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Update Report No. 1: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Expected Council Action
On 10 August the Security Council is expected to adopt a resolution on the sanctions regime on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This follows a short rollover of the existing resolution on 31 July to enable Council members to weigh up a recent deterioration of the situation in the east of the country as well as a request from the government to modify the arms embargo. The Council is also expected to renew the mandate of the Group of Experts (GoE).

Key Recent Developments
The security situation in the country has remained fragile, with deterioration particularly in the volatile eastern provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri, where violence has broken out again between the national army and armed groups as well as clashes between rival militias.

The political situation remains fragile. On 9 July the body of a prominent local politician, Floribert Chui Bin Kositi, provincial secretary of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), was discovered in Goma, capital of North Kivu. His body was reported to bear marks evidencing a violent attack. The UN has since condemned the killing.

In another potentially destabilising political development, Jean Pierre Bemba, the main Congolese opposition leader, refused to return from Portugal, when his leave of absence from the Senate expired on 31 July. He had gone there for medical treatment on 11 April. Lack of security guarantees by the government was cited by his spokesperson as the reason behind Bemba’s refusal to return to the DRC. This marks the second time that he has decided against returning to the country because of security concerns and, in effect, a continuation of his de-facto political exile.

Also in July, the UN inquiry into allegations of gold and arms trafficking by UN peacekeepers in the Ituri region between 2005 and 2006 confirmed that a Pakistani peacekeeper was involved in smuggling gold. The report has been brought to the attention of the Pakistani authorities for action to be taken against the affected officer. The investigation did not find any evidence of gun smuggling and the head of the Peace Keeping Department Jean-Marie Guéhenno, subsequently, declared the matter closed. Human Rights Watch has criticised the UN probe, stating that “surely a report confirming illegal acts by UN peacekeepers is not the end of a process, but the beginning.”

In a letter to the Council president dated 18 July the Permanent Representative of the DRC to the UN conveyed a request by the Congolese government for a modification of the arms embargo and for clarification of the government’s relationship with the DRC sanctions committee and the Group of Experts, in view of the new political situation in the country.

The GoE submitted its final report to the Chairman of the DRC sanctions committee on 13 June. Its earlier interim report in January, among other things, voiced concern about the situation in the country but did not recommend the imposition of further sanctions (For more details please see our July Forecast).

On 23 July, following reports of violence and a military build-up by various actors in the eastern provinces, the Council was briefed on the deteriorating situation by Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guéhenno. The Council subsequently issued a presidential statement conveying its concern and deploring the violence. It also called on foreign armed groups and mixed brigades to stop the fighting. The Council called for a political and diplomatic solution to the problem and expressed its concern about the recruitment of child soldiers, especially by forces loyal to Laurent Nkunda.

Key Issue
The key issue remains the question as to what form a continuation of the arms embargo on the DRC should take, in the light of the deterioration of the situation but also bearing in mind the general desire to support the recently elected government without endangering the existing fragile security situation.

Council Dynamics
The United States supports a form of exemption from the arms embargo for the government. This was raised shortly before the scheduled renewal of the current regime on 31 July. The Council was therefore prompted to defer a decision at that time and to adopt the ten-day technical rollover of the sanctions regime. The US has argued that a modification of the arms embargo would send a positive signal of the Council’s support to the government as well as enhance the latter’s capacity to effectively control its national territory, especially the troubled eastern provinces, and carry out security sector reforms. In this connection, it is pushing for an exemption for the government forces from the total arms embargo that is currently in place in the provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri.

Secondly, the US would also like to see the removal of the requirement that the DRC sanctions committee should be notified in advance of all shipments of arms and related materiel to the government, and also that such arms shipments be made to designated sites, in co-ordination with the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and with advance notification to the sanctions committee.

Council members are generally agreed on the need for the government to be in effective control of its territory and to give a positive indication of its support to the government. However, concerns have been voiced by several members, especially Belgium and its European counterparts, about the potential for such arms to fall into the hands of possible spoilers in the ‘mixed’ brigades or those of the forces of renegade General Laurent Nkunda. They have also raised concerns that the Council might be perceived as sending mixed messages since its 23 July presidential statement clearly voiced a preference for all actors to “refrain from any action leading to military confrontation … and to seek a solution to the current crisis through political and diplomatic means” to the situation in eastern DRC. Modification of the arms embargo could be misinterpreted to mean that the Council has retreated from its earlier position of seeking a peaceful solution to the situation, which could therefore potentially lead to further violence or deterioration in the situation. Besides, abolishing the use of designated sites for arms imports would remove a crucial security monitoring mechanism for the Council.

Deliberations are underway among Council members to come up with a text accommodating the various concerns. However the Council appears keen to find an early closure to the matter to avoid another technical roll-over when the 10 August deadline elapses.

Options
Options before the Council include:

• a simple renewal of the current sanctions regime. This option seems a less likely one, since there seems to be wide acceptance within the Council that it is important to find a compromise that would accommodate the various concerns expressed by its members;
• adopting a method by which it would consider respective requests by the government for exemptions to the arms embargo in the eastern provinces on a case-by-case basis; and/or
• shortening the review period for the prevailing sanctions regime, while clearly setting a number of benchmarks for the government to meet in order to qualify for a modification of the arms embargo.

UN Documents

Other Relevant Facts

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