IRIN interview with Pierre Cornillet, deputy chairman of ACP Assembly and member of EU Parliament

A delegation of the European Union Parliament toured the Great Lakes region in early November during which it held consultations with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Ugandan officials, and members of the Congolese government on the peace process in the region. Pierre Cornillet, who is also the deputy chairman of Assembly of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries and a member of the European Parliament, led this delegation. He talked to IRIN on 2 November about European Union support for the peace process. The following is an excerpt of the interview. QUESTION: Your delegation's tour in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) came just as a new round of Congolese peace negotiations was beginning, and after the withdrawal of most foreign troops from the country. What was the purpose of your visit? ANSWER: To show the European Union's total support for the peace process and particularly that of the European Parliament. We are also conscious that peace would come from the inter-Congolese dialogue, but there is also an overall accord needed with neighbouring countries. I think this must be seen in this entirety because the four-year war in Congo - that we called in Europe the forgotten war - has caused more than two millions deaths. Apart from the humanitarian aid that we can deliver we must, naturally, support the political process without which there can be no progress. Q: What form of concrete support can the European Parliament bring to the peace process in the DRC and the Great Lakes region? A: We have already met Rwandan President Paul Kagame. We could meet the Congolese President Joseph Kabila because he went to the Pretoria meeting with his Rwandan counterpart. We met important ministers of Congolese government and transitional National Assembly. You know, the European Union has affirmed that it would soon table a resolution before the African, Caribbean and Pacific group. This political support is not, by any means, negligible because Africa and Europe have a common destiny. Q: What form did your mission take? A: We did not meet all concerned parties [to the conflict]. Our mission was principally to see how the European Union could increase its humanitarian aid. We cannot, of course, distinguish humanitarian aid from the process of political resolution. That is why we asked for meetings with the parties to the conflict [Rwanda, Uganda and RDC]. We told them exactly the same thing: the European Union is firmly committed to providing humanitarian aid for all countries and all needy people of Great Lakes region. We are very conscious that nothing is possible without a political solution. This solution must come from parties [to the conflict] we met. This must not be applied from the outside. We want to assure Ugandan, Rwandan and Congolese people of our steadfast political support to this peace process. Q: What was the reaction of Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese officials to your statement? A: They all shared a real political will to see this peace process through. Q: Did you evaluate the humanitarian needs of the three countries? A: These are immense but I believe we must we must begin with the basic needs. It means [feeding] hungry people. There are those who need clean drinking water, and those who need other care. We sent a strong message that it was absolute necessity that NGOs supported by European Union and others should be given access to needy people. We repeated this message to all our partners we met in the east and the rest of the DRC. Q: What message will you bring from the Great Lakes to the ACP assembly? A: Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC are all members of the [ACP] Joint Parliamentary Assembly. They must feel that the other 74 ACP countries and the 15 countries of the European Union ... completely support the peace process. I believe that everybody must be mobilised to ensure that this war is no longer forgotten, because two million people have died. Solutions must be found and we must encourage goodwill to find solutions. Q: What will this resolution, which you plan to table in November, consist of? A: The intermediary message that we wish to bring and which will be contained in the ACP resolution is that there is no more time to waste. The peace process must succeed because people continue to die for known and unknown reasons.