The leaders of the Great Lakes Region on Thursday ordered the M23 rebels and the Congolese government to resume peace negotiations in Kampala and conclude the process within fourteen days.
The peace negotiations, which started in Kampala in November, last year, were stalled in May, this year, with both sides accusing each other of halting the peace agreements process.
The order by the Great Lakes Region leaders comes after two weeks of fierce battle between the Congolese national army, FARDC, backed by the UN Intervention Brigade and the M23 rebels.
Briefing journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday on the just-ended summit of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), Foreign Affairs Minister Benard Membe said the leaders also condemned the recent attacks by M23.
The country’s top diplomat told journalists that Great Lakes Region leaders also want the European Union (EU) and the UN to ensure the ‘Banyamulenge’ rebels lay down their weapons or face tough sanctions.
According to Membe, the Conference also issued a 17-day ultimatum to the M23 rebels to lay down guns, or the leaders of the Great Lakes Region would decide effective measures against them.
In 2011, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1991 which demanded that all armed groups cease all forms of violence and violation of human rights. As if this wasn’t enough, in June 2012, the Security Council renewed MONUSCO’s mandate by adopting Resolution 2053, which emphasized security reform, consolidation of state authority and the eradication of violence in the eastern provinces.
Following the September 2012 International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), in which the African Union and UN decided to immediately establish a 3000-strong neutral international force in an effort to bring stability to the region, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2098 in March, this year, authorizing an Intervention Brigade and extending the mission’s mandate until March 31, 2014.
Meeting at an extraordinary summit at the Commonwealth Resort Hotel, Munyonyo in Uganda, the leaders agreed that the offensive against M23 rebel group be halted to allow for peace talks in Kampala to resume.
The meeting was called by President Yoweri Museveni in his capacity as chairperson of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), a regional peace and security body bringing together 12 member countries.
Last year, Kinshasa and the M23 started peace talks mediated by the Ugandan government following regional pressure.
But the talks halted with the rebels accusing Kinshasa of refusing to negotiate.There has been renewed fighting in recent weeks, between the Congolese troops (FARDC), backed by UN peacekeepers, and the M23 rebels.
It is alleged that FARDC are also fighting alongside the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a militia group largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
But so far, Rwanda has failed to provide any concrete evidence to prove its serious allegations against UN peace keeping forces and the Congolese national army.
In a communiqué, the ICGLR Heads of State directed that; “the Kampala dialogue resumes within three days after this extra ordinary summit and conclude within a maximum period of 14 days during which maximum restraint must be exercised on the ground to allow for talks to resume.”
The emergency regional summit was also attended by Presidents Jakaya Kikwete, Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Joseph Kabila (DR Congo), and South Sudan’s Salva Kiir.
President Museveni said there had been success, with the support of the international community, in all struggles where Africa takes the lead in finding solutions to its own challenges.
“We are seeking a path of dialogue so that the M23 come out peacefully to enable the UN intervention brigade deal with other negative forces in eastern DR Congo,” Museveni said.
On the recent shelling into Rwanda from the DR Congo territory that resulted into the death of an innocent woman in the border district of Rubavu, the Great Lakes Region leaders directed the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) to complete verification process and provide a report to the chairperson of the committee of the ministers of defence as soon as possible.
The leaders also requested the UN system to urgently find a definitive solution to the former M23 combatants interned in eastern Rwanda since March 2013.
This was the seventh ICGLR Extraordinary Heads of State and Government summit on the Congo crisis since the M23 rebellion broke out in April, 2012.
The summit was preceded by meetings of ICGLR ministers for defence and foreign affairs in Kampala.
ICGLR is composed of Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, DR Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
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