advocacy network), expressed "astonishment" at this omission particularly as this would be the only EU Development Council meeting to be held during Belgium's six-month presidency. The coalition noted that the EU was the primary donor of foreign aid to the countries involved in the DRC war, and therefore had an essential role to play in exerting its influence in support of efforts to resolve the three-year crisis. It's statement highlighted the illegal exploitation of the DRC's natural resources and the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of armed forces in eastern DRC as problems deserving particular attention. "The attacks of 11 September on New York and Washington and the war in Afghanistan are the centre of international attention at this moment. However, we must not forget the 2.5 million to 3 million deaths that conflicts in the DRC have caused since August 1998 which deserve to be among present political priorities," the statement concluded.