NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UN HUMAN RIGHTS MISSION GIVEN ACCESS TO DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Press Release

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UN HUMAN RIGHTS MISSION GIVEN ACCESS TO DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

When the Secretary-General met with President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 3 June at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit, the first matter he raised with the President was human rights and the humanitarian situation regarding Rwandan refugees in that country.

President Kabila indicated that he understood the importance and urgency of the issue, assured the Secretary-General that he wanted to deal with it, and agreed to two things.

First, he designated Minister Mbayi of his Cabinet as the focal point for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to deal with problems of access to, and treatment and repatriation of, Rwandan refugees.

Second, he agreed to grant access to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which had been trying without success to send an investigative team to the country to look into reports of gross violations of human rights, as called for by the Security Council in April.

Today, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, who met with President Kabila in Kinshasa, reported to the Secretary-General that the President had agreed to allow a United Nations investigative team into the Democratic Republic of the Congo in two stages; an advance team could enter on 20 June and the full team on 7 July.

The Secretary-General is following up today with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva to prepare the visit of the investigative team to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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