Arriving in DR of Congo, UN peacekeeping chief notes progress

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has made impressive progress over the past year, with a Transitional Government in place, the United Nations mission reinforced and atrocities in the northeast ended, the United Nations peacekeeping chief said on his arrival today in the Great Lakes country for a weeklong visit.

"I am greatly encouraged by the progress achieved. However, we should bear in mind that there is still a lot to achieve," Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno said.

He noted that it was his fifth visit to the DRC and he had visited often because peace in the vast African country was a high priority for the UN.

Mr. Guéhenno is scheduled to hold talks with Congolese authorities and members of the International Committee to Support the Transition (CIAT) and to review the deployment in the east of peacekeepers from the Ituri and Kivu Brigades of the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC).

On leaving the DRC, he is scheduled to go to Kampala, Uganda, and Kigali, Rwanda, to meet the Presidents of both countries and will end his trip with a visit to South Africa, MONUC said.