Crisis may be Security Council’s “greatest challenge” - US

At a meeting to discuss the DRC last week, UN Security Council members stressed the importance of the inter-Congolese dialogue and said it should not be viewed as an internal issue. It was just as important as the Lusaka peace accord and the ceasefire, they said. According to diplomatic sources, they expressed concern that the DRC government was preventing the deployment of UN peacekeepers throughout Congolese territory. The meeting was addressed by DRC Human Rights Minister Leonard She Okitundu who called for speeding up the withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan troops from his country.

The US representative, Nancy Soderberg, in a statement on the Security Council meeting, said the DRC crisis was perhaps the Council’s “greatest challenge”. “In terms of the number of countries involved, it is probably the greatest threat to international peace and security in the world today,” she said. “Considering the number of at-risk civilians, it is one of the greatest humanitarian crises in Africa...As a political and human rights challenge, it is a very difficult undertaking to overcome the DRC’s legacy of appalling misrule.”

“This institution is committed to deploying the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC), but only if the parties live up to their commitment,” she went on. “Sadly, they are not. The UN is doing its part...they must understand, the UN will not and cannot deploy unless and until the conditions are right on the ground.” She reiterated the US support for the facilitation of former Botswana president Ketumile Masire in the inter-Congolese dialogue. “There must a recognition that Lusaka is not working,” she stressed. “The signatories must address this very fundamental point. Until they do, the UN can do little in terms of moving forward on MONUC.”