DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Ban Ki-Moon pledges UN support for Congolese population

Record ID: 561038

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Ban Ki-Moon pledges UN support for Congolese population
  • Date: 2nd July 2010
  • Summary: DRC FLAGS LIGHTED ON BLACK SKY BACKGROUND
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA6FBNOXDCLMYH4SARJ2GLANBP8
  • Story Text: Secretary General of UN Ban Ki-Moon pledges all resources to protect civilians in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
    Speaking on the 50th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Congo's independence from Belgium on Wednesday (June 30), the Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, pledged his organisations protection for the civilian population of that country.
    "The Security Council has made it quite clear that the United Nations mission should mobilise all necessary measures and sources to protect the civilian population," Ki-moon said in Kinshasa.
    Before Independence Day celebrations, President Joseph Kabila did manage to secure the start of the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from his country.
    Kabila wants the entire force out by the end of next year. But Ban told Reuters that he had stressed to Kabila that the drawdown must be based on a "common assessment of the situation" and the Congolese must push ahead with army reform.
    "I urged the president, Kabila, that he should ensure that the security sector reform of army and police should be made and the rule of law should be established," Ban said.
    Hundreds of thousands of Congolese turned out for a parade in Kinshasa, the bedraggled capital which has been given a hurried facelift by Chinese labourers for the occasion.
    Kabila made a speech in front of parliament which drew only muted applause. The speech was at times barely audible and it was not clear if Kabila made a reference to debt relief.
    Canada has delayed an $8 billion debt relief deal for Democratic Republic of Congo in a dispute over mining rights, depriving the African nation of a chance to mark the 50th anniversary with the accord.
    Kabila had pushed for the relief to be finalised in time for the celebration to show the world his country was putting its painful past behind it, following the war of 1998-2003 in which some five million people died.
    But a World Bank decision on the debt was postponed slightly at Canada's request due to a legal dispute that exploded last year between Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals and the Kinshasa government over mining rights.
    The accord, which could have slashed Congo's annual debt service burden to $194 million from $920 million, was meant to be a high point of events to be attended by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Albert II, king of ex-colonial power Belgium.
    The party mood in Kinshasa has been further dampened by the still-unexplained death earlier this month of Floribert Chebeya, the country's leading human rights campaigner, who spoke out against arbitrary killings and torture of political dissidents.
    "When we look here and there we can see there is some impunity. Impunity that damages our country and that is not good," said one Kinshasa resident attending the parade.
    Yet despite high levels of public dissatisfaction at the state of the country before next year's general election, and continued violent rebellions across the country, there is also a streak of pride that it can hold such a celebration at all.
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