SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES SUCCESSFUL HOLDING OF FIRST FULL MEETING OF JOINT MILITARY COMMISSION IN KAMPALA

Press Release
SG/SM/7178
AFR/182

SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES SUCCESSFUL HOLDING OF FIRST FULL MEETING OF JOINT MILITARY COMMISSION IN KAMPALA

The following statement was issued today by the Office of the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General welcomes the successful holding of the first full meeting of the Joint Military Commission in Kampala on 11 and 12 October, with the participation of a United Nations delegation headed by his Representative for the Great Lakes Region, Berhanu Dinka, and including the Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Observer Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), Colonel James Ellery. He is encouraged that the representatives of the parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have extended in writing guarantees of security for United Nations personnel and property to be deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The United Nations looks forward to working with them towards the restoration of peace in that country.

The security guarantees given at Kampala will allow the United Nations to proceed with the deployment of military liaison officers and civilian personnel to rear and field headquarters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the early dispatch of a technical survey team, which will review conditions on the ground. Following the assessment by the technical survey team, the Secretary- General will submit a report to the Security Council concerning an enlarged presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is hoped that, subject to authorization by the Security Council, this will lead to the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation.

The Secretary-General reiterates his support for the efforts by the Organization of African Unity to help implement the Lusaka ceasefire agreement. He commends highly the Governments of South Africa, Uganda and Zambia for their generous contributions in cash and in kind to the functioning of the Joint Military Commission under the chairmanship of General Rachid Lallali (Algeria). He calls on the international community urgently to complement those African contributions, and to extend full political and financial support to the other aspects of the peace process.

The Secretary-General looks forward to the meeting of the Political Committee which will be held in Lusaka on 15 October, under Uganda’s chairmanship. The United Nations will be represented at that meeting by Mr. Dinka.

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