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Update No. 4: Security Council Mission to Africa

Update Report in Word and PDF

On 28 May the Council is expecting a briefing on the recent mission by Council members to Africa. The five-day, four-country trip had four leaders who led or co-led the delegation at different destinations.

The 16 May visit to Addis Ababa, whose main focus was enhancing the UN partnership with the African Union on issues of common interest to the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC), was led jointly by the UK Ambassador John Sawers and the Ugandan Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda. They also co-led the 17 May visit to Rwanda.

The 18-19 May visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) took place under the leadership of French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert.

US Ambassador Susan Rice led the 20 May visit to Liberia.

All four permanent representatives are expected to participate in briefing the Council.

Addis Ababa
While the Council’s relationship with the PSC was the main focus of the Ethiopian leg of the trip, members also met the country’s leader, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The main feature of the programme in Addis Ababa was a three-hour session with the PSC, preceded by a meeting with the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Jean Ping.

Some of the meeting with the PSC was spent on procedural issues because various differences had emerged between the two bodies. African leaders had been eager to emphasise the growing relationship and therefore preferred a more formal event. By contrast, some members of the Council, in particular the P5, insisted on the informal nature of the event (in fact, on the eve of the meeting, the Russian president of the Security Council sent a letter to the AU emphasising the informal nature of the meeting). The African side was also eager to have a thorough follow-up discussion of the meetings in New York in March between the AU and the UN on the report by the AU-UN panel on modalities for support to AU peacekeeping operations (the Prodi Report). This issue was not included in the Council terms of reference for the trip and Council members were reluctant to pursue it in greater detail. This matter was discussed briefly and is likely to reemerge following the publication of the Secretary-General’s report requested by the March presidential statement and due in September.

Other issues discussed included the situation in Sudan (including the increased hostilities between Chad and Sudan); UN support for the AU mission in Somalia (with the African Union continuing to press for the eventual conversion of the operation into a UN peacekeeping mission); and the recent upsurge of unconstitutional changes of government in Africa.

At the end of the joint session, a communiqué was issued which described briefly the content of the meeting and stated that the two bodies will “pursue their consultations on ways and means to strengthen their cooperation and partnership” with the next consultative meeting to be held in New York in 2010.

Finally, in preparation for the next leg of their trip, with a focus on the recent rapprochement between the DRC and Rwanda, the delegation received an extensive briefing from the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Olusegun Obasanjo.

Rwanda
The visit to Rwanda was the first official Council trip to the country and began with a visit to the Rwanda Genocide Memorial Museum.

The delegation then met with the country’s foreign minister. One issue raised was targeted sanctions. UN sanctions appeared to have played a significant role in recent developments between Rwanda and the DRC. The issue raised by the foreign minister was a list of 19 individuals whose names the Government of Rwanda submitted to the DRC Sanctions Committee in May 2008. (Four of those names had been added to the UN sanctions list by early 2009.)

Several observers have noted the possible connection between Council-imposed sanctions and the recent rapprochement between Rwanda and the DRC. Following the December 2008 report of the DRC Group of Experts, which pointed to Rwanda as violating some sanctions, two European states suspended some economic aid to Rwanda. This has been seen as perhaps a factor in prompting Rwanda to reevaluate its relationship with the DRC, contributing to its decision to detain CNDP (Congrès national pour la défense du peuple) leader Laurent Nkunda, engage in joint military operations with the DRC and actively pursue a peace process.

The Council then took a helicopter trip to Mutobo, northwest of Kigali, showcasing a rehabilitation and demobilisation camp holding some 550 former soldiers from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

At the end of the day, Council members met Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The nearly two hour meeting focused on Rwanda’s relationship with the DRC as well as on general issues such as international justice and UN peacekeeping, with the Rwandan leader conveying to Council members his concerns about these two matters.

DRC
The two day trip to the DRC began in Goma, in the North Kivu region of the country. In addition to expressing the Council’s overall support for the Rwanda-Congolese rapprochement, the goals of the trip included: a better grasp of the functioning of the largest UN peacekeeping operation, MONUC (UN Mission in the DRC); a briefing on the prospects for MONUC’s strengthening in the immediate future (some 3,000 personnel are expected by June or July); plans for MONUC’s eventual drawdown (expected by 2011); an update on the joint operations (Kimia II and Rubia II) undertaken by MONUC and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) against FDLR and the Lord’s Resistance Army, respectively.

While in Goma Council members met with victims of sexual violence and travelled by helicopter to a displaced persons camp at Kiwanja, where they also visited a headquarters for the operation Kimia II.

Council members explored possible ways to improve the protection of civilians’ aspect of MONUC’s mandate and raised concerns about reports of abuses of civilians perpetrated by remnants of the rebel forces as well as FARDC. (The FARDC has absorbed former rebel combatants. Resolution 1856 called on the Congolese leadership to create a vetting mechanism “to take into account when they select candidates for official positions, including key posts in the armed forces, national police and other security services, the candidates’ past actions in terms of respect for international humanitarian law and human rights.” Civil society representatives who met Council members in Goma reported that several known perpetrators have not been screened out. The DRC Group of Experts in its 14 May report recommended that “the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo implement a vetting mechanism to screen the human rights records of FARDC officers within the wider context of security sector reform.”)

In its meetings with top DRC leaders, including the prime minister and the president, the delegation brought up five specific names of former rebel commanders who had been absorbed into the FARDC despite their documented abuses against civilian population. MONUC had first brought the names to the DRC judicial authorities’ attention in early 2008, in letters sent by the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General. The delegation received assurances that the matter will be addressed.

Liberia
The Council last visited Liberia in 2004, soon after the establishment of the mandate of UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in the aftermath of the bloody civil war. The visit in 2009 was meant to assess the progress made and to evaluate whether the conditions were ripe for the drawdown of the mission. The mission has already been reduced from some 15,000 to a little over 10,000 and the Secretary-General has recommended further gradual reductions. Some members, notably France, want a faster drawdown while others, in particular the US, are opposed to an accelerated process, arguing that the situation remains very fragile and that what today can be described as a relative success story could easily become another repeated crisis in a very volatile region of West Africa.

The 24-hour stay in Monrovia included a meeting with the International Contact Group for Liberia (comprised of Monrovia-based ambassadors of Nigeria, the US, the AU, Sweden, France, the UK, Germany, the European Commission, Spain and ECOWAS who were also joined by representatives of China and Libya), a visit to the Indian female police unit of UNMIL, a tour of Monrovia’s largest prison, and a visit to a rehabilitation centre for ex-combatants. The delegation also met representatives of civil society, the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the leaders of key private companies operating in Liberia. The Council also met the country’s president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. The fragility of the peace was highlighted at most meetings. Several of the Council’s interlocutors emphasised the additional adverse impact of the economic crisis on the overall situation of Liberia, a country with high unemployment and a high number of underemployed and unemployed ex-combatants whose idleness creates additional security threats.

Security Council Delegation
Austria: Thomas Mayr-Harting
Burkina Faso: Michel Kafando
China: Long Zhou
Costa Rica: Jorge Urbina
Croatia: Ranko Vilovic
France: Jean-Maurice Ripert
Japan: Yukio Takasu
Libya: Abdurrahman Shalgham
Mexico: Claude Heller
Russian Federation: Vladimir Safronkov
Turkey: Fazli Corman
Uganda: Ruhakana Rugunda
United Kingdom: John Sawers
United States: Susan Rice
Viet Nam: Hoang Chi Trung

UN Documents on Cooperation with the AU

UN Documents on the DRC

UN Documents on Liberia

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