Global Policy Forum

The UN Security Council has elected three officials for its committee overseeing an arms embargo in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN News reported on Monday.

The council set up the sanction committee on 12 March to monitor the implementation of an arms embargo it imposed in July 2003. UN News reported that following consultations, the 15-member council elected on Thursday the permanent representative of Algeria to the UN, Abdallah Baali, as chairman of the committee. The two vice chairpersons of the committee are unnamed representatives of Benin and Philippines, UN News reported. The newly elected officials have a mandate that ends on 31 December 2004.

The council had imposed the embargo in a bid to stop illegal weapons flows to the region and the illegal exploitation of the country's natural resources. UN News reported that the committee has fact-finding expert reports on the links between illegal enrichment, weapons purchases and the conflicts which have plagued much of the Congo until recently and continue sporadically in the eastern Ituri District and the North and South Kivu provinces.

The Security Council has in the past called on governments in the region to help end illegal trade in the DRC's resources, and the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, has been monitoring compliance with the council's resolutions on the issue. The council has also authorised MONUC to seize or collect, and to dispose of arms or related material found in violation of the weapons ban.

UN News reported that a UN panel of experts reported to the council in October 2003 that it had drawn "the attention of companies to the disastrous situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the human tragedy occurring in conflict areas. The link between business activities in those areas and the continuation of hostilities was highlighted."

The committee is mandated to report regularly to the council, and is expected to recommend ways of strengthening the effectiveness of the weapons ban.