S/PV.7415 Security Council

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/2015/209, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by France. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2015/172, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as to document S/2015/173, containing the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region. The Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

There were 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2211 (2015). I now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements after the vote.

New Zealand welcomes the adoption of resolution 2211 (2015) and thanks France for its constructive and inclusive leadership, which secured agreement on the text. New Zealand strongly supports the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and its Force Intervention Brigade, as well as the role MONUSCO continues to play in supporting the Democratic Republic of the Congo as it hopefully enters a period of stability, lasting peace, increased prosperity and security. The inclusion of the Force Intervention Brigade in the MONUSCO mandate makes this a special and unusually complex operation. In the context of this latest mandate renewal, it was with those special characteristics in mind that New Zealand proposed a strengthened oversight mechanism in respect of MONUSCO’s operations to neutralize armed groups. We therefore welcome what has now been agreed in that regard — more targeted 90-day reporting, together with a new commitment from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to provide regular informal briefings on MONUSCO’s operations to Council members and troop-contributing countries (TCCs) alike. Once it has performed its Charter function of mandating any peacekeeping operation, the Council must then perform an oversight role in respect of those operations. It is crucial that, in that role, it be both engaged and responsive. We seek to make the right decisions in the Council Chamber, but it is equally important that, having made those decisions, we then follow through on how they are being implemented in practice. We owe that to the troops charged with implementing such mandates, and we owe it to the civilian populations they are tasked to protect. It is crucial that we approach that oversight with a supportive and proactive mindset. New Zealand will therefore actively participate in these Council briefings, and if the better flow of information identifies significant risks to civilians or MONUSCO troops, will stand ready to promote any necessary Council action in response. MONUSCO’s very existence, let alone its ability to perform its tasks, is dependent on the willingness and the generosity of those countries that contribute their troops — the TCCs. We truly value the contribution of the TCCs, and we acknowledge the sacrifices they make in the full delivery of a mission’s mandate and, in this case, in carrying out MONUSCO’s top priority — the protection of civilians. We are therefore very pleased that we now have two new mechanisms that will more effectively monitor MONUSCO’s distinct mandate. We will be active in assessing the effectiveness of those new mechanisms, and we commit to seeking out any other measures that might be required to enhance further the Council’s very important oversight role.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

My delegation has already had the opportunity to congratulate you, Sir, on France’s assumption of the presidency for March. We should like once again to commend your leadership and express our satisfaction at seeing you lead the Security Council’s deliberations. I also wish to reiterate to the Council the full gratitude of the people and the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the United Nations efforts to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of my country and to ensure its peace and stability. I would further pay sincere tribute to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his ongoing concern and his personal involvement in peacebuilding in my country. Be it with respect to the strategic review and the logical consequences to be drawn therefrom; the forced disarmament of the Rwandan rebels of the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR); the evolution of the presence of Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces—National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU) in the north- east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; or the political consequences of the end of the Mouvement du 23 mars rebellion, the position of my Government on these specific issues, as well as on the overall question of the relationship between the United Nations and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was best expressed before the Council on Thursday, March 19 (see S/PV.7410), by His Excellency Mr. Raymond Tshibanda N’tungamulongo, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and I therefore do not intend to go over it again. However, the situation on the ground has changed, dialogue between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has been restored, and the discussions that started here in New York continue in Kinshasa, as announced by the head of the Congolese diplomatic corps. The Council has just renewed the mandate of MONUSCO for another year, until March 2016. We take due note of this, especially since the spirit and the text of resolution 2211 (2015) converge on the opening of a constructive dialogue between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and MONUSCO, which we hope will help to effectively harmonize our respective points of view on issues that hitherto have not been clarified. However, let me go over some passages of the text of the resolution that, in the opinion of my delegation, contain inconsistencies that cannot be explained in the light of current developments. I refer in particular to the eighth preambular paragraph, in which the Council claims, on the one hand, to recognize the efforts undertaken by the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo in the neutralization of armed groups, including the FDLR, while at the same time it accuses that very same Congolese army of collaborating with the FDLR. On a separate issue, my delegation remains convinced that a reference in paragraph 9 (f) to paragraphs 1 and 2 of resolution 1807 (2008) would have been necessary to circumscribe the scope of the arms embargo on the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to avoid any confusion and eliminate once and for all the tendency to apply the embargo to the regular army, although it is intended to apply only to non-State armed groups and all negative forces, precisely in order to help the army to restore peace throughout the national territory. Furthermore, the wording in paragraph 15 concerning the Congolese Rapid Reaction Force is also difficult to justify, especially since the Force has been trained and equipped with three brigades: the 11th Brigade, composed of three battalions trained with Chinese cooperation; the 21st Brigade, composed of three battalions trained by South Africa; and the 31st Brigade, composed of three battalions whose troops have been trained with Belgian cooperation. These forces have been put to use in several previous pacification operations in North Kivu, and will soon be deployed in the pursuit of the FDLR in the Congolese forest. Without overstating our concerns about the substance of the issues addressed in the text of the resolution, I would say in conclusion that my Government has taken note of them. I take this opportunity to assure the Council that we shall maintain our cooperation with the United Nations in the best interests of the Congolese people. Similarly, we intend to continue to work closely with the Council to launch a profound reflection on the future of the United Nations presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to establish the parameters and criteria that could determine the future of that presence on Congolese soil in a responsible and orderly manner that also honours and enshrines the immense sacrifices made by the United Nations and the international community to ensure the survivial of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Government will do so in cooperation with the Council through existing mechanisms or by new mutual agreement. Finally, I wish once again to congratulate MONUSCO, and the Force Intervention Brigade and its constituent countries in particular, for the high quality of their work throughout the mandate that has just come to an end. The work of the Brigade alongside the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo has given us hope. We hope that the beginning of the new mandate of the Intervention Brigade will definitively crown the efforts already made to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and throughout the Great Lakes region.