UN envoy calls on government to expedite unification of the army

At the end of a week-long visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno, speaking at a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa, urged the transitional government to accelerate the process of unifying the army in order to foster peace and stability.

During his tour, Guehenno also made brief visits to Rwanda and Uganda, where he held talks respectively with Presidents Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni.

While in the DRC, Guehenno toured the major conflict areas, these being in the northeastern provinces, specifically Ituri District in Orientale Province and the town of Bukavu in South Kivu Province.

Referring to fighting that broke out in Bukavu on Wednesday between rival groups of the DRC army, Guehenno said: "The events in Bukavu are testament to the urgent need to unify the national army. The volatile situation is caused, in part, by the apparent divisions within the Congolese army." [see earlier IRIN story: Fighting breaks out in Bukavu]

"It is essential that the Congolese find a solution to this problem by themselves," he added.

He said the consolidation of the government's authority across the vast nation was a step that would help quell the violence brought on by the presence of Rwandan Hutu rebels and elements of the former Rwandan army soldiers in the DRC. The Rwandan Hutu extremist Interahamwe militia has been accused of playing the major role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that claimed 937,000 lives, according to Rwandan government estimates.

Guehenno said the process of voluntary disarmament of former combatants under the auspices of the UN Mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC, was proving successful, even if many of them remained hostages of extremists refusing to re-enter Rwanda. To date, MONUC has helped repatriate more than 6,000 Rwandan former combatants. However, more than 10,000 remain on DRC territory.