S/PV.6928 Security Council

I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute, on behalf of the Council, to His Excellency Mr. Kim Sook, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea, for his service as President of the Security Council for the month of February 2013. I am sure I speak for all members of the Council in expressing deep appreciation to Ambassador Kim and his team for the great diplomatic skill with which they conducted the Council’s business last month. Adoption of the agenda

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2013/119, which contains the special report of the Secretary-General on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region. I wish to welcome the presence of the Secretary- General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, to whom I now give the floor.

The Mouvement du 23 Mars (M-23) mutiny that began in April 2012 brought yet another wave of misery to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. Countless innocent men, women and children suffered horrendous acts of violence, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction and summary execution. The fighting has stopped, but insecurity prevails — and it is growing in other areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Perhaps some would dismiss the recent unrest in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as yet another cycle of violence in a long-plagued region of the world. But we have it within our grasp to break that cycle and shape something different. Longer-term stability in the entire region is possible, but it requires us to collectively commit to addressing the root causes of the violence. That is why I have reached out to regional leaders and joined with them to find a durable solution. We came together at the margins of the General Assembly last September and at the African Union Summit in January. We agreed that military action alone would not deliver for the people of the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A lasting solution requires at least four ingredients. First, it must be anchored in the political will of the leaders of all the countries of the region. Secondly, it must address the structural causes that are fuelling instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo itself. Thirdly, it must respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and legitimate concerns and interests of all countries concerned. Fourthly, it demands the commitment and long-term support of the international community. Building on existing and ongoing regional peace and security initiatives, we developed an innovative and comprehensive approach. We focused on addressing the root causes of the recurring cycle of violence through a combination of actions at the national, regional and international levels. The approach is presented in my special report before the Council (S/2013/119), and it also formed the basis of the Framework for Peace, Security and Cooperation for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region, signed on 24 February in Addis Ababa. The signing of the Framework represents a historic opportunity. Eleven countries of the Great Lakes region have committed to respecting the sovereignty and integrity of their neighbours, to strengthening economic integration and to neither tolerating nor providing support to armed groups. The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has also committed to undertaking significant internal reforms, such as army reform, decentralization, the expansion of infrastructure and basic social services delivery, reconciliation and democratization. The chairs of the African Union, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, the Southern African Development Community and I are acting as co-guarantors of the Framework. All of us understand that signing the Framework is a beginning, not an end. Implementation is essential, and innovative national and regional oversight mechanisms have been included in the Framework. Multitrack action plans with benchmarks that will ensure the measurement of progress must be developed. The regional oversight mechanism has the format of a peer review among all signatories. That mechanism, composed of the 11+4 signatories of the Framework, will meet at the highest level twice a year to review progress on its implementation. That meeting will take place every January at the margins of the African Union Summit and each September at the annual session of the General Assembly. I will also appoint a special envoy who, together with concerned stakeholders, will support the implementation of the Framework, including through benchmarks to measure national and regional progress. Supporting the implementation of the national commitments set out in the Framework — and consistent with the mandate of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) — my Special Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will play a central role in promoting inclusive and transparent political dialogue among concerned stakeholders as a key priority. To further support the political objectives of the Framework, my report also proposes the establishment within MONUSCO of an intervention brigade. The intervention brigade will have the ability to conduct, with or without the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo, offensive operations against all armed groups that threaten the peace in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That enforcement capacity, which was initially called for by the regional actors, seeks to address the imminent threats to stability and will provide the most appropriate response to the active conflict environment in which MONUSCO has been operating for several years. The intervention brigade will be tasked with containing the expansion of Congolese and foreign armed groups alike, neutralizing those groups and disarming them. That will provide much needed capacity to our peacekeeping operation. We are now consulting with current MONUSCO troop-contributing countries and potential contributors to the international brigade in order to prepare, should the Council agree, for a rapid deployment of the brigade. The security situation remains fragile and demands urgent actions. I call on the Security Council to authorize the deployment of the brigade and to provide it with the necessary political backing. The effective implementation of the commitments and oversights mechanisms will require the long-term efforts of the international community, including the Security Council. Structural reforms in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the commitments made at the regional level will need the international community’s sustained support and heightened attention. The Council should remain seized of the progress made in implementing the provisions of the Framework. Commitments must be translated into results. The latest crisis in North Kivu has displaced 900,000 civilians, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 2.6 million. The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo deserve to live normal lives and not be subject to rape, abduction, exactions, fear or worse. We owe them our best efforts to tackle the root causes of their insecurity. Eleven Heads of State and Government have proclaimed their commitment to uniting for this cause. I call on the Council today to support them. Let us offer the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo not only hope, but a concrete engagement for the peace and stability they have so long deserved.

