May 2, 2002
France's ambassador to the UN has announced that a proposal for a Great Lakes conference would be submitted to countries in the region during the current tour of the region by the UN Security Council delegation. "We are going to submit a document drawn up in New York to relaunch the project of a conference for the countries of the Great Lakes region," said Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, leading the delegation of 15 Council members, at a press conference held on Tuesday in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
He said one aim of such a conference would be to focus on the problem, shared by all the countries in the region, of ethnic minorities which straddle borders. Promoting trade, development and tourism would be another aspect. The UN delegation flew to the northeastern DRC city of Kisangani on Wednesday after spending one and a half days in Kinshasa, where, among an array of meetings, it attended an arms burning ceremony in which 2,000 weapons were destroyed, including mortars and rocket launchers. A source from the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (known as MONUC) said the weapons had been handed in by Rwandan Hutu former rebels in eastern DRC.In Kisangani, the mission reiterated the Security Council's demand for the town to be demilitarised. "This means withdrawal of not only Ugandan and Rwandan forces but also RCD [Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie] and MLC [Ugandan-backed rebel Mouvement de liberation du Congo] forces," said Levitte. "We continue to demand the demilitarisation until we obtain it. There is nothing to negotiate."
Perhaps in connection with a possible Great Lakes conference, a group of 15 Rwandan Hutu representatives of disarmed Hutu combatants in the DRC will be visiting the Rwandan capital, Kigali, shortly to "look at the situation", said a source. These former combatants told Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel last year that they needed assurances before they could return to Rwanda. MONUC investigators have found that nearly all the estimated 2,000 disarmed Rwandans also wish to remain soldiers.
Meanwhile, Council members continued to reiterate that the Sun City accord signed between the Kinshasa government and the MLC was a step forward, but not the final result hoped for from the dialogue. Levitte said it was hoped that the momentum achieved at Sun City could be accelerated, while UK Ambassador to the UN, Jeremy Greenstock, said the progress at Sun City was "not enough" and that the UN delegation was "involved in looking for a result from the dialogue".
The UN team, due to visit Angola on Thursday to meet President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the Political Committee of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement, will travel on Friday to Uganda, where they will meet with President Yoweri Museveni and MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, who will serve as prime minister in the DRC's new political order.
On Saturday, the mission will be in Tanzania to meet President Benjamin Mkapa. On Sunday, it will be in Burundi, to meet President Pierre Buyoya, Vice-President Domitien Ndayizeye and the presidents of the Senate and National Assembly. Monday will be spent in Rwanda, to meet President Paul Kagame and Rwandan authorities. A meeting will also be held with a delegation of Rwandan former armed groups. On Tuesday, the team is due to return to UN headquarters in New York City.
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