PRESS CONFERENCE BY HEAD OF SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION TO GREAT LAKES REGION

PRESS CONFERENCE BY HEAD OF SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION TO GREAT LAKES REGION

The Security Council mission leaving tomorrow for the Great Lakes region would lend support to the parties implementing the Lusaka accord to which they had agreed in 1999, the head of the mission said.  Jean-David Levitte, France’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made that clarification this afternoon at Headquarters while briefing correspondents on the nature of the mission.

Mr. Levitte said the 12-member mission to the Great Lakes region was expected to last 10 days.  It was taking place now because a new stage had been reached in implementing the Lusaka agreement.  That process had stalled after it was signed in 1999, but it had become active again with Security Council resolution 1341 adopted in February.  The resolution had launched a new stage of implementing the agreement, with the United Nations strengthening its deployment in the field.

He said the Council’s first task was to bring together the disengagement force so that disengagement itself would be completed during the mission’s visit.  Council members would help resolve problems, especially those that arose in connection with setting up an interim administration for those zones in which a vacuum was created by the removal of foreign forces.  A temporary administration had to be set up before the foreign forces left.  It was up to the Government to decide how it would manage the zones once the foreign forces left.  The Security Council could only help.

Mr. Levitte said the parties involved were taking steps to achieve the disengagement with regard to two key considerations.  First, a joint military committee representing all parties to the conflict would meet on 16 and 17 May to agree on a total withdrawal plan of all foreign involvements since the timeline had changed from the original Lusaka agreement.  The military committee would also consider a comprehensive plan for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of military elements based on information provided by the involved governments.  Once the military agreed on both those plans, State ministers would meet with Council members on 22 May, when the disengagement force phase would yield to the Lusaka implementation phase.

Further explaining the Council mission’s role in the Democratic Republic, Mr. Levitte said the mission would meet with the head of each State involved in the conflict.  Then, in addition to assisting in resolving problems, it would help bring together all the main actors in the field and help meet the pressing need for national dialogue.  The mission would also involve itself in efforts to revive the economy, help consider the situation in Burundi and keep an eye on the planned regional conference for the Great Lakes.

In discussing the administration of the zones vacated by foreign forces, Mr. Levitte stressed the distinction between the situation in the Democratic Republic and that in Kosovo.  The United Nations would not take on the administration of the zones in the Democratic Republic because the Lusaka Accord was not an imposed agreement but one decided upon by all parties.  The Security Council’s role was to help the parties implement agreements to which they

themselves had agreed.  It was supporting but not replacing elements, accompanying the efforts of the parties but not taking their places.

Asked to comment on the ambitious nature of the mission, Mr. Levitte pointed out that the conflict in the Democratic Republic was the most serious problem in all Africa.  The mission was going to the Great Lakes as a demonstration that the United Nations presence in the region was for the purpose of helping every State, both internally and in relation to its neighbors.  In the Democratic Republic, five foreign armies were involved and ready to withdraw after 2.5 million deaths as a result of the conflict.

The Ambassador was pressed further on why he believed the highly orchestrated programme for disengaging and reintegrating military forces in the region would actually take place.  He replied that the plan the mission would help implement was not one devised by the Security Council but rather by the parties to the Lusaka Accord themselves.  The Council was not adding to the Lusaka plan, nor was it imposing an agreement.  The Council was simply helping to implement an agreement decided upon by the parties themselves.  No forced imposition was involved and the United Nations role was simply to help the parties move forward under the presence of United Nations observers.  The administration of vacated zones was the one area still to be decided, since that had not been covered in the Lusaka agreement.  That issue would be decided with all parties participating.

“I didn’t say I’m optimistic and I didn’t say I’m pessimistic”, he concluded.  “Our goal is simply to support those who are party to the Lusaka Accord”.  In response to final questions, he said South Africa was an important country that was involved in the neighbouring Burundi situation through Nelson Mandela.  The timing of the disengagement was up to the parties, and the mission would not be meeting with Mr. Savimbi because of Security Council sanctions against UNITA.

Finally, it was pointed out that recent reports had been critical of the Democratic Republic’s neighbors concerning the plunder of diamonds and related activities.  What would the Council mission say to the leaders of those neighbours when they met? Mr. Levitte was asked.

He answered that such criticisms wouldn’t complicate matters.  The Council’s interest was not to punish but to encourage all parties to turn a new page and to undertake initiatives that would end the plunder.

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