POLITICS: UN Wraps Up “Month of Africa” Still Wrangling Over DRC

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Jim Wurst

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 1 2000 (IPS) - The Security Council ended the “Month of Africa” united in its belief that African security problems cannot be ignored, but uncertain over the concrete measures it should adopt to deal with the continent’s most volatile crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, who brokered the current ceasefire in the DRC, urged the Council on Monday to send a UN peacekeeping force to the DRC “in order to build on the momentum already gathered by this very important session.”

“The deployment of a peacekeeping mission is not an end in itself, but is intended to facilitate the charting of a long-term internal new political dispensation in the DRC,” he said. “It is to this aim that the international community should commit sufficient resources to the inter-Congolese political negotiations.”

Monday, Jan 31, marked the Council’s final session of the “Month of Africa,” in which that continent was the focus of delegates’ attention.

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette said that “the Council has spectacularly reaffirmed its long-standing engagement with Africa, and in doing so has shown a greater sense of urgency than ever before.”

Over the last month, during which the Council presidency was held by US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the Council dealt with the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa as a threat to international peace and security, heard from former South African President Nelson Mandela on the need to prevent a bloodbath in Burundi, and examined how the illegal trade in diamonds was fueling the war in Angola.

But the dominant issue – one that brought seven African heads of state to New York – was how to untangle the knotty conflict in the DRC before it explodes into a war that could engulf much of the continent.

The DRC government of Laurent-Desire Kabila is fighting both Congolese rebels and occupying armies from Rwanda and Uganda (and possibly Burundi) with the support of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Rwanda and Uganda do not deny that they have troops in the eastern DRC, but maintain they are protecting their countries from the Rwandan exiles responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Kabila denies supporting the exiles. Congo’s allies say they are simply aiding a sovereign state in defending its rights of territorial integrity.

In July, Chiluba brokered a peace agreement, the Lusaka Accords, calling for concessions from all sides to end the conflict and requesting that the UN deploy a peacekeeping mission to monitor the agreement.

There is currently a fragile ceasefire in place, and African leaders are calling on the UN to bring in peacekeepers to help enforce it.

“The message is, peacekeepers now,” Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told the Council on Jan 24. However, leading members of the Council, notably the United States, wanted better security guarantees from all combatants and a clearer proposal from the UN before taking such action.

“The United States dragged its feet deliberately for many months before moving to consideration of a resolution because we were dissatisfied with both the degree of commitment by the Lusaka signatories and the type of plans we got out of (the Peacekeeping Department),” Holbrooke told reporters on Monday. “I’m confident we get support and understanding as we move forward.”

After months of wrangling, the Council members are discussing a draft resolution that would authorize a full peacekeeping mission in the DRC. Last Wednesday, the Council issued a statement committing itself to expanding the UN presence in Congo from a handful of military observers to a full-fledged peacekeeping operation.

Currently, there are only 79 military observers in the country, although the Council has authorized the deployment of 500. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended a deployment of 5,537 peacekeepers.

The Council also pointedly noted that a priority concern was “the absolute necessity of security and access for United Nations personnel deployed in support of the Lusaka process” and noted its intention to hold Kabila to his promise of security for the peacekeepers.

Under US law, the administration must give Congress 15 days to approve a UN peacekeeping mission, which means there can be no Council decision until the middle of February at the earliest.

South Africa’s foreign minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, told the Council that “the time has come for a strengthening of the relationship between Africa and the international community.”

“It must be built on mutual cooperation and respect where the international community does not only involve itself in Africa in times of crisis, but engages on a long-term and sustainable basis in the development of Africa,” Dlamini-Zuma said.