DR of Congo: Zimbabwe set to comply with Security Council decisions, UN says

The Government of Zimbabwe has reaffirmed its willingness to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the head of the DRC peacekeeping mission said today.

Speaking to reporters about his Tuesday meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the head of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said his visits to the countries that had signed the Lusaka ceasefire accords were intended to “give a certain impetus to the peace process.”

Namanga Ngongi said the recent encounters in Harare and Kigali, coupled with the commitments made by all parties during the meeting in New York of the political committee in early November, indicated that “a new tendency, more favourable towards dialogue rather than armed battles” was emerging.

He added that it was MONUC’s job to “bring the different perspectives closer together so that the objective of disarming, demobilizing, repatriating, reinstalling and reintegrating the combatants into civilian life in their country can be achieved.”

In response to a question about the report by a UN panel on the illegal exploitation of Congolese resources, Mr. Ngongi said it was “sad to see that the natural resources of a country do not do much to serve the population.” He said the report would be discussed by the Security Council next month.

On the subject of Kisangani, Mr. Ngongi said that a mission had been sent to the city on Wednesday to assess whether the security of civilians there would be guaranteed once it has been demilitarized. “We need to do a lot of prospecting, looking at the sites that will be occupied, the places where additional MONUC forces will be deployed […] in short, there is a lot of short-term work to be done,” he said.