January 29, 2002
The Democratic Republic of Congo's foreign minister is to ask the United Nations on Tuesday to launch an inquiry into foreign armies occupying parts of the country, a government official told AFP.
Leonard Sha Okitundu, who left the Congolese capital on Sunday, is to put forward the request drawn up by President Joseph Kabila over the weekend during an assessment of his first year in power, said the foreign ministry official, who asked to remain anonymous.
"Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi claim to occupy the DRC to defend themselves against armed groups they call 'negative forces.' But their troops are not 'friendly forces' in the eyes of the Congolese," Kabila says in the document.
Kabila wants the UN Security Council to send an international commission of inquiry "to carry out an independent investigation into the presence and nature of these armed groups." "In time -- two months should be enough -- the commission should establish the truth and make a report to the secretary-general of the United Nations," Kabila continued.
The DRC's complex war broke out in August 1998 and drew in five other countries -- Rwanda and Uganda on the side of the rebels, and Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia backing Kinshasa. The DRC furthermore claims that Burundian soldiers are helping the rebels. A fragile ceasefire is holding, but only Namibia has fully withdrawn its troops.
The commission should be international and independent and should focus particularly on identifying and demobilising troops in the southeast Katanga region, Kabila stipulated.
Kinshasa wants members of the UN Security Council and representatives from the European Union, the Organisation of African Unity, international human rights watchdogs and an international court to take part in the commission.
The complex conflict, which has allowed foreign armies to exploit the country's rich mineral resources, has left 2.5 million people dead, according to a US-based humanitarian organisation.
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