17 May 2000
Security Council Mission Reports Longing for Peace in DRC
(Holbrooke: Sierra Leone events should not affect Congo peace) (1200) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said May 17 that the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) overwhelming want peace, and he stressed that the international community's support for the peace process there must not be undermined by events in Sierra Leone. Reporting on a special council mission he led to the DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, Holbrooke said that based on what the group saw, it is clear that the people of the DRC "want peace, they want the withdrawal of outside forces. They do not want to live under foreign occupation. They do not want to see their rights threatened or resources plundered. "They want the Congolese rebel movements to lay down their arms and commit to a political process aimed at forging a new dispensation," he added. "They want armed insurgents from neighboring states -- such as the [ex-Rwandan Armed Forces], Interahamwe [militia], and UNITA to leave their country forever. They want the present government to engage in the national dialogue and abide by its results. They want to live in a vibrant state built on solid democratic institutions and they want the economic opportunities and freedom to travel within their own country, which is their right. "In every meeting," he continued, "we heard a loud and unmistakable endorsement of the Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement." The mission met with President Laurent Kabila, President Frederick J.T. Chiluba, President Robert Mugabe, President Paul Kagame, and President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, as well as with the leaders of the two factions of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, Congolese members of civil society, religious leaders, representatives of political parties, the political committee established by the Lusaka Agreement, and the Joint Military Commission. Security Council members who made the trip in addition to Holbrooke were Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, Ambassador Moctar Ouane of Mali, Ambassador Martin Andjaba of Namibia, Ambassador A. Peter van Walsum of the Netherlands, Ambassador Said Ben Mustapha of Tunisia, and Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom. The mission was set up to help encourage the parties to the Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement to fulfill their commitments and ensure that adequate security conditions, terms of access, and cooperation by regional leaders are in place so that the second phase of the U.N. peacekeeping mission for the DRC (known as MONUC) can be deployed. The mission focused on the conditions necessary for the full deployment of MONUC, such as the need for strict adherence to the cease-fire, including ending the re-supply of weapons to the combatants and an adequate status of forces agreement with the U.N. During the mission's visit, a status-of-forces agreement between the U.N. and the DRC was signed and an agreement was reached that the political committee will meet in New York in June at the invitation of the Security Council, which will be under the presidency of France. At that time the mission hopes that the details of a disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, and resettlement program can be worked on. In its report, the mission said that the April cease-fire agreement, "though inevitably fragile, is an important basis for future peacemaking and must not be given up lightly. The Kisangani incident and reported violations in Equateur Province were deplorable, but did not represent breakdowns between the parties" to the DRC conflict. The need for a professional cease-fire monitoring and verification force as mandated by the council earlier this year in resolution 1291 is self-evident, the report said. "Each of the five presidents consulted on this visit was unequivocal in his appeal for rapid deployment, and apprehensive about the sustainability of the cease-fire without it," it noted. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision to deploy the second phase of MONUC "will be complex," the mission report said, especially taking into account the current circumstances of peacekeeping in Africa and elsewhere and the risks anticipated to be faced by those contributing observers and troops. "The leaders of the region have to share the responsibility for returning the Democratic Republic of the Congo to stability," the report said. "The mission recommends that the secretary-general, before he makes his final decision, should speak to each of the Lusaka parties at the highest level, seeking their unequivocal commitment to assist the proposed deployment ... testing their commitment to the maintenance of the cease-fire, and asking for their firm undertaking, in writing, to support phase II on the ground in every possible way." In his report to a public meeting of the 15-nation Security Council, Holbrooke said, "I need to underline [that] everything we did was designed to further that [peace] process. "We went on this trip not in an effort to undermine the existing government, and we reinforced and stressed to President Kabila that we deal with him as the president of the country and that the national dialogue is part of the Lusaka peace process," Holbrooke stressed. A national dialogue is "the only way forward and the only way to address the yearnings of the Congolese people. There is no military solution to the present conflict," the ambassador said. "We must use all of our collective influence to keep all the signatories firmly within the Lusaka agreement. It is the only way forward. If one party is allowed to violate it, others will also violate it. We must strengthen the regional and international consensus for peace based on Lusaka," he said. Holbrooke also said that it was the "unanimous view" of the mission members "that council decisions and actions in the Congo should not be affected by the dangerous and terrible events in Sierra Leone. "This is difficult -- and it was clear on every day of the trip -- that the shadow of Sierra Leone was hanging over U.N. peacekeeping not only in Africa, but around the world," the ambassador said. "But there was no direct effect of the events in Sierra Leone in the Congo and Lusaka peace process." Holbrooke said that the report does not reflect the official positions of the seven governments whose ambassadors undertook the trip. But the report did reflect agreement by all the ambassadors on the position to be taken. The presence of three African ambassadors on the mission "symbolized the importance of African leadership in the Security Council and the U.N. at large," Holbrooke also said. "It showed that Africans were willing and eager to share the burdens of peace-making in Africa and beyond. To the rest of the world, the delegation ... sent a very powerful symbol." Three members of the team -- the ambassadors from Namibia, Britain, and the Netherlands -- made "an extraordinary" trip to Kananga, a possible deployment site for the next phase of MONUC, Holbrooke pointed out, characterizing it as "the emotional high point of the trip," where the envoys had "a chance to see the people of the Congo in a massive human demonstration of a desire for peace." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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