I thank the Secretary-General for his statement. I now give the floor to the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Allow me, at the outset, to express my satisfaction at seeing you, Sir, preside over the Security Council during the month of March. You represent a country, the Russian Federation, with which the Democratic Republic of the Congo has excellent relations of respect and mutual esteem. Let me also take this opportunity to commend your predecessor, the representative of the Republic of Korea, and to express our appreciation for the mastery with which he led the work of the Security Council last month, as well as for the zeal, expertise and competence with which he discharged his task. I also wish to pay fitting tribute to Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, whose briefing today, in my delegation’s view, conveyed his ongoing concern for the restoration and consolidation of peace in my country. We can never thank him enough for having been so personally invested in the search for a lasting solution to the instability prevailing in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are convinced that, thanks to his personal involvement, the world Organization will help the Congolese people and its young democracy to flourish in the full realization of its political and socioeconomic aspirations. I shall never cease to remind the Council that, following the democratic elections of 2006 and 2011, the populations of North Kivu and South Kivu had good reason to hope for the advent of a lasting peace in that part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those hopes were amply justified by the success of the joint military operations of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo. Progress has been made in reducing threats against the safety of people and improved security management by the Government. The language of arms and violence has prevailed once more in North Kivu, ever since the terrorists of the Mouvement du 23 mars (M-23), who had deserted the ranks of the Congolese army, turned their weapons against the regular army with immeasurable external support. The situation has again disrupted the efforts of the Government and its partners to stabilize and consolidate peace in that part of the country. It is in that context that the Congolese people welcomes the signing in Addis Ababa on 24 February of the Framework for Peace, Security and Cooperation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region. After decades of tumultuous relations with certain neighbouring countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the international community — through the United Nations, the African Union and its regional groupings the Southern African Development Community and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region — is sponsoring a process that establishes and defines overall conditions for lasting peace in the Great Lakes region. That ideal is the focus of the the Secretary-General’s new strategy, which should help to address the causes of recurrent crises and to find a sound political solution. He has just announced the road map for that strategy. I take this opportunity to thank the Secretary- General on behalf of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and to commend his efforts to unite the leaders of the region around the Framework. That agreement is a catalyst for the management of the current crisis. In the words of the leader of the Congolese diplomatic corps, Raymond Tshibanda N’tungamulongo, Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Francophonie of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is “a trigger that will create a rapid intervention brigade integrated within MONUSCO, with a mandate of peace enforcement and sophisticated equipment”. The Congolese people and Government place great hopes in the two initiatives arising from the agreement. They will have a significant impact on the activities of the refurbished MONUSCO, including through the addition of unmanned aerial systems to its monitoring capabilities and an intervention brigade whose mandate would be much more robust than traditional United Nations peacekeeping mandates. Such a component is essential to creating the conditions necessary to obtain the commitment of all the parties to achieving lasting peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region. That is why I would like to reassure the Council most of the commitments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are already under way, pursuant to the programme of the Congolese Government and in the spirit of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the agreement, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has renewed its commitment to continuing and deepening the reform of the security sector, particularly with regard to the army and the police; strengthening State authority, especially in the eastern part of the country, including by preventing armed groups from destabilizing neighbouring countries; promoting economic development, including through the expansion of infrastructure and the provision of basic social services; and promoting the structural reform of State institutions, including finance reform, and the objectives of national reconciliation, tolerance and democracy. The Special Report of the Secretary-General on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes Region (S/2013/119), which is now before the Council, proposes a host of measures to be taken at the national and regional levels. It also sets out recommendations that my country supports, in particular with regard to the support of the international community, the call for stepped-up political efforts by the United Nations, and strengthening MONUSCO. As recently as on Friday, 22 February, Mr. Roger Meece, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of MONUSCO, expressed his concern at the ongoing deterioration of security conditions in the eastern part of the country (see S/PV.6925). Mr. Meece called openly, and rightly, for strengthening the military means at the disposal of the Blue Helmets. I should like to say to the Council that the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and all our people consider the reconfigureation of MONUSCO’s mandate and the swift deployment of the intervention brigade as major concerns. As we all know, that undertaking aims at responding to a genuine and urgent security need in the eastern part of my country. My country, the Secretary-General and many bilateral and multilateral partners have long called for strengthening MONUSCO’s mandate. We believe that that issue is now sufficiently pressing and that it requires speedy action by the Security Council. To that end, my Government should like to make some requests of the Secretary-General and the Council. Following the conclusion of the Framework Agreement, we ask that the Secretary-General finalize the list of prerequisites for the deployment of the brigade. In particular, we ask that he quickly appoint a special envoy tasked with supporting the countries of the region and helping them to follow up the progress made in connection with the goals that have been set to help implement the Framework. We also call on him to promote the speedy implemenation of all aspects of the Framework Agreement. Given the urgency of the matter and the fragility of the situation on the ground, we call on the Security Council to quickly adopt a resolution authorizing a change in MONUSCO’s mandate to make it much more robust. We also ask that the Council quickly authorize the speedy deployment of the intervention brigade in order to eradicate the negative forces, including the M-23, as well as to help to ensure closer monitoring of the country’s eastern border in order to prevent foreign incursions, as well as to prevent all support to armed groups operating in that part of the country, including M-23 terrorists. Moreover, my Government calls on the States of the region to implement in goodwill the commitments into which they freely entered. Among other things, we call on them to change their policies, behaviour and attitudes. Under the Framework Agreement, the countries of the region committed themselves not to interfere in the internal affairs of neighbouring States or to tolerate or provide assistance or any type of support to armed groups, as well as to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighbouring States. Lastly, as the Council will shortly move to informal consultations to continue its discussion of the subject, I should like to conclude by asking that members take to heart the suffering of the Congolese people, of the children separated from their families and of the women who are raped every day. Above all, members should not forget that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than in other zones of conflict throughout the world, thousands of people continue to be the victims of war on a daily basis. With approximately 8 million killed in the course of 15 years of successive wars, the slaughter of civilians in my country presents one of the darkest pictures that humankind has seen since the Second World War.

There are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers. I now invite Council members to informal consultations to continue our discussion on the subject.