UN
United Nations Peacekeeping
6 Mar
2009
Press Review
Today's local press report on the visit of a UN Security Council Team to the Democratic Republic of Congo. They also comment on the alleged tense relations between the DRC and the Kingdom of Belgium.
Visibly uninformed about the arrival of the UN Security Council delegation in Kinshasa on Sunday, L'OBSERVATEUR announces the UN Security Council Delegation's trip to the DRC for this Monday, adding that the Mission is led by the French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Marc de la Sablière. The paper quotes diplomatic sources and indicates that the delegation is due to be received by President Joseph Kabila this Monday before meeting with Vice-Presidents Jean-Pierre Bemba, Azarias Ruberwa, Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma and Yerodia Ndombasi. The daily further says that ''the talks will revolve around the transition process that should lead to free and democratic elections in 2005, the DDRRR programme, the DRC army reunification and economic reconstruction''. After Kinshasa, the UN Security Council mission will fly to Bukavu, the paper says.
LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES writes UN brings support to the Great Lakes summit through the Security Council delegation, indicating that the Security Council is due to hold talks with the Heads of States who participated in the first Dar es-Salaam summit on peace, security and development at the end of the trip for an assessment of the overall situation. ''Even though the plagues hitting that part of the region will not be healed shortly, the summit's objective however was to set the conditions for a durable peace'', the paper says.
In Dar es-Salaam, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan also confirmed the allegations on sexual abuse committed by some MONUC staff members. Echoing this news, LE POTENTIEL adds that in his message, Kofi Annan declared ''to have received information corroborating the allegations on sexual abuses involving the UN peacekeeping staff in the DRC''. The United Nations Secretary-General highlighted that there were serious evidence confirming the allegations, which only concern a few UN staff. He assured that ''he would work untiringly until such abuses are completely eliminated within MONUC and in other peace keeping operations and the entire organisation''.
In this regard, LA REFERENCE PLUS echoes a declaration issued by a Youth Association in Ituri ''taking it out on Monuc''. According to the declaration published in full by this paper, the Youth Association feels outraged by ''the supremacy and omnipresence of Monuc-Bunia in interfering in the political, security, administrative and judiciary management of Ituri''. According to this document, the Ituri commissioner would have voiced ''his discontent'' in this respect. The Ituri youth denounces the fact that their district is ''placed under a special status similar to that of a state in state endowed with political institutions'in which Monuc veto would have lot of influence''. They stand up against MONUC ''paternalism'', indicating that ''the role of accompanying the peace process has swiftly turned to an alternative or substitute power''.
By way of proof, they cite some apparently insignificant ''but meaningful'' facts, notably ''the cutting of the symbolic ribbon by the Monuc chief when the rehabilitation work was launched on the Bunia-Kasenyi road, paying respects to Monuc chief in Ituri forced on the local officials' Monuc opposition to administrative actions taken by the Special Administration'''. The Ituri Youth Association concludes their declaration with the following citation: ''if Ituri is a thorn to the transition process, MONUC would be a worm in the foot of Ituri''.
Under the heading Tensions running high between Kinshasa and Brussels, LE POTENTIEL raises again ''Karel De Gucht's affair that continues poisoning relations between the DRC and Belgium''. The paper reports that in Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania where the international Conference on peace, security and development was held, President Joseph Kabila reportedly refused to receive the Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs. The paper quotes a Belgian paper as indicating that ''the latter requested twice to be received by President Kabila in vain'', noting that this is consecutive to ''the last inflammatory and discourteous declarations made by the Belgian minister when visiting the Great Lakes region''. The paper recalls that while in Kigali, ''Mr. Karel De Gucht set the cat among the pigeons by issuing negative statements against Congolese officials by declaring that there was no State in the DRC''.
With some trail of irony, L'AVENIR wondering why ''a man who declared having met no worthy leadership in the DRC able to pull it out of its plight nor seen a State in its embryonic stage, should now seek to be received by the President of such an inexistent country''. The paper considers that having refused to receive him, ''Joseph Kabila means to teach Karel De Gucht that being a country in a bad plight does not imply mortgaging one's sovereignty''.
LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES writes UN brings support to the Great Lakes summit through the Security Council delegation, indicating that the Security Council is due to hold talks with the Heads of States who participated in the first Dar es-Salaam summit on peace, security and development at the end of the trip for an assessment of the overall situation. ''Even though the plagues hitting that part of the region will not be healed shortly, the summit's objective however was to set the conditions for a durable peace'', the paper says.
In Dar es-Salaam, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan also confirmed the allegations on sexual abuse committed by some MONUC staff members. Echoing this news, LE POTENTIEL adds that in his message, Kofi Annan declared ''to have received information corroborating the allegations on sexual abuses involving the UN peacekeeping staff in the DRC''. The United Nations Secretary-General highlighted that there were serious evidence confirming the allegations, which only concern a few UN staff. He assured that ''he would work untiringly until such abuses are completely eliminated within MONUC and in other peace keeping operations and the entire organisation''.
In this regard, LA REFERENCE PLUS echoes a declaration issued by a Youth Association in Ituri ''taking it out on Monuc''. According to the declaration published in full by this paper, the Youth Association feels outraged by ''the supremacy and omnipresence of Monuc-Bunia in interfering in the political, security, administrative and judiciary management of Ituri''. According to this document, the Ituri commissioner would have voiced ''his discontent'' in this respect. The Ituri youth denounces the fact that their district is ''placed under a special status similar to that of a state in state endowed with political institutions'in which Monuc veto would have lot of influence''. They stand up against MONUC ''paternalism'', indicating that ''the role of accompanying the peace process has swiftly turned to an alternative or substitute power''.
By way of proof, they cite some apparently insignificant ''but meaningful'' facts, notably ''the cutting of the symbolic ribbon by the Monuc chief when the rehabilitation work was launched on the Bunia-Kasenyi road, paying respects to Monuc chief in Ituri forced on the local officials' Monuc opposition to administrative actions taken by the Special Administration'''. The Ituri Youth Association concludes their declaration with the following citation: ''if Ituri is a thorn to the transition process, MONUC would be a worm in the foot of Ituri''.
Under the heading Tensions running high between Kinshasa and Brussels, LE POTENTIEL raises again ''Karel De Gucht's affair that continues poisoning relations between the DRC and Belgium''. The paper reports that in Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania where the international Conference on peace, security and development was held, President Joseph Kabila reportedly refused to receive the Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs. The paper quotes a Belgian paper as indicating that ''the latter requested twice to be received by President Kabila in vain'', noting that this is consecutive to ''the last inflammatory and discourteous declarations made by the Belgian minister when visiting the Great Lakes region''. The paper recalls that while in Kigali, ''Mr. Karel De Gucht set the cat among the pigeons by issuing negative statements against Congolese officials by declaring that there was no State in the DRC''.
With some trail of irony, L'AVENIR wondering why ''a man who declared having met no worthy leadership in the DRC able to pull it out of its plight nor seen a State in its embryonic stage, should now seek to be received by the President of such an inexistent country''. The paper considers that having refused to receive him, ''Joseph Kabila means to teach Karel De Gucht that being a country in a bad plight does not imply mortgaging one's sovereignty''.
