EU to release renewed developmental aid

The European Union has committed itself to releasing US $108 million in developmental aid to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an EU humanitarian source told IRIN on Monday.

Following the decision taken in December 2001 to resume developmental aid to the Congo, the EU would release the funds from the European Developmental Fund at the end of January, the EU source added. The money was, however, dependant on the continuation of the peace process, he said.

Unlike emergency funds available from the European Commission’s Humanitarian aid Office, ECHO, which have been available throughout the current Congo crisis, developmental aid had been frozen during the early 1990s.

EU Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten and EU Aid Commissioner Poul Nielson opposed the resumption in development aid "pending clearer signs of a reopening of political dialogue" from the Kinshasa government, The Guardian, a London newspaper, reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the British foreign minister, Jack Straw, and his French counterpart, Hubert Vedrine, have announced a visit to Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo later in January to discuss the situation in the strife-torn country.

"The visit is in support of the Lusaka peace process, which is at a crucial stage with the next round of the inter-Congolese dialogue due to take place at the end of January, and with progress being made on disarmament and demobilisation," Ewan Ormiston, a spokesman from the British High Commission in Kampala, told IRIN.

"We see this visit as a way to demonstrate that the United Kingdom and France are working closely on this problem," he added.

This tour would be followed by a meeting in February among British Overseas Development Minister Claire Short, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, The Monitor reported on Thursday. The Kampala daily newspaper quoted Kagame as saying that the meeting would be "to follow up the normalisation talks" that took place in November 2001.

Uganda and Rwanda sent forces into the Congo in 1998 to help rebels topple the government of the late president, Laurent-Desire Kabila. Since then, different rebel factions supported by Kampala and Kigali have clashed numerous times and relations between the erstwhile allies have deteriorated.