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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Great Lakes: Burundi, DRC key to regional peace - UN report

NAIROBI, 24 June 2003 (IRIN) - A UN Security Council team that recently toured the Great Lakes region has recommended that the international community make every effort to provide aid to the ongoing peace efforts in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN News reported.

In a report issued on Monday, the team said the installation of a transitional government in the DRC and the conclusion of a ceasefire in Burundi could clear the way for a possible international conference to address long-term peace and security issues in Africa's Great Lakes region.

The 7-16 June mission, headed by Jean-Marc de La Sablière of France, toured Angola, Burundi, DRC, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The team was in the region to launch a "solid political process", UN News reported.

Among other recommendations, the team suggested that the wider Security Council should call on donors to give the African Mission in Burundi (AMIB) adequate financial and logistical aid.

"The mission sees a clear need to provide adequate budgetary and economic assistance to support the transitional government lest all the gains achieved so far collapse," UN News reported.

Based on peace agreements already reached, the team said that most of the work required to establish a transitional government in the DRC, with a unified army, had already been completed.

However, UN News reported that the team had been disappointed by the slow pace of implementation and believed that the steps that remained, particularly in light of persistent fighting and outbreaks of violence in the DRC, may prove to be the most difficult.

"While the mission still expects all the parties to agree on a functioning transition administration by 30 June, it was deeply concerned by the extremely volatile situation in much of the eastern portion of the DRC, but chiefly concentrated in Bunia and the Kivus," UN News reported.

The team found Bunia, the embattled main town in Ituri District, "calm but tense". It said that suffering population of the town and surrounding areas needed "as much assistance as the international community can provide".

The mission also called for demilitarisation of Bunia and for all parties to cease hostilities immediately, and to withdraw forces from the Kivus to previously held positions.

The mission expressed its support for political efforts underway in Burundi as the country began the second phase of its transition, as outlined in the 2000 Arusha Accords.

"The Burundi peace process is at a critical juncture," the mission said, "and every effort should be made to ensure its success."

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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