Security Council to send mission to Bujumbura, Kinshasa

The UN Security Council will send a mission to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 7 and 16 June to urge all parties in the region to "continue pressing for peace", UN News reported on Tuesday. Council president Munir Akram of Pakistan issued a letter at UN headquarters in New York informing Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the council's decision to send a mission to the Great Lakes region. UN News reported that all the Council's members would participate in the delegation, to be led by Jean-Marc de Sabliere of France. Among other things, the mission will aim to emphasize the need to take the peace process forward and to stress the willingness of the Council, as well as of the wider international community, to support peace efforts throughout the region, UN News said. In the DRC, the Council plans to invite Congolese parties to "work resolutely to implement their commitments within the framework of the Congolese dialogue". The mission is also expected to stress to the Congolese parties and other states in the region the value of making progress towards convening a proposed international conference on peace, security, democracy and development in the region. Based on a report by Annan on the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), the Council will focus on MONUC's role in "demobilisation and mutual security activities, as well as explore possible areas it might further support the country's transition". In Burundi, the mission is expected to express the Council's support for the second phase of the transition and the new president, the regional mediators and African peacekeeping mission, as well as the Implementation Monitoring Committee and the Joint Ceasefire Commission. "With all political parties and armed groups, the mission will stress that merely signing peace agreements is not enough - there is now a need to work with the new [Burundian] president and the transitional government to implement them," UN News reported.