24 January 2000
Security Council Begins Effort to Revitalize DRC Peace Process
(Albright urges decisive progress in implementing Lusaka Accord) (1390) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The Security Council January 24 was the scene of an extraordinary meeting of sub-Saharan African leaders who gathered at U.N. headquarters to discuss the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and to urge the international community to become more engaged in bringing peace to the Great Lakes region. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who chaired the session, said that the presence of so many national leaders "reflects the seriousness of the unresolved turmoil in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and their commitment to peace." Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who will convene a "mini summit" on January 25 of the seven African presidents and other African leaders attending the council's session, told the visitors: "Your challenge is to reach consensus. ... This will lay the groundwork for progress on your own. Just as important, it will offer a convincing argument in favor of the international support that Africa merits and which can help bring about a decisive change for the better. "The Lusaka agreement remains the most viable blueprint for resolving grievances and achieving a comprehensive negotiated solution," the secretary-general said. "But if peace is to take hold, and if international engagement is to be sustained, the warring parties face a paramount challenge: they need to demonstrate the political will to apply the agreement fully, without further delay. All else flows from this essential requirement." Participating in the debate were DRC President Laurent Kabila, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos; Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe; Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni; and Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu. The former president of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Masire, the facilitator of the Lusaka accords, also spoke. The meeting was initiated by the United States as part of its effort to focus attention on Africa during the U.S. presidency of the council for the month of January. Attending from other capitals were South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, Burundi Foreign Minister Severin Ntahomyukiye, Malian Minister of Defense Mohamed Salia Sokona; Canadian Foreign Minster Lloyd Axworthy, French Minister for Development and Cooperation Charles Josselin, and British Minister of State for Africa Peter Hain. In her prepared remarks, Albright said that if progress is made towards implementation of the peace agreement on the key issues of access, security, and cooperation, the Clinton administration "will consult with our Congress and work to achieve a swift council consensus on authorizing deployment of a phase-two U.N. peace mission." The secretary said that the Clinton administration also will ask Congress to provide $1 million to support Masire's facilitation efforts. Albright, who also met with each of the presidents on bilateral matters, said that the Lusaka Agreement provides a firm foundation for progress under which the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Congo will be restored, political dialogue with the DRC will go forward, foreign troops will be withdrawn, and concrete mechanisms will be established to ensure that the Congo will not be used as a safe haven for illegal armed groups from other countries. "There is no rationale of past grievance, political allegiance, or ethnic difference that excuses murder, torture, rape, or other abuse. Here, today, together, we must vow to halt these crimes and to bring those who commit them to justice under due process of law," Albright said. While the presidents may have differed on the reasons for the stalemate in the peace process, the were united on the need for more active involvement by the international community -- especially of the need for the quick deployment of U.N. peacekeepers. Chiluba, who led the mediation effort which resulted in the signing of the pact, told the council that there are a number of reasons the Lusaka peace agreement is behind schedule, but the major cause of delay is the lack of funds to finance the process and to help with related tasks. The Zambian president asserted that while the continuing conflict "is very real," the peace process is not dead. There is concern in the region, he said, because the council "is reluctant to send peacekeepers unless there is a perfect score." But "there is no peacekeeping operation," he said, "that does not have some risk." "It is we, the parties to the conflict and the Lusaka agreement, who requested the peacekeepers. We consider the peacekeepers allies not adversaries," Chiluba said. "By coming here, regional leaders come to demonstrate their commitment to a cease-fire agreement and hope it will lead to support from the international community ... [and] quick action in deployment of military observers and peacekeepers in general." Mozambique's President Chissano said that "a durable solution to the Democratic Republic of the Congo requires strong, concerted action from the subregion, the continent, and the international community as a whole." He underscored the need for "more timely and effective action at this stage," even though the cease-fire is "fragile and sensitive." Reflecting on what he termed a "war of aggression" by neighboring nations, DRC President Kabila said that he signed the Lusaka agreement "because I am a man of peace and the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo want peace ... to regain peace and stability in our country and the Great Lakes region. "I am here today to see to what extent the Lusaka agreement can be made more effective," he said. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos asked that "the United Nations act expeditiously by sending the peacekeeping forces and in increasing the logistic and financial support." The United Nations, he said, must help disarm and demilitarize rebel forces and "has the immediate and special responsibility of interpositioning and separating the warring forces so as to uphold the cease-fire and avoid new violations." The United Nations, dos Santos said, should also commit itself to help bring about political accord in Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu said that the current debate is "on how we can get our act together to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, mass murder, war crimes, and international terrorism." "Today," he continued, "we want to appeal to the U.N. to take over that responsibility through the mandate given it by our region in the terms of the Lusaka cease-fire agreement. You have got the capacity. It is your responsibility. All you need is to muster the moral authority and courage to do it." U.N. monitors are important, he said, but "plans to deploy a peacekeeping force in the DRC must be elaborated now and not tomorrow." In a written report to the council January 17, Annan said that the signatories of the agreement must demonstrate their commitment to it by conducting no new military offenses, guaranteeing the security and freedom of movement of U.N. personnel, and stopping the spread of hostile propaganda, especially incitements to attack unarmed civilians. "The deployment of additional United Nations military personnel should contribute to restoring and maintaining momentum for the implementation of the Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement," he said. Ugandan President Museveni said that his government takes "the Lusaka Accord very seriously" and challenged "all the parties to do likewise." Museveni said he expects the Security Council to get involved to stop the ethnic killing that has gone on in the Great Lakes region since 1959, during which about 2.5 million have been killed. "The international community also has to demonstrate clear and concrete support to the efforts we as Africans are undertaking. Recent events in all parts of the world have clearly demonstrated that conflicts and war are not exclusively an African phenomenon. They can happen anywhere for a variety of reasons, including the most rampant -- the fanning of racial and ethnic hatred," he said. "The response of the international community must be even-handed and not lopsided," Museveni said. Even though U.N. involvement in the Congo will be large and costly, "the cost of inaction, as we witnessed in Rwanda, would be too ghastly, more costly, and morally repugnant." (Note: A Web site on the U.N. Month of Africa can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.usia.gov/regional/af/unmonth/ ) (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
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