Crisis in the Congo: UK parliamentary group demands urgent intervention to support UN in Congo
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, an association of more than 200 MPs and Peers working for peace and development in central Africa, called today for urgent international intervention to contain the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, reinforce UN troops struggling to respond to the rebel advance on the town of Goma, and address the underlying causes of the conflict.
APPG chair Eric Joyce MP said: “This crisis is a grave threat to the progress that has been made in years of efforts to end the deadliest conflict of modern times, and could greatly damage the credibility of the UN and of the international community. We need urgent action to support MONUC in its immediate task – and then to finally make progress with ending the underlying conflict in eastern Congo.”
The APPG calls on the UK and wider international community to urgently respond to the request of the head of MONUC for more resources and troop reinforcements, and has asked Secretary of State David Milliband and Africa Minister Mark Malloch-Brown to make sure the UK plays its part in the international reaction to the crisis. The APPG believes serious consideration should be given to an additional EU force to support MONUC in north and south Kivu, along the lines of that deployed to Ituri province in 2003. But the response should be part of a wider effort:
“We should not return to the status quo. This crisis should be the occasion to redefine the international commitment to the Congo so that there can be a more effective effort to address the causes of the conflict. If we leave the fundamental problems to fester under the surface, all our other efforts – and the UK’s laudable investment in helping the Congo – will be built on sand.” Peace requires dealing with the CNDP, but also all the other armed groups – in particular the FDLR.. The Congolese government must play their part make this happen.”
“Other regional governments, in particular Rwanda, have a clear duty to do everything in their power to actively support that process.”
The APPG unequivocally condemns the offensive of General Laurent Nkunda, and calls on him to withdraw his troops and make permanent yesterday’s ceasefire. The Amani peace process which his CNDP movement was engaged until late August was designed to include legitimate issues of concern for the Tutsi community Nkunda claims to be defending, and the APPG was active in calling for all parties to genuinely engage with that process. But by resorting to aggressive military action the CNDP have put themselves unequivocally in the wrong.
The APPG Chair added: “In terms of the impact on civilians this is a much worse conflict than Darfur or Afghanistan – one that has cost 5.4 million lives directly and indirectly over the past decade. But there are far fewer barriers to effective international action, and the problems in Congo are not intractable. After ten years, we need a more determined approach to prevent the conflict in eastern DRC dragging on – at huge cost to the civilian population and to any prospect of recovery in the country.”
