Arriving in DR of Congo, UN peacekeeping official predicts challenge in upcoming polls

The senior United Nations peacekeeping official has arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the world body has deployed a large-scale mission to help facilitate a return to stability in the war-ravaged country.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, commended the Congolese for their participation in the constitutional referendum last year. He also noted that the organization of the national elections planned for June would be a big challenge for the Congolese as well as the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).

During his 10-day visit to the DRC, Mr. Guéhenno plans to meet with political leaders, including President Laurent Kabila, and to visit the troubled eastern part of the country.

In recent days, hundreds of MONUC troops have been, backed by helicopter gunships, have been helping the Congolese army to dislodge militia said to have been looting and enslaving locals in the east.

The blue helmets have been working to protect civilians as the army works to drive out Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) who have been operating for the past decade in the heavily forested area north of Bukavu, the main city of the South Kivu region.

The Hutus moved across the border in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus by extremist Hutus, in which 800,000 people are estimated to have died.