18 dec. 03 | Yulu Kabamba

MONUC Force Commander, General Mountaga Diallo declared Wednesday, in a press briefing marking the end of his nearly four-year mandate, that the DRC peace process and MONUC deployment were making good progress.

During this MONUC last press briefing for the year 2003, General Diallo described his mission, on the whole, as positive and indicated that the major difficulties encountered while leading the Mission were the Ituri conflict and deployments according to the plans.

He arrived in MONUC in April 2000 and assumed office with only a hundred or so military observers. At this point as he is preparing to leave the DRC, he declares himself satisfied with his tour of duty, especially regarding the breakthrough in troop-deployment, which has now reached the authorized 10,800-strong ceiling.

General Diallo was appreciative of the support and friendship enjoyed from the three successive Special Representatives with whom he worked. This enabled him to achieve the present results, he further indicated.

After the eventful moments of the peace process, which he daily accompanied in DRC, he declared himself convinced that the DRC would have a unified army and democratic institutions.

The last meeting of the year with the press was introduced by MONUC spokesman who apprised that Mr. William Swing was participating in the Paris meeting of the Donors? consultative group for the DRC. He also announced that Mr. Swing briefed the donors on MONUC activities within the framework of its support to the peace process.

Mr. Swing jointly chaired with the Head of the delegation of the European Commission in DRC, Ambassador Carlo Filippi, a meeting on the financial impact of the elections envisaged for 2005, under the transitional constitution, indicated the Spokesman.
The Spokesman further updated the press on the repatriation of the foreign armed groups cantoned at Kitona military base since last November. MONUC, he said, repatriated 392 Ugandan ex-combatants and their dependants. It also completed the screening of 129 Rwandans including 72 ex-combatants. They will all be repatriated in the next few days.

Furthermore, within the framework of other repatriation operations, MONUC repatriated from Goma 29 Rwandan ex-combatants and their dependants on 15 December 2003.