Security Council mission meets leaders of DR of Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa

A delegation of the United Nations Security Council continued its eight-nation mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa this morning as it met for two hours in Kinshasa with President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The 15-member delegation, whose visit is aimed at shoring up support for peace initiatives in the Great Lakes region, met yesterday in Harare with President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and in Johannesburg with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, who is leading the delegation, said that the Council's message to all our partners remained the same: "Think about peace in the region, think about ways and means to push the peace process, because people in the region long for peace."

In addition to holding talks today with President Kabila, the Council delegation had a number of other meetings in Kinshasa, starting with the UN mission in the country, known as MONUC. This afternoon, the team met with representatives of civil society, political parties, religious leaders and UN agencies.

According to a UN spokesman, this evening the delegation would attend a ceremony of the destruction of weapons, following which it would give a press conference. Tomorrow, the mission is scheduled to leave for Kisangani, in the DRC's Oriental Province.