Belgian damper on resumption of aid

Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs Louis Michel told a press conference in Brussels on Monday that there could be no resumption of his country’s direct bilateral cooperation programme with the DRC while instability persisted in the country. “The message of Belgium is not the resumption of structural cooperation. As long as there is no stability in DRC, direct bilateral aid cannot resume,” he said. “But Belgium can resume its cooperation with Congolese actors, in the fields of justice, infrastructure, health and education,” he added. Belgium saw as its role the creation of conditions for a fruitful inter-Congolese dialogue, to finance the facilitation, to make the international community aware of the problems in the Great Lakes and their effects on the whole region, Michel said. “The Belgian role should not be overestimated. We only want to be a positive force,” he added. A high-level Belgian cooperation mission is scheduled to travel to the DRC capital, Kinshasa, next weekend after the country’s plan of action for the DRC is first discussed by the Belgian Council of Ministers on Friday, according to IRIN sources. The value of Belgian cooperation in the DRC this year - between projects already implemented or about to be, and those still in the pipeline - was in the region of US $100 million, according to figures quoted by Secretary of State Eddy Boutmans this week.