Security Council urged to expel foreign troops

The DRC’s Human Rights Minister Leonard She Okitundu on Thursday told a UN Security Council closed door session the withdrawal of foreign troops from his country should be speeded up, Reuters reported. “Withdrawal of the attacking troops is the primary and essential condition for restoring peace in the DRC,” Okitundu had said. He urged deployment of the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) “to assure the complete and total withdrawal of Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundian troops”. However, Council members reportedly told Okitundu not to wait until the troops had pulled out of the war-torn country before launching a dialogue aimed at national reconciliation and facilitating the deployment of the observer mission. They pressed the minister to report back to President Laurent-Desire Kabila that they needed Congo’s commitment to all provisions of the Lusaka accord, signed in July 1999. A Council resolution adopted on 16 June this year, after fighting between in DRC’s third city, Kisangani, demanded the withdrawal of Ugandan and Rwandan troops.