With
DRC "Unwilling
to Discuss"
with M23, It's
up to Uganda,
UN Won't
Skirmish
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 10 --
More than two
hours after
the UN's
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
briefing to
the Security
Council
began
Wednesday
afternoon,
Council
president Gert
Rosenthal
emerged to
take questions
at the
stakeout.
There were
only two.
Inner
City Press
asked if any
Council
members spoke
in the closed
door session
to a need for
the DRC
government of
Joseph Kabila
to engage in
talks with the
M23 mutineers
about their
claims that
promises made
about
integrating
them into the
Congolese army
were not kept.
Inner City
Press noted
that Uganda
offered to
mediate but
was rebuffed
by Kabila. Do
all Council
members agree?
Rosenthal
replied
thoughtfully
that "the DRC
has been
unwilling to
have such
discussions
for reasons of
its own," so
such an
initiative
would be up to
the
International
Conference on
the Great
Lakes Region
through its
current
presidency,
Uganda. Video
here, from
Minute 1:27.
Yes,
but Uganda was
rebuffed. In
order
circumstances,
the Security
Council will
urge parties
to talk. Will
it here, in
the
Presidential
Statement that
Rosenthal said
he expects to
issue early
next week?
France,
whose
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
left well
before the
meeting ended
in order to
give a speech
at Columbia
University
about Syria,
has said that
there should
be a dialogue
between
Kinshasa and
Kigali, with
no mention of
the M23 and
its stated
grievances. So
what will the
Presidential
Statement say?
Inner
City Press
also asked
Rosenthal if
the UN has any
access,
humanitarian
or otherwise,
to the areas
controlled by
the M23. He
replied that
"there is a UN
presence,"
MONUSCO, but
it is limited
to "urban
areas."
Apparently,
that means
Rutshuru.
Rosenthal
said
that MONUSCO
"is not
looking for
skirmishes
with the M23
for obvious
reasons." The
reasons may be
obvious, at
least to some
-- but just on
the surface
this seems to
conflict with
MONUSCO's
supposedly
robust
protection of
civilians
mandate.
This
is another
question
that
should be
answered by
the head
of UN
Peacekeeping,
Herve Ladsous,
who refuses to
answer Press
questions
and Wednesday
was not in
town to give
the briefing
-- he is in
another UN
Peacekeeping
mission of
dubious
accomplishment,
or constrained
by France
related
colonial
issues:
MINURSO in Western
Sahara, while
it was being
discussed in
the UN's
Special
Committee on
Decolonialization. Watch this site.
, 
