Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-19-Speech-3-010"
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"en.20081119.3.3-010"2
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Mr President, Commissioner, my dear Benita, ladies and gentlemen, I know how concerned you are, as are we, by the deteriorating situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and I recall, as we have already debated the matter with you, that we were becoming increasingly worried when we raised the issue in your Committee on Foreign Affairs in October.
The priority, currently, is to deal with the humanitarian emergency and secure access to the displaced populations. In accordance with its mandate, MONUC is playing an essential role. It is presently continuing to reinforce its measures in North Kivu and we encourage it to continue its efforts in this direction. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has requested extra resources for this mission and discussions on this matter, which we hope to see concluded very quickly, have begun in the Security Council.
Faced with the emergency, the European Union has significantly strengthened its humanitarian efforts. Many Member States, as well as the Commission, have made exceptional emergency contributions to support the actions of the non-governmental organisations and the United Nations agencies, such as the World Food Programme, and the High Commissioner for Refugees. Extra provision, to a current value of over EUR 43 million, in the form of contributions to the airlift – I am referring to countries like the United Kingdom, Belgium and Italy – make Europe the main contributor, by far, to the humanitarian effort undertaken in this crisis.
Now we need to re-launch the dynamic which will give a sustainable settlement to the issue of the illegal armed groups operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, all of the illegal armed groups, whether they be Congolese or foreigners, in the knowledge that there is no military solution to the crisis and that any solution requires the re-launch of the Goma and Nairobi processes which I have just described and which form the appropriate framework for the lasting stabilisation of the situation in this Congolese province.
The resumption of dialogue and cooperation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda is essential in this matter, and I wish to acknowledge the action of the European Union’s special representative to the African Great Lakes, Roeland Van de Geer, in attempting to resume the threads of this dialogue. It is around these objectives that the international community, in particular the European Union, has mobilised in the last few weeks.
These efforts have borne their first fruits, especially in the resumption of the dialogue between Kinshasa and Kigali at ministerial level and in the organisation, in Nairobi on 7 November, at the initiative of the states of the Great Lakes Region and the African Union, of an international summit dedicated to the crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in which, in particular, the Congolese and Rwandan presidents, Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame, participated.
Amongst the main advances of this summit, we should especially note the commitment of the states in the region to send, if necessary, peace-keeping forces to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and, if necessary, to appoint a high-level team of facilitators, consisting of the former president of Nigeria, Mr Obasanjo, and the former president of Tanzania, Mr Mkapa.
At its extraordinary summit in Johannesburg, on 10 November, the SADC also stated its readiness, if need be, to send a peace-keeping force to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The European Union welcomes the commitment of the African states and remains determined to continue its cooperation with the UN, the African Union and the countries of the Great Lakes region to achieve a solution to this crisis. However, let us be clear that it will not be possible to resolve this crisis without strengthening the resources designed to stabilise the peace, especially those of the United Nations.
The Foreign Ministers of the Union discussed the issue at length in the General Affairs and External Relations Council on 10 November last and the President decided to put this item on the agenda for the next General Affairs and External Relations Council on 8 December, in the presence of the Commission, represented by Louis Michel and Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
It must be said that the situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has deteriorated greatly since the end of August, when the CNDP, led by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, launched an offensive against the Congolese armed forces. The latter proved unable to resist, leaving only MONUC, the United Nations peacekeeping force, to protect the civilian population.
The rebels’ successes on the ground took them to the gates of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, and enabled them to significantly extend their area of influence in this border province with Rwanda. The continuing crisis once again shows the potential for instability which is caused by the presence of all the rebel groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo: not only the CNDP, but also the Hutu rebels of the FDLR.
The rout of the Congolese armed forces also shows that this complex crisis cannot be settled by a military solution and that the path to a sustainable settlement requires a political solution which takes into account both the local and the regional players. I will return to this in a moment.
In the depths of the crisis and at the height of the offensive by Laurent Nkunda’s rebel forces, the European Union mobilised vigorously, followed by the rest of the international community. The urgent task, you will recall, was first to prevent the capture of Goma and to try to stabilise the conflict. That is why Commissioner Louis Michel went out to the region to see for himself. On 1 and 2 November, he was followed by Bernard Kouchner, in his role as President-in-Office of the Council, and David Miliband.
The political message of restraint was delivered by both ministers, in Kinshasa, Kigali and Dar es Salaam. The ministers also went to Goma to demonstrate, on the ground, that our full attention is on this crisis, to assess the requirements of the displaced populations, and to meet the humanitarian organisations since, once again, the civilian population is the first victim of the resumption of fighting.
This fighting has led to a major deterioration in the humanitarian situation. It is estimated that a further 250 000 people have been displaced in the most dramatic conditions, taking the current total to over one million displaced persons in the province of North Kivu alone. Add to this the serious infringements of human rights perpetrated by the rebel groups, including summary execution, widespread sexual violence, the recruitment of child soldiers and acts of pillage, both by the rebel groups and certain elements in the Congolese armed forces.
The resumption of fighting has also interrupted the implementation of the agreements concluded in November 2007 between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, known as the Nairobi process, with which you are familiar and which focuses on the struggle against the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the FDLR located in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The agreement between the Congolese government and the Congolese rebel groups, including Mr Nkunda’s CNDP, in January 2008, known as the Goma process, has also broken down."@en1
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