During his visit, Mr. Le Roy met with President Joseph Kabila, Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito and several ministers, inter alia, the Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs. Mr. Le Roy set out initial ideas on MONUC’s gradual downsizing scheduled for June 2010, according to the Congolese authorities.

“MONUC’s withdrawal may be quickly achieved in “Defence Zones 1 and 2,” he said at a press conference, adding that, like the Kasais and Katanga, those zones were not affected by conflict.

Mr. Le Roy underscored that the current phase was one of discussion with the Congolese authorities in order to define the time frame and the steps required for MONUC military forces to be able to leave. In this respect, the Congolese Head of state will name in the coming days a team to discuss reconfiguration and disengagement with MONUC.

MONUC’s current mandate is expected to end on 30 May under Security Council Resolution 1906. The Resolution explicitly anticipated the reconfiguration and gradual drawdown of MONUC. In this perspective, a Technical Assessment Mission (TAM) from New York has spent several days in the DRC, Working with MONUC, the TAM met with senior DRC Government officials in order to work out together the modalities for this reconfiguration, which will be reflected in a report by the UN Secretary General to the Security Council. Upon consideration of the report, the Security Council will issue a new mandate for MONUC, starting in June 2010.


MONUC’s support to FARDC operations

Responding to a question about the involvement of certain officers of the FARDC in alleged human rights violations, notably Colonel Zimulinda who was said to be involveed in MONUC- supported operations, Mr. Le Roy said “We have made clear to the Congolese Government officials…that MONUC does not support units with which Mr. Zimulinda is involved; in the same mannerMr. Bosco Ntanganda is not in the chain of command of operations we support.,” he said.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Alan Doss, took this opportunity to explain that MONUC has put in place a joint procedure with the FARDC within the framework of the joint operations against the FDLR.

“We have set up a joint procedure with FARDC; we are following this procedure and I believe that it is the correct way to proceed. We have set up a mechanism to ensure that operations are jointly planned. Thus far, the current operations have been launched in accordance with this procedure which was agreed by FARDC and MONUC,” Alan Doss said.

According to this procedure, MONUC provides, at the request of the FARDC, rations and other essential support to the units that carry out protection and prevention operations, provided these operations are planned jointly and in full compliance with the human rights, the international humanitarian law and the refugees’ law, as required by the UNSC Resolution 1906 (2009).

FARDC and MONUC military commands have taken several steps such as the deployment of the Military Police at the level of battalions with a view to preventing and sanctioning acts of violations of human rights, the international humanitarian law and refugees’ law by their own forces. Actions are also taken to fully implement the zero tolerance policy. Moreover, sensitization programme are to be undertaken for the military leaders and troops on discipline and moral obligations, as well as the responsibilities of the military hierarchy